Come back Nellie

The title of the last diary was really tempting fate and sure enough the weather gods still had a few tricks up their sleeves. As the last diary was written I had just 3 days to go before finally vacating my desk at Forest Lodge, ending my 34 year stint at Abernethy. Monday was a normal day and I cycled in to work, despite the tiny skiff of snow. It was so normal that I even had a look at some of the green shield-moss sites. Tuesday and the few inches of snow that greeted me when I got out of bed meant car to the end of the track and walk to Forest Lodge. About 8" of the damn stuff had fallen by 10am and things were looking ominous. Mid afternoon and I decided it was time to send out my one and only ever “global” email to everyone in RSPB to say thanks for the cards, kind words and contributions towards my leaving presents because it was looking like I wouldn’t manage to get in to work for my final day if the snow continued to fall! Wednesday dawned just like so many days this year with 12" of snow lying outside and about an additional inch accumulating every hour – so no work today. Urgent phone calls were made to RSPB HQ to ask the computer staff not to cut of my RSPB log-in and account because at some stage I would need to go in, for my final day, if only to finish off bits of the annual report, a research contract and to clear my desk. The brilliant IT folk not only didn’t cut me off they told me how I could connect up to the RSPB server and catch up with the heap of emails that had piled in following my farewell one of the previous day. Outside it was still snowing and chalet guests Jim and Angie put on a brave face and donned boots and waterproofs and went for a walk round the village. The snow brought unusual birds into the garden with 2 mistle thrushes (left) looking for anything they could eat under the seed feeders. They were joined by a couple of song thrushes that pecked around in the areas I had cleared of snow. Initially the song thrushes completely ignored the brown bread and ground-based fat cake, but by the end of the day they realised they were edible and competed with great spot woodpecker and starlings to get their fill. Much snow clearing during the day just to keep the driveway open.

Thursday morning saw the snow finally stop just after 7am after almost 48 hours, again, and snow depth measurements around the house varied between 18" and 20", the heaviest single snow fall of the winter. Didn’t British Summer Time officially start on 28th March? More avalanches of masses of snow off the house roof, usually just after the drive way had been cleared and generally a day spent clearing snow. With the temperature at +3 degrees C by 10am it was obvious that the snow would start to reduce quite quickly and with a bit of help from a warm sun later in the day the snow was disappearing almost as quickly as it had arrived. Again no council snow plough, not sure what the excuse was this time, but at least the local farmer had been paid to open the road up to Loch Garten and Tulloch. Good Friday arrived and the thaw continued and I was able to get the car to the end of the Forest Lodge track where the staff had managed to plough the track. So my last day at work was spent in a deserted office, tidying out my desk and finally getting rid of all those files on my PC that had been saved “just in case” they might be needed. And that was it, cup washed, bag packed, boots and gaiters on and out into the thawing snow to walk the track as an employee for one last time.

However, there was little time to lounge around. There was a Saturday chalet change over to do, and more snow to clear in front of the chalet so that the bird feeders could be seen. Daughter Laura arrived at lunchtime and daughter Ruth and the boys an hour later and we all managed to go for a walk (right) – you guessed it, on the Forest Lodge track! It was then off to Lancashire to spend a few days with Janet’s mum Nellie. Lancashire was like entering a different world, daffodils in flower, folk cutting grass and wrens singing – everywhere! The first outing was to Whalley with the River Calder running through its centre and its famous Abbey (http://www.aboutlancs.com/whalley.htm) close to one of its banks. A walk through the Abbey reminded me of past visits when, as a school boy a few of us would cycle from nearby Accrington to climb some of the abbey ruins to look for jackdaw nests. In the wooded grounds the onion smell of ransoms was everywhere and the ground below the trees was covered in their emerging leaves. There were also many more plants of Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint than I remembered and it would be worth another visit just to see this strange plant in flower. Close by the Blackburn to Settle railway line runs and crosses one of the most spectacular red brick railway viaducts you will ever see (left & right), all 48 arches of it (http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=10neeringItem.asp?id=10). It is probably more spectacular to see from below rather than from riding across it in a train. Both Abbey and viaduct are worth seeing if you are every in the Whalley area.

You can’t go to this area without visiting one of the many pubs for a pub lunch and the next day we visited Slaidburn on the edge of the Forest of Bowland and the brilliantly named Hark to Bounty country pub. Despite her 90 years Janet’s mum lead us on a mini-tour of the village before lunch and a walk to the ancient nearby St. Andrews church (left) after lunch. A local estate called Knowlemere had a link to descendants of Sir Robert Peel of “London Peelers” fame (http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/SirRobertPeel.htmric-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/SirRobertPeel.htm) and members of the Knowlemere family are interred at this church. The church itself is pretty amazing, dating as it does from 1450 replacing the original Norman Church that stood on the site. Inside there are unusual box pews, a three-decker pulpit and carved wooden chancel screen, and memorial plaques to local dignitaries like the Peel family. Another site well worth a visit. Outside, as the church clock struck 2 my first swallow of the year flew overhead. A nearby wood produced a couple of nuthatches, something I only see on my visits to Lancashire, there being few regular north of the border. Bolton by Bowland and Downham by Pendle Hill (left) were visited on our last day, and, as the working day came to a close we nipped over towards Blackburn to S. G. Aluminium, a thriving business run by my youngest brother Peter. As the last workers departed Peter showed Janet and myself round a very impressive factory where aluminium framed windows of all shapes and sizes are made. Their client list is very impressive as are the scale of projects undertaken, take the structural aluminium works completed at Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City for starters for sums of money that will make your eyes water! Well done Peter and to see more go to http://www.sg-aluminium.co.uk/index.htm, better still if you want a quote for work on a new office block, school or football stadium, give Peter a call! Peter's impressive factory below.

And then it was off again as we headed north with Janet’s mum safely on board for a week's holiday in the Highlands. The sunny weather followed us north and was to remain with us for the whole of Nellie’s stay (Loch Morlich right), with a bit of frost at night and a maximum of 21 deg C on one day! With temperatures like these the first butterfly transect of the year was complete and 3 small tortoiseshells were recorded, an excellent result to say that it was just the 10 April. In addition a red admiral was also seen at Firwood. Swallows and sand martins had followed us north and a very early redstart was heard singing on 10th. Great spotted woodpeckers were drumming on the usual tree across the road from Firwood, but a more enterprising bird was found by the Speyside Way drumming on one of the metal power pylons a sure way of making your head-banging sounds carry a lot further. My initial thought was that engineers were working on the power-line but as I got closer I could see the male bird tapping away. Nearby a female woodpecker was also drumming on a dead birch tree, odd behaviour indeed. Another first for the season was a tick, neatly buried between two of my fingers with a second found buried in my thigh later in the day, that’s what you get for lying in the vegetation checking lichens! A visit to Laura’s in Aberdeenshire with Janet’s mum allowed me to make my first visit to a proposed wind-farm site (left) less than 1000 metres away. With the potential for noise, and light/shadow flicker from these 100 metre high turbines I had been asked to look at the wildlife data collected at the proposed site and found it to be less than robust, particularly when the wind-farm company stated that the development would have no effect on the 6 red-listed bird species (http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/BoCC_tcm9-217852.pdf ), detailed in the report, breeding on or close to the arable field chosen as the site. On this first visit the red-listed species increased by 1 with the discovery of 2 pairs of lapwings prospecting on the site. A return visit was planned for a week later when a better early season picture of bird use of the proposed site could be made.

Back home a meeting was attended regarding the archaeological survey of the Abernethy reserve, something that had to be left unfinished at the time of my departure, but may be something to pursue, in a voluntary capacity, once the main part of the breeding season is over. At the meeting, maps, hand drawn way back in 1830, were produced showing early settlements and place names, some of which haven’t survived to the present time, so another piece of the jig-saw has now been found. The next morning chalet guests Elizabeth and Frazer said they had something exciting to show me – a photograph of a pine marten at the peanut feeder, taken at 8.30pm the evening before (photo courtesy of Frazer). They had been sitting at the kitchen/sitting room window when the pine marten was seen running along the top of the fence to the feeder. Amazingly, Frazer opened the chalet door, went outside and took the photograph you see here – complete with flash. Not just one photo but the marten stayed at the feeder long enough for Frazer to take a second flash photograph! Amazing. It would be interesting to know just how often pine martens visit the feeder. Elizabeth was also certain that one ran over the chalet roof the following night.

The next few days were going to involve a lot of driving but little did I know just how much! The plan was to run Janet’s mum back to Lancashire, stay the night and return the next day before heading over to Laura’s house to complete the early season bird survey. Everything started well and we departed Firwood at 9.30am. I was a little worried when the first traffic sign just before joining the A9 said “Accident A9 south of Dalwhinnie”. The next sign on the A9 repeated the message but with no further information and all the south-bound traffic was still moving, without problems towards Dalwhinnie. The traffic heading north was light and sporadic, so we assumed there had been an accident and the traffic was getting past it. Wrong. We passed the Dalwhinnie turn off and still there was nothing to hint at the chaos ahead. 3 more miles and we joined a queue of traffic. Two police cars, 2 doctor cars and 1 fire engine hurtled past us so I phoned Janet back at Firwood. “A coach was on its side, off the road, with pensioner aged passengers heading towards England”. A car heading north stopped and said the road would be closed for about 4 hours. Change of plan and we turned round and headed the car towards Fort William, Nellie was quite excited about the new route and the wonderful scenery promised along the way, I was quite worried about the hot day, the narrow roads, and the time it was going to take to pick up our route again just south of Glasgow. Loch Laggan Monarch of the Glen country, Fort William (& Ben Nevis right) for petrol and loo stop. Glen Coe to Crianlarich for lunch. Loch Lomond, Glasgow and the M8 and at 3pm we reached Bothwell Services at the start of the M74, 3 hours later than we should have been. The rest was plain sailing with everything crossed that the return journey the next day would also be plain sailing. It was, home by lunch-time and in plenty of time to greet the new chalet guests Lawrence and Dawn

The next day and it was off to Aberdeenshire. The turbine site was surveyed at 4pm and 8pm, bats were listened for with a detector at 10pm and in bed by 11pm. Field surveyed again at 6.30am next day, breakfast and away. 31 bird species were recorded, confirming the 7 red-listed species recorded a week earlier (house sparrow, lapwing, linnet, skylark, starling, tree sparrow and yellowhammer). Once home, birds listed and report started and in bed just after midnight. Report finished and emailed 11am next day so time to go and look for “some stuff” to blow away the travel cobwebs. The camera bag was packed and I headed off for a small stand of aspen trees in Craigmore Wood just up the road. Inspired by what had been found on a few more aspens in the local area I wondered what this small stand, on damp ground and with reasonably closed canopy might hold. I am trying to get my head around naming a few more species, particularly the regularly encountered species, but a practical course in how to identify them using chemical and microscope techniques is going to be a must. I just need to get my brain then to remember the names, and we will be making progress. Being a damp wood, I was hopeful that the speckled script lichen mentioned in an earlier diary, might be there. A branch, broken off by the recent snows, looked interesting, and from my outing at Insh in January I was aware that different lichens grow higher up the tree than are found at eye-level, particularly ones that like the younger, smoother bark. During the 2001 survey lichens were found in this habitat that were the first for UK (x2) and a first record for 150 years. What looked like Lecanora populicola (white dots left) was there along with the wee orange dots (on dark background) of Caloplaca pyracea, a good start. The first big tree was checked and, amazingly, there was the speckled script (right with green liverwort Radula complanata). In fact, all 9 trees checked had the lichen so what a brilliant way to blow away the cobwebs. Finding so many trees with the lichen though got me worried and I wasn’t happy until a couple of photos were sent off to Brian for confirmation. Why so many? There are very few people on the ground who go out to record lichens and probably fewer who know what some of the rare species look like. I was lucky in that I was able to see the lichen on a known tree and get a feel for the appearance of it, particularly its background colour. Back in the woods, a buzzard calling overhead but once again my feet are frozen and the waterproofs are on to try and keep myself warm. Nellie took the warm weather south with her and since getting back it has felt like winter, we have even had a bit of sleet. Roll on summer.

That’s it for a few weeks, enjoy the read

Best wishes Stewart & Janet

A break from lichen surveying - resting on a bracket fungus!

and finally, a Finlay photograph of grandad & Archie

All photos © Stewart Taylor

My final email to RSPB staff

This email was sent to all RSPB staff the day before my retirement from RSPB on 31 March 2010, or how to squeeze 34 years of work into a few lines.

Departing Forest Lodge for the last time

"With a day to go I thought I should get this emotional task out of the way, particularly as there is now 5" of snow outside and I might not get here tomorrow!

Having been with the Society for 12,410 days I though a few additional figures might not go amiss as to what has happened over that period.

1st job, a mile of cable to be run out to provide a link between the osprey nest and base camp - just so we could talk to each other. We now have a phone in every pocket and can talk to the world.

From an office at Grianan to the glories of working in an 1880's shooting lodge which is Forest Lodge.

Growing a reserve from 600 ha to 14,000 ha - a proper reserve. The RSPB Abernethy NNR.

1st CCTV to get close to a rare bird.

When I arrived we dreamed of 100,000 RSPB members, we now have 1,000,000.

We go from 200m at Loch Garten to 1300m on Ben Madui home to 4,507 species of plants and animals.

6 sites for the rare green shield-moss in 2005 to 145 today. Management Plan target to maintain 3! Success.

12 tooth fungi sites per annum to 2002, 770 in 2009, 3 new to Britain.

A successful Woodland Grant Scheme worth half a million which saw money for CONSERVATION and not just timber production, the old Conservators must have turned in their graves. You get money for killing trees now - perhaps I just started a ball rolling.

Staff arrive at Abernethy and never leave - it's that good.

Went out for lunch yesterday and found a red data book lichen - where else could you do that!

And finally a very big thank you to all of you out there who have sent goodwill messages and contributions to a most amazing leaving present, not one, but two microscopes to let me delve a little deeper into the world of natural history that I love so much. It has been a brilliant journey and a great honour to have been part of this organisation and to have played a part in setting up Britain's most important reserve.

Keep up the good work & best wishes to you all for the future. Stewart "


End of an era.

Best wishes

Stewart & Janet (now both retired!)

Cheerio

Spring is in the air

As I type, I can confirm that all the snow at the house has now gone (last bit 28 March) and the turnips in the garden have re-appeared – last seen, just before Christmas. Early March saw a -18 deg C and -9.5 deg C on 10th, but since then the temperature slowly rose and reached a dizzy 13 deg C a day ago. On the 5th March, as I sat eating my breakfast a snow-plough, dispensing sand drove past. No snow, no frost and a gentle thaw, and off he went up the road. Perhaps I’ve got it wrong, but I thought these things were supposed to drive round the roads to clear them of snow, something they have done little of during the worst of the weather. The mind boggles. The track to work though remained “challenging” for cars until mid-month and though I was able to cycle to the end of the track on 14th it wasn’t until the next day that it was possible to bike all the way to work, the first time since 16 December last year.

As the weather started to warm up the first mistle thrush was heard singing briefly, on 3rd March along with coat tits and chaffinches which were starting to spread back into the forest and robins could be heard at dawn at the house. By 16th the first song thrush could be heard at Firwood, and a day later one was singing at Forest Lodge, the same day that treecreepers and goldcrests were also clearing their throats. I have no doubt we will have lost some but the latter two have been heard singing in many parts of the forest so many must have survived the frost and snow. Wrens though have just about been wiped out, and three mornings of Birdtrack
( http://www.bto.org/birdtrack/index.htm ) monitoring between 19 & 21 March found just ONE bird, and none have been heard on other casual outings round about. Lots of birds have moved in though and a walk from the house along the B970 and back through Mondhuie (Speyside Way) a week ago, found 48 species of birds, linnet and golden plover being two of the more unusual for that circuit. I did though solve the mystery of the "possibility" of a pine marten emptying the squirrel feeder over-night - rooks! Using their very pointed bills they were lifting the piece of perspex on the front of the box and just letting the peanuts fall onto the floor before eating them. They do say they are quite intelligent so let's see if they can manage to get the wood screw out!

It’s funny though how you can get lulled into a false sense of security. On 14 March, and with most of the roadside snow now melted a blackbird managing to enjoy a bathe in the water bowl in the garden I thought it would be a good time to re-visit the aspen stand near the River Nethy, last visited on 6 December. Access to the trees is via the track between Forest Lodge and Ryvoan Bothy (near Glenmore) so quite a way out, but with the snow thawing all around, this shouldn’t be a problem. Wrong! I should have realised that there could be problems as the 4x4 started to struggle to get through some bits of the track – whilst still in the forest, but out in the open below Rynettin (all on OS Sheet 36) the track was mostly okay having had a fair bit of sun on it during the previous week. It was on the approach to Memorial Wood that the fun really started as the track leaves an open bit of regenerating moorland, descends round what staff affectionally call “suicide bend” before climbing to emerge on an open bit of track along the side of Memorial Wood. On the descent to “the bend” I could see I was heading into trouble, the track was still in shade and little of the deep snow had thawed, and as the bumper bashed through the odd deeper section of snow, I had visions of having to make an embarrassing phone call to Ross at Forest Lodge to arrange a tractor tow. I had entered a different world just 3 km from “the office”. Once I had gone down the hill there was no way back so I though all I could do was push on and try and get out of the other side. At the bend, at the bottom of the short descent, it took many attempts just to get the vehicle round the bend, but we made it, now all I had to do was climb out the other side. The first run at the hill (in 4 wheel drive and with the diff-lock on) gained a few metres before I had to reverse back to the bottom. The second run gained a few more metres before reversing again, and so it went on. Reversing was almost as difficult as going forward and had to be done “on the mirrors” to keep up the momentum. 20 minutes later I got to the top of the hill and was hugely relieved to see that the sun and mild wind during the week had reduced the depth of snow along the side of the wood. All I needed now was a place where I could turn the vehicle round ready for the return journey. Thankfully this was possible at the wee dragonfly pool – but should I make the return journey straight away? Now or 3 hours later, what would be the difference, so waterproof on, camera bag on the back and Leki poles at the ready I left the track to head for the aspens.

Under the trees the snow wasn’t too bad, but in the open it was knee deep (above) and several times I was in as deep as my thighs. Once in to the aspen trees though, there was very little snow so it was quite pleasant checking the trees for lichens but with a nagging thought about the return journey. This return trip had been planned to try and accurately record the location of some of the rarer lichens found during the 2001 survey. Two species were re-found during the earlier visit so this visit was to try and confirm the continued existence of Schismatomma graphidiodes a lichen with a brilliant common name of “speckled script lichen”. During the earlier survey a tiny patch of this Red Data Book (V) species was found on a single tree.
[Red Data Book category 2 Vulnerable. Definition:
Taxa believed likely to move into the endangered category in the near future if the causal factors continue operating. Included are taxa of which most or all of the populations are decreasing because of over-exploitation, extensive destruction of habitat or other environmental disturbance; taxa with populations that have been seriously depleted and whose ultimate security is not yet assured; and taxa with populations that are still abundant but are under threat from serious adverse factors throughout their range.
Criteria. Species declining throughout their range. Species in vulnerable habitats and recorded in less than 15, 10km map squares.]
The first thing to do on arrival was to get a bite to eat, though as normal, this was taken whilst looking at the aspen trees! With lunch finished I made my way to the tree where I knew from the report, the lichen had been recorded, and, for this visit, I had a good photograph of what it looked like (it’s not covered by the standard “Dobson” ID guide). After a bit of searching – there it was, one patch about the size of a 50 pence piece, with 2 much smaller patches close by. Out came the camera to get a decent photo and the Garmin was left for a while to provide an accurate grid reference. The most distinctive feature was the reddish-grey background (right) on which the “scripts” occur as can be seen in the attached photograph. Having gained a little knowledge about some of the other important aspen lichens from my outing in January, I thought it was worth checking out as many of the other trees as possible before it was time to head home. And there it was again, another patch of speckled script lichen, but on another tree! A couple of hours later, as the rain started to fall, the lichen had been found on another 3 trees, and it was time to call it a day and see what fun there might be on the track home. Not a problem, the tracks made earlier in the day had allowed a bit of thawing snow to run in the tyre tracks and the vehicle sailed in and out of suicide bend – well sort of!

The period since the last diary has seen quite a bit of time staring and pointing at aspen trees, the latter practice allowing a photo to be taken to show where on the tree the lichen has been found (left). More Sclerophora pin-heads have been found in two new aspen stands and a search close to Forest Lodge re-found the same lichen on an alder tree where originally found in 2001. Whilst in the woods it has been obvious that spring has been progressing a-pace. Duck weed suddenly appeared on a water-course at Forest Lodge, celandine leaves by the River Spey and the clover shaped leaves of wood sorrel (right) in many of the woods. In the garden snow drops appeared just as quickly as the snow disappeared and there are masses just about everywhere. A few colourful crocuses have been flexing their petals on the sunnier days. A visit to the reserve’s tiny patch of hazel found catkins (left) hanging everywhere and, on some of the smaller branches a new lichen for the reserve was found, another species with a brilliant name Graphis scripta (right). Me finding a new lichen, which I am personally going to call Hazel Script! Not to be left out I found a single green shield-moss capsule on a Norway spruce root.

This month has also seen another historical landmark for the Osprey Centre – the installation of a mains power cable to get the Centre away from the problems associated with an on-site gas generator. The weather almost put an end to work starting before the end of the osprey season, but with the thaw setting in mid-month, trenching started at the Centre and within the first week the cable linking the Centre with the transformer at the car park was completed. With the easy bit completed work started with the much heavier work associated with getting the cable underground between the car park on the B970 a mile away! Just by chance I was on hand to photograph the arrival of the cable at the car park before the task of burying it began. As I write, the cable has been buried as far as the Loch Garten/Mallachie and the first of two road crossings is just about to be made. Don’t hold your breath though; the installation won’t be completed in time for the opening of the Osprey Centre later this week.

After many years of folk across the Cairngorms not having a real handle on the numbers of deer across vast areas of high ground, the Red Deer Commission took the decision a few years ago that they would take on the task of organising a reasonably accurate count – from the air. A long way ahead of this decision staff at Abernethy undertook a huge logistical exercise twice a year, to put enough folk on the ground to count all the hill ground and the southern half of the forest. These outings provided reasonably accurate counts, the number of deer counted then being used to work out the annual cull required to maintain a population that was compatible with allowing some natural regeneration of the forest to take place. It was a system that worked well and after 20 years the reserve still holds a reasonable number of deer but also has about 1000 hectares of new woodland developing. The new system as operated by the RDC though has superseded the old method and the count now requires a reasonable spell of weather so that several adjacent estates can be counted on the same day, reducing the potential error that could be possible if the count took a few days and deer were able to move between estates. So, a week ago, the call went out for help for a few folk to go out towards the edge of the woodland, and walk noisily through the forest, pushing out any red deer that may be sheltering there. As the walk through the forest is completed the helicopter flies over the edge of the forest and adjacent moorland and the RDC staff on board take photographs with a highly sophisticated camera of all the groups of deer they encounter. The photographs are then used to allow counts of the deer to be made complete with GPS details of where the deer were photographed. Amazing. The best bit of out morning outing though was right at the start. Three Abernethy staff had been joined by staff and students from Elmwood College (http://www.elmwood.ac.uk/full_time_courses.php ) for our section of woodland and as we made our way across an area of boggy ground there, right in front of us was an adult golden eagle (left), flying towards us and at no more than tree height! An amazing encounter and something the students would remember for a long time.

After 34 years of working at Abernethy I have just 2 days to go before I retire on the 31 March. Having stepped down from the Senior Site Manager role way back in 2002, my part-time work since has allowed me time to build our house, see a bit more of my family and chalet guests and to spend much more time in the field looking and recording. I will be for ever grateful that the Society allowed me to reduce my hours and gradually ease my way towards retirement, though it will be a couple of years yet before I will qualify for the state pension. Last Thursday Janet prepared an amazing meal so that the folk who I have worked closely with over so many years could all get together, at Forest Lodge, for one last time. Pete, my long term boss from the North Scotland office started proceedings with a few kind words, and colleague Andy was on hand to present me with an amazing set of microscopes to enable me to get even closer to the things I encounter on my travels. I gather contributions had arrived towards the purchase from throughout the Society, quite humbling really to know I had been remembered by so many folk who had work with me at Abernethy and from others who I had met up with at some of the many conferences and courses over the years. So, the end of an era is nigh and for a little while I will take stock and enjoy not having to get up for work for the first time in 48 years! You can guarantee that I won’t be sitting at home watching day-time TV, there are just too many distractions in the surrounding countryside for that. It has been an honour and a privilege to have been involved from the birth of the Abernethy Reserve, to see a 600 hectare reserve expand to almost 14,000 hectares to become the most important nature reserve in Britain. I also have to say a big thank you to Janet for the major part she has played in supporting me AND the RSPB through much of this time. A brilliant journey and great to have been involved.

Enjoy the read
Best wishes from Stewart & Janet

Loch Garten a day after the thaw

All photos © Stewart Taylor

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