Conservation Manager, Stuart Benn, with a roundup of his season on the hills.
Loose Ends
No, not the Radio 4 chat programme nor the 1980s R&B group but time for an end of season tie up of some threads left hanging from previous blogs.
I always get mixed feelings at this time of year when all the surveys have been done – relief as it marks the end of a really busy time but sadness too as it marks another hour of the clock ticking by. Each year, I make sure I get out as much as I can and I’ll keep doing that whilst I’m still fit and able for “summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
To begin at the beginning, my very first blog was about planting for insects – little did we know back in mid-April that we were set for a cool, wet spring and summer, one of the worst on record for butterflies. But, just in the last few weeks as it’s warmed, Small tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Small whites and Speckled woods have come out and made straight for the pollen. Hornets, hoverflies and bees didn’t seem to be as bothered by the weather and right from the start made a bee-line for the flowers - so much so that the garden can be heard just as much as seen and smelled. I get real satisfaction from knowing that those insects wouldn’t be around us without those specially chosen scabious, bugloss and the like. Talk about getting a buzz!
Small tortoiseshell butterfly
At the weekend I was taking a look around some of the glens that I’d done Ring ouzel survey this year – very quiet and all I saw was one fledged youngster where before the air had been filled with their ringing songs and most seem to have now headed south en route to their winter home in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. But the surveys went well and, in the end, my four areas produced 0, 2, 6 and 7 territories so in the Monadhliaths, at least, they seem to be doing just grand and it’ll be fascinating to see how my figures fit into the national picture.
Last week also saw the final trip to the Common scoter lochs and gave a very disappointing lack of any adults or young – lots of work still needs to be done on what’s going on here and how it can be turned around. In my previous blog on the scoters, I talked about trialling different count methods (from land/boat, from the air and taking aerial photos) – looks like the land/boat counts are by far the most accurate though we may do another trial ‘cos, if we can get the air surveys to work it’ll save a lot of time and money too.
I’ll come back to Slavonian grebes in a future blog as there’s lots to say and there’s still no word on when the divers or eagles are going to be on the One Show but we’ll let you know as soon as we do! But I can say that those eagle chicks are doing well and have flown the nest – I took a wee look at them a couple of week’s back and they’re looking good!
Prime Ring ouzel habitat.
But I’ll finish this short look back with my two stand-out moments from some great memories of the 2012 season. The first was in early June when I was out ouzel surveying and taking a wee breather. When I’m in hill country I make a habit of scanning ridges just to see if anything is about. On this occasion, I picked up a young pair of eagles some 5 kilometres away and the male was doing a bit of display which consists of a series of steep dives. I kept looking through the binoculars and followed them as they came towards me – how quickly and effortlessly they covered those kilometres! Before long they were looking pretty big in the bins –no wonder, they were right above me! Then, and I’m sure the bird did it for fun, the male started displaying by stooping right towards me before pulling up (still a couple of hundred metres above me) and then starting over again. The sight of an eagle heading right towards you at speed is quite a thrill and not something I’ll forget in a hurry!!
And my second top moment was just at the weekend there. I was almost back at the car after a few hours on the hill and noticed there were a lot of Black darter dragonflies about. Rather than just walk by, I stopped and watched them for a wee while. The way the sun glinted off their wings and turned them to molten copper was just beautiful and every bit as arresting as that displaying eagle.
So, just two of mine - I wonder what your favourite moments with nature have been this year?