48 hours of absolute mayhem

14 February and something new, it rained! The temperature reached the dizzy heights of +5 deg C and for a change it was nice to hear the patter of rain on the roof. 15 February and 80% of the track to Forest Lodge was clear of snow and ice and the thoughts of cycling to work looked a distinct possibility in the next few days. The last time I managed to do that was 16 December 2009. However, a knee injury whilst kneeling down counting green shield-moss capsules on 7 January was going to make this difficult, and gentle walking was the order of the day to try and get the knee mobile again. So the 15th saw me drive part way up the Forest Lodge track, walking the rest of the way – gentle walking just as the doctor had ordered. 6” of snow on the 16th meant the car was left at the end of the track again, all hopes of getting back “to normal” had to be put on hold, especially as the frost returned with a vengeance. Minus 10 deg C on 17th, minus 15 on 18th, -16, -17 and -18 deg C the three nights up until the 23rd but with brilliant sunny days. The mayhem started at 11am on 24th with light snow falling, and though the flakes were not of the 50p size variety, little by little the depth on the ground started to grow. 12” was lying at 7am on 24th and the snow had yet to stop, with about an inch an hour accumulating. Another 7” at dawn on 25th and another couple of inches had fallen by lunch-time. Finally, after just over 48 hours of continuous snow a watery sun could be seen in the sky and the snow restricted itself to the occasional shower for the afternoon. The depth of snow on the Firwood drive (photo right) was back to New Year (photo above left)proportions and for the last 24 hours all major roads into the Highlands were closed due to drifting snow. Nice on the top lip after a glass of milk and nice on the top of a pint of Guinness but everyone is getting rather fed up with a huge “drop of the white stuff” on the ground! Somewhere in the garden is a row of turnips which haven’t seen the light of day since late December, we will let you know what they taste like later in the year!

The severe weather since New Year has meant that there has been little opportunity to complete the second round of survey visits for the winter period of the BTO Atlas. The 5 tetrads (2x2 km OS squares) are all a bit remote and with the deep snow from the New Year period and the regular frosts it would just take too long to get round each of the sites. Two have been walked, but the number of bird contacts are just not representative of what is known to be there, a 2 hour survey on 24th (left) produced just 5 species comprising a total of 13 birds. I still haven’t heard a wren and now, with the recent frosts and yet more food covering snow, perhaps most of the population in the forest has been lost. Contacts with goldcrests are still quite regular showing that most folk have been worrying about the wrong species. This was also shown during my common bird census work in Abernethy during the severe winter weather of the early 1980s, many more goldcrests survived to breed than did wrens. Despite the cold robins, chaffinches and siskins have all started to sing (3 February), with the chaffinches slowly edging further out in to the forest on the milder days. There was a dunnock singing in the garden today (27 Feb) and the great spotted woodpecker has started to proclaim his territory by drumming loudly on the pine tree across the road. The rooks have also been sorting themselves out in the small rookery on the way into the village, though sticks for nests must be hard to find in the snow. During the brief thaw the grassy verge to the Speyside Way into the village re-appeared and there, in the grass, were a series of tunnels and holes where the voles had been eking out a living during the first cold snap. No doubt it will have been re-occupied during the last few days. In the same area, but over the fence in the boggy bit of the field, Janet found fresh frog spawn on 8 February, no doubt encased in ice currently.

The article on the green shield-moss that I wrote for Field Bryology as mentioned in the last diary, was published in mid February though I have yet to receive a copy. It is though, one of two articles from this edition that can be read, as a PDF, on line at http://www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/ and click on Buxbaumia viridis in Abernethy Forest and other sites in northern Scotland Stewart Taylor to see it. Thinking of deadwood I continue to be amazed by the scale of snow damage to some of the trees from the earlier snow fall. A tree which stopped me in my tracks was found close to the Strathspey Steam Railway line in Boat of Garten. I was on my way to photograph an unusual lichen when I came up on this beauty. A few hundred years ago, when this tree was a young sapling, something probably damaged the trees leader, the single, uppermost shoot, and when this happened a couple of the side shoots took over the leader’s role. One grew tall and straight and the other grew with an enormous bend at its base. Despite having grown like this for a few hundred years the New Year snow was heavy enough to bring the branch crashing to the ground, wrecking the farmers fence but providing a huge bit of future deadwood if it isn’t cleared up for firewood.

One of the more unusual jobs in the last few weeks involved a cat – daughter Ruth’s cat Monty. Monty has a habit of following Ruth and family when they go for their local walks and usually everyone returns home safe and well. On the day Ruth headed through the houses in to Aviemore Monty tagged on and despite several attempts to shoo him away he kept following. The paths from house to Aviemore follow the steam railway line right up to where the trains reach the station but when they reached the station, Monty wasn’t to be seen anywhere. In the hope that he had returned home they carried on into the village, did their shopping and headed home. No Monty! As darkness started to fall still no Monty so everyone put on wellies, coats and with the wee one tucked up in the pram, they re-traced their steps back to the village. Monty has done this before and once detached from the family, he stayed put and waited for Ruth to return. Fingers crossed that he had done the same this time. No Monty. With the children tucked up in bed and Ruth getting quite worried, she walked the route again but without luck. Next day, a dozen posters are made up and I pop over to help keep dog and children together as we all walk once more into Aviemore, putting posters in a few obvious locations. At the Strathspey Railway sheds Finlay enjoys watching the railway staff repairing the boiler on one of the steam trains before we turn round to walk back. Ruth’s phone rings – “I’ve just seen one of your posters and there was a very friendly cat at La Taverna Italian restaurant last night” the caller says, the restaurant being on the south side of Aviemore about 2.5km away from home! We dash back home and while I look after the two wee ones, Ruth borrows my car and heads for the restaurant. Nothing is found at the eatery despite a lot of calling but on a hill behind the restaurant there were lots of rabbit holes – Monty heaven. And there he was, tired and hungry and very glad to see Ruth…8 lives to go.

At the time of the last diary I was in the process of putting together a talk for the RSPB’s Scottish Staff Conference in Pitlochry on 12 February, my last chance to see many of the Scottish team before hanging up my clogs at the end of March, almost 34 years to the day from my arrival at Loch Garten. 34 years in 30 minutes a bit of a tall order but, being the last conference presentation AND following the final rallying call from our Chief Executive Sir Graham Wynne (New Years honours list) before also stepping down, I thought I had better stick to time. The final power point presentation was completed at the end of January and sent to the conference organisers so that there would be no fiddling about with downloading from “cards and sticks” on the day. It would be already loaded on to the conference PC and apart from a “standard” title slide to start with, would be as sent. Endless emails flew back and forth emphasising and re-emphasising the tight timetable and there was even a slot arranged for a trial run through on the morning of the talk. If I didn’t know what I was going to say on the morning of the talk not really much point in going! However, the run through did allow me to add the words “Agabus wasastjernae” to one of the slides so that the audience could also read what I was trying to say. This is John Owens famous fossil beetle which I am sure appeared in an earlier diary. My biggest worry was being able to get to the venue as I was only attending the final morning of the conference and I had to negotiate the infamous Drumochter Pass, in winter, to get there. In the end, it was a perfect morning, very frosty but with a brilliant rising sun as I arrived in Pitlochry at 8am. The first part of the morning went well and listening to Sir Graham give his presentation seemed to get rid of any nerves, and despite being well prepared with lots of prompt notes, these were dispensed with after the second slide (I couldn’t read them anyway) and I managed to only run over by 2 minutes. So my final major performance was complete and quite enjoyable, in the end.

In the boot of my car though was my set of outdoor clothes, rucksack and Leki poles. To go all the way to Pitlochry and not spend a bit of time in the area would just be a waste. Just round the corner from the conference venue is the Kindrogan Field Studies Centre and yes, you have guessed it, in the woods above the Centre was an old site for the green shield-moss. There was just as much snow at Kindrogan as there was at home and, with the wood I was visiting completely in the shade, everything was very icy. There was just a bit too much snow to be able to check everything but there were some amazing lichens to see on a rocky outcrop in the woods including Peltigera bitannica (above right) and something I needed to check at home, the very similar Peltigera membranacea, a species new to me. Ravens overhead but not a sign of the green shield-moss in the 3 hours available. A brilliant sunset over Pitlochry on the way back from Kindrogan made the day.

The highlight though since the last diary was a day in the field with world renowned lichen expert Dr. Brian Coppins & Sandy his wife also an expert (right). RSPB and SNH had asked if they could re-survey the ancient aspen trees at the RSPB Insh Marshes reserve so that the trees important for rare lichens could be identified and marked. The rare aspen hoverfly has its main stronghold at Insh and is dependant on a steady input of dead wood to breed successfully. See http://blogs.btcv.org.uk/natural_talent/2010/02/aspen-hoverfly-conservation-or-what-i-did-over-the-summer.html to see what Geoff as been doing with the fly, or http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/people/rotheray/index.html to see Ellen’s earlier work with the hoverfly. One way of helping the fly is to artificially create dead wood by felling a tree every few years and to ensure none of the important lichen trees were felled Brian and Sandy were carrying out the survey. Brian was heavily involved in the first survey in 2001 so he had an idea where the important trees were, but all the trees were looked at over a two day period to ensure nothing had been missed. Knowing just how bad I am at remembering the Latin names of the lichens I asked Brian if I could be with them for a day as “un-official” photographer, taking close up shots of the important lichens and also the trees where they were growing, listing the names as we went along. And it worked, Brian and Sandy have some good photos for their report and I know a little more about the important aspen lichens. One of the more amazing lichens we saw was a tiny pin-head species called Sclerophora pallida (above left) and being fairly obvious I thought it was a species I could look for elsewhere. However, there is a very similar but less rare relative S. peronella and without a good microscope and the right chemicals to test the lichen (different species react differently to 3 key chemicals) I can, so far, only record finds as Sclerophora species, but with a photo of the tree and a GPS reading, hopefully the experts will be able to re-visit the sites and decide which one! Trees with these lichens have so far been found at two new sites. To learn a little more about lichens and what they are see http://www.britishlichens.co.uk/whatarelichens.html . So a lot more to learn but looking for just one species is teaching me a great deal about many more. A second lichen of note was Anaptychia cilaris or eagles claw lichen on account of the talon like appendages at the end of each branch (above right), one of only 2 or 3 locations currently known of in Scotland.

Whilst we were checking on of the Insh aspens and man in a bright florescent jacket came past walking his dog. “What are you photographing” he asked on seeing my camera close by atop its tripod, “I’m a freelance journalist and would be interested to see if what you are doing would make a local story”. So with that introduction Sandy spent the next 5 minutes explaining that all “the stuff” hanging from all the surrounding trees were lichens. “I wondered what they were” came the reply! It was going to be a long interview! “Will you still be here if a go and get my camera from Kingussie?” So I offered him mine and, despite him being “a Canon man” he managed to take several suitable photos, one of which appeared in the local Strathy last week. It’s amazing what you can get up to whilst minding your own business in the countryside. Hopefully Andrew is now a little wiser about “the stuff” hanging from his local trees.

That’s it, enjoy the read.

Best wishes
Stewart & Janet

Sunset over the Cairngorms

Sunset over Insh Marshes after a brilliant day with Brian & Sandy Coppins

All photos © Stewart Taylor

Life is getting back to normal

The cold weather returned at the end of the first week of January and the temperatures plunged again to the -14 deg C level with a couple of daytime temperatures down at -10 deg C. The first victim of this second spell of frost was the car battery though getting home from work on 6th January might have also played a part. I had taken the car to the end of the Forest Lodge track and walked in to work from there. I could see light snow falling but being inside I wasn’t really aware of how deep the snow was getting. A couple of work colleagues bailed out at 1pm, but I still didn’t think it was too bad. A quick phone call to Janet at home in Nethybridge alerted me to the fact that there was more than 6” of snow and it was starting to fall a lot harder. Time for me to bail out too! In the deep snow the track takes about 35-40 minutes to walk to get back to the road and conditions were a little worse than I had realised. In the morning I had dug an area clear of snow (half an hour) just to park the car off the road and when I got back I had to do the same thing all over again – just to get back on the road! Lights on and I was off, praying that I wouldn’t meet anything coming the other way. The edges of the road had snow about two foot deep and frozen and the single track of the driveable road was only in that condition because one of the local farmers had snow-ploughed it a few days earlier. Still no council wagon, no plough, no salt or grit! The snow was about 8” deep and looming up in front of me was the butt end of a fairly large branch which had fallen since the morning journey. The wing mirror didn’t quite get past the branch, I just thought if I stopped to move it I wouldn’t get going again! As I pulled in to the Firwood drive, two landrovers went up the road, perfect timing cos I’m not sure what would have happened if I had met them on the road. So a mixture of powder snow getting under the bonnet and a battery that was as old as the V-reg car meant the car wouldn’t start the next day. Twenty minutes of heat from a couple of wee fan blowers and the car fired up with the last dregs of battery power so it was off down the road for £45-worth of new battery!

Quite a scary experience walking the forest track on the return to work in the New Year. All around branches were snapping from trees and some branches that had been pulled out of their sockets, finally came crashing to the ground - one did whilst digging my car parking spot. Thankfully it was a few yards away but man and car received a good covering of snow. One tree next to Forest Lodge has lost half of its crown with the tonne of snow on the top branch causing it to snap, the additional weight of falling snow caused the next branch to snap and so on until all the branches on one half of the tree had been snapped off. The damage to trees throughout the area has to be seen to be believed. The combination of a couple of feet of snow and several days of below freezing temperatures seems to be the cause of so much damage despite so many branches and trees falling during the heavy fall of snow a few months earlier in February 2009 (see diary). There are some gains with all the fallen limbs creating an invertebrate heaven. At one stage Forest Lodge resembled a frozen waterfall, an old building with little insulation and heat escaping everywhere, was causing the snow on the roof to slowly melt but the frost meant that the gutters were full of ice and the constant low quantities of overflowing water had nowhere to go but down the outside of the wooden clad building. In places the ice penetrated the walls but of course once in side it started to melt! This phenomenon was also reported from quite few more old and modern houses in the area. Eventually the build up of ice won and half the gutters on the building came off. Despite a few more inches of snow this last week things are getting back to normal but a lot of frozen snow still remains along the verges of most roads. In Abernethy no road vehicles have been able to drive further south into the forest than Forest Lodge – even now!

In the forest I have heard a few goldcrests in several places so mortality for Britain’s smallest bird might not have been too bad. I have not though, heard a wren for weeks now. There are reports of red grouse moving down from the moors and in areas where Abernethy staff have been, a few dead roe deer have been found so goodness knows what carnage will have occurred on some of the surrounding estates where deer populations have remained high, land is overgrazed and there is little woodland shelter or, where woodland does exist deer fences keep them out. The additional dustings of snow allow mammal records to be made without having to see to them. A few days ago, walking into work the first tracks I encountered were roe deer followed for a short distance by badger. More roe and a few red deer tracks were followed by a set of tiny prints scuttling across the snow from a wood mouse or vole. The unmistakable tracks of a red squirrel appeared in a few places. Close to the sawmill, a fox track appeared followed a little further along the track by a second one? Possibly a male and female running together or two individual foxes at different times? One set of tracks were certainly slightly bigger than the other so possibly a courting couple. The one set of tracks I would have loved to have seen was capercaillie, but on this occasion nothing was seen. The number of calling crossbills around the woods is increasing and a couple of staff are struggling through the snow to carry out a detailed survey of birds breeding and, by getting birds to respond to short burst of taped crossbill song, an identification between Scottish and parrot crossbill can be made. Until the Scots pine cones start to open to release their seeds (warmer weather needed here) common crossbills are probably absent from the forest.

Mid-January Janet headed south to Lancashire for her mum’s 90th birthday bash. I should have gone as well but with the frost and unpredictable amounts of snow possible, we felt we couldn’t both be away from the house at this time of year. As Janet left I thought it was time to try and get out and about again and set off to walk along the road from Nethybridge towards Boat of Garten (B970) turning left off the road to head back towards the house on the tracks through the forest, part of which is the Speyside Way which emerges from the forest close to Firwood. Madness or what! The whole circuit usually takes about an hour but on this occasion, and with nobody having walked the track ahead of me, it took two hours to get from road to road. At least it would be easier for the next person to walk the track – following in my footsteps.
The following day continued the “madness” theme and on the way back from Inverness I stopped off at Moy to visit a Forestry Commission woodland. Their local ecologist has supplied me with a list of stands of Norway spruce as possible green shield-moss sites and, despite the deep snow on the track, I reckoned the wooded areas might be not too bad. Well, I was sort of right, but the tracks were hard going and once there I saw the spruce areas were too young and just didn’t look quite right. However, the track proved interesting and a sycamore was found with a good population of the lichen “lungwort” Lobaria pulmonaria, and a little further along the track I came across an ancient aspen tree, looking a bit forlorn on the edge of a clear fell area, but, growing from below one of the lower branches was the now famous aspen bracket fungus Phellinus tremulae (left). Both fungus and lichen were new to that particular 10 kilometre square so once again looking for one thing turned up something else. Check http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/kingussie2001/aspen_fungi.html for a bit more information on the fungus as well as other aspen related topics.

The next day dawned very frost but sunny so I thought a visit to one of the more outlying areas of Abernethy might produce a few nice photos. Considering it was impossible to drive to this area I thought I could get there by the back door – via Glenmore! The aim was Ryvoan Bothy, parking the car at the Forestry Commission visitor Centre in Glenmore and walking in via Glenmore Lodge and the Green Loch. Crampons would have been a good idea, the track being covered in hard-packed snow/ice via all the visitors’ feet acting like piste machines at the top of Cairngorm. It was slow going, but worth the effort for the stunning views along the way. Lots of folk were slip/sliding their way as far as the Green Loch with just a few pressing on towards the bothy, one group of ladies had actually managed to do the Glenmore – Meall a’ Bhuachaille circuit but said the going had been very hard. Despite the cold there were 3 tents pitched at Ryvoan Bothy and a few folk had stayed at the bothy that night. Hmm, a trip to the top of Meall a’ Bhuachaille could be challenging and it WOULD be interesting to see how the mountain lichens got on in deep snow conditions. But not today, it was already early afternoon and it would be sensible to allow for a few more hours of daylight if I did decide to go.

The next day dawned a little warmer, +2 degrees C, and with sun forecast for later in the day a walk up the mountain was on. The track from Glenmore was even more slippery today than the day before; the rise in temperature had added a slight layer of water on top of the ice making it deadly and much safer to walk in the deeper snow along the sides of the track. Eventually Ryvoan Bothy was reached and it was decision time, onwards and upwards, or back to Glenmore? The sun was shining, there was little wind, and it would be nice to see the lichens. Very few people had been up the hill despite the fact that this was the 18th January and the snow mostly fell around New Year time, but the first bit of the track was visible so off I went. After a few hundred feet of climbing there was no sign of a track but there was a set of footprints which were heading generally in the right direction – upwards! At about 700 metres there were deep drifts of snow and areas which were snow free. In places the snow surface was solid and easy to walk on but in other areas I was going through the crust and sinking about knee deep. It was starting to be obvious why the mountain lichens grew where they did, they mostly liked the snow free areas but I knew some where buried in the deeper snow. 750 metres and the first patches of Alectoria ochroleuca (alpine sulphur tresses) (left) were found and as the monstrous cairn on the summit came in to view more was found in amongst the commoner species and in places a second localised species Cetraria nivalis (right) started to be seen, all where the snow had been blown away and the rocks and gravel remained exposed. I have been up this hill several times before to look for these two lichens and, amazingly, and despite this being mid-January, this was the warmest I had been whilst taking photos – no wind – and what a difference. A seat by the cairn for lunch and with a bit of mist starting to form, it was time to see what the descent to Glenmore would be like. The first bit was brilliant, frozen snow down which you could, in places, slide, provided you didn’t slide into the dog poos, which, unbelievably were in several places on top of the pristine snow (absolutely disgusting), and not the first encountered on the walk. The nearer I got towards the beallach between Meall a’ Bhuachaille and Creagan Gorm where you turn left for Glenmore, the softer the snow became and it was one minute on the frozen crust and the next knee deep in snow. So few people had been up this route that there was no obvious route to follow so it was straight down following a couple of sets of tracks of folks ascending. It was very hard going and I ended up waist deep in the snow on a couple of occasions and I was extremely glad that I hadn’t ascended the hill in this direction. A slip/slidy bit once back on the forest track and 6 hours after setting off I was back at the car. Brilliant, apart from the dog mess! Shoot the buggers I say.

In between times an article about the green shield-moss was written for Field Bryology, the 100th edition no less, and it may be one of the articles the show on their website at http://www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/ . Click on the “here” button to see if it is listed, also click on “Home” to see what else they have available including access to an electronic field guide. As the weather eased we eventually managed to get to Giles Pearson’s shop at Logie ( http://www.giles-pearson-antiques.co.uk/ ) to pick up a table he had been restoring which we had bought as a joint 40th wedding anniversary present. 22nd January and we were only the second visitors Giles had had in 2010, incredibly the deposits of snow had been much worst between Grantown on Spey and Logie (nr Forres) than they had been with us. On the way back I couldn’t pass a buzzard, perched on Castle Roy on the outskirts of Nethybridge, as the sun was setting, without stopping to take a photo. Buzzards, like other birds of prey, have been having a hard time of it with everything covered in deep snow. During the worst of the weather I twice had buzzards feeding on rare road casualty, and refusing to fly off as I drove past.

26th January a fuel tanker tried and failed to reach Forest Lodge with a load of kerosene. Staff had had to resort to bringing in fuel in 45 gallon drums for most of January just to keep the heating going in Forest Lodge. Thankfully, the tanker made it 3 days later. 29th January we changed our broadband provider and we’re still tweaking bits and pieces to get everything running smoothly. The same day the lack of Highland Council gritting wagons almost had severe consequences, the school bus slid off the road between Boat of Garten and Nethybridge, untreated snow on top of ice being the cause. Three cars were off on the same stretch of road.

30th January we did our RSPB Garden Bird Count and over the day managed to count 21 species: starling 4, blackbird 7, chaffinch 40, great tit 5, woodpigeon 2, collared dove 4, blue tit 6, coat tit 20+, sparrowhawk 1, rook 5, robin 2, dunnock 2, yellowhammer 4, crested tit minimum 1, pheasant 2, jackdaw 10, great spot woodpecker 1, mistle thrush 1 in tree above garden, goldfinch 1, siskin 3 and house sparrow 2. No greenfinches!

The next major milestone is preparing a talk for the RSPB Scottish Staff Conference in Pitlochry, but more about that in the next diary.

That’s it
Best wishes

Stewart & Janet

Green shield-moss search late afternoon Inshriach Forest

All photos © Stewart Taylor