Some reflections on our recent wintry spell by Ben, one of our residential volunteers.

As an Englishman I usually get quite excited at the sight of snow. Up here in Forsinard I’m finding the snow to be a bit of a drag though, especially with it driving at the windows with gale force winds (by the morning of the 12th we had about an inch of snow already on the ground)! The snow means we can’t do any of our work out…

Some of our previous residential volunteers  / View out across the flows from the top of Sletill Hill

Go with the Flows in 2017...Residential Internship Opportunities!

Are you interested in wildlife, conservation, climate change?  Are you looking to gain important skills and experience with a view to pursuing a career  in conservation?  Do you want to help give nature a home, share your passion for wildlife...and…

It´s been just over a year since the Flows Lookout was built at RSPB Forsinard Flows. More than 3000 visitors have been up since the opening in June 2016 and have enjoyed the view across the blanket bog and the dubh lochans pools from the top. In less than a year the building has been awarded a RIAS (Incorporation of Architects in Scotland) architectural award and has attracted the attention of National Geographic photographers…

Recently at RSPB Forsinard Flows we’ve been renovating the stone planters in the Visitor Centre car park. Our Visitor Operations Volunteer, Naomi Dalton, came up with a plan to make the flower beds nicer but also friendly for wildlife. She's been pulling up the scattering of weeds and planting  a selection of plants that are both attractive and great for wildlife in their place. She's written this blog about…

For the Visitor Experience Team, we are now in our busiest time of year. As well as holidaymakers, over the past few weeks classes from many local schools have visited the reserve for a fun and educational day out in the run up to the end of term. On the 11th June we welcomed the Rainbows and Guides from Thurso, a group of girls aged 5 to 15 full of enthusiasm and curiosity about the Flow Country. For most this was their…

Last week, Naomi (Visitor Experience volunteer), Paul Turner (Warden) and myself (Visitor experience officer) went out to do some litter picking on the sides of the road that goes along the Strath Halladale. At the beginning I wasn’t expecting to find that much rubbish; just a few bottles and bags. Well, this is the result after about 2 hours of litter picking:

We collected a great amount of rubbish: bottles…

The first sundews of the season are back on the Dubh Lochan Trail. Here at Forsinard we love these tiny clever plants, which at the moment are smaller than the nail on your little finger - that’s about 5 mm! So if you’re thinking about going for an eye test, just come to Forsinard and if you manage to spot them you’ll get full marks from the optician!

Sundews are carnivorous plants that only grow in…

Hello. I’m Naomi, the Visitor Operations Volunteer here at Forsinard Flows. A previous foray into Caithness gave me a glimpse into the intriguing habitats of the Flow Country and a sample of its incredible expanse, this captured my imagination and I leapt at the chance to return this summer. For the next 3 months I’ll be helping Marina in and around the visitor centre and on guided walks.

For the past 4…

I’m Marina, the Visitor Experience Officer for this visitor season at Forsinard Flows. I volunteered last summer doing breeding bird surveys at Forsinard; that means walking lots and resting not much! But it also means getting to experience the bog in a way not many people have done and getting a real feeling of satisfaction from overcoming all the challenges the bog presents (sometimes as simple as not getting your…

Over the last couple of weeks there has been a noticeable change...spring is definitely in the air at Forsinard Flows as the weather changes (I hesitate to say ‘improves’) and we start to see some of our summer migrants return to the flow country for the breeding season.

Already I have seen golden plover and meadow pipit from the Flows Lookout Tower on the Dubh Lochan Trail and common lizards basking on the…

Well here at Forsinard I've lost Anna my Information Assistant! Not lost as in she is wandering around the bog somewhere or fallen in a deep peaty pool. Stolen is probably a better word to use; again not that she has been kidnapped or abducted....maybe "head-hunted" is better....anyway...Anna has become the new Assistant Warden at RSPB Tayside Reserves and will be based down at Loch Leven, just south of Perth.…

Lots of things have been happening at the Forsinard Flows nature reserve over the last couple of months and finally I’ve had a chance to sit down and tell you a bit about them.

Tower

Back in June our Flows Lookout Tower was completed and opened to the public along with the new boardwalk. The tower (not a hide!) is designed to give people spectacular views across the Dubh Lochan pool system and the vast peatland…

Dubh Lochan Trail (OPEN) –  This is the original flagstone trail found south of the railway crossing and the cattle grid. It will take you up to the Dubh Lochan pool system. Please be aware that the surface is uneven and can flood during poor weather.

Boardwalk Trail (OPEN) – This is the new boardwalk trail that has been built as part of the Flows to the Future Project and also begins just south of the railway crossing…

For those who don't live in Caithness or Sutherland this was an article published in the John O Groats Journal.

I have only once been lucky enough to see an adder (Vipera berus). Whilst I was delighted, a friend who was with me didn’t want to know. Shouts of “Its dangerous” and “It will bite” were all she would say as she headed quickly in the other direction. The snake had by this point disappeared into the undergrowth…

Please be aware that both the Forsinain and Dubh Lochan Trails at Forsinard are currently CLOSED.

As a result of the storms earlier in January, we have had a large number of fallen and hung-up trees across the Forsinain Trail, which we have had to close. Continued wintry conditions (snow/ice/flooding) have meant that we have also closed the Dubh Lochan Trail in the interest of safety. 

We will notify visitors via the…

Jill Harden, the RSPB’s Scottish reserves archaeologist, has recently traveled north to Caithness & Sutherland to explore the peatland’s rich historic environment and to visit some of the interesting sites on our Forsinard Flows reserve. Find out how she got on in this latest blog from the RSPB Scottish Nature Notes blog: http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/scotland/archive/2014/12/15/a-trip-to-the…

We have a good population of Red Deer at Forsinard Flows, the staff here are lucky enough to see them nearly every day (occasionally they wander through the office garden!). The red deer rut is one of Scotland’s classic wildlife spectacles. To hear the roaring of the stags and witness first hand the power of two stags as they fight for hinds is something you will never forget. But it is also something that not many people…

It’s that time of year again, the Flows are turning russet and there is a definite chill in the air. Hats are most definitely back on (and thermals too) and it’s not too long until our visitor centre closes for the winter season.

I’ve had a lovely summer here at Forsinard. I’ve met some great people; from all over the world and I’ve seen some amazing wildlife. So I’d like to thank everyone who has come to…

We have 18 different species of bat found in the UK. And only 9 of which live in Scotland. And up North where we are at Forsinard, even fewer! This is because the climate is colder up here with wetter cooler weather, we have shorter nights in the summer and there are fewer trees. This only allows the hardiest of bats to survive! Because I have a personal interest in bats I have tried to use my time at Forsinard to have…

We are lucky in the UK to have 23 species of cetacean seen in our waters, from the little harbour porpoise to the second largest of all the whales, the fin whale. The North and West coasts of Scotland have some of the best places to see species such as orca and Risso’s dolphin. This allows the many dedicated sea watchers and shore watch volunteers to spend time watching our seas for cetaceans. Adding to vital records…

By Rachel Seddon

As I navigate my way across the open bog, scaling deer fences and scrambling out of collector drains and bog pools, I sometimes feel like I’m doing basic training, expecting at any minute for someone to bark orders at me, but all I hear are the barking of roe deer and the cries of buzzards overhead. There is a wealth of wildlife on the Forsinard Flows, Europe’s largest peatland – golden plover, greenshank…

We are now into August and suddenly it feels like Forsinard has become quieter when it comes to birds. Most people recognise swallows congregating on telephone wires, or the “V”s of geese flying overhead as signs of the changing of the seasons, that they are “flying south for the winter”. But why do this? Why migrate? And where are the birds going?

Many species migrate, in that they travel from…

The blanket bog of the Flow Country is an amazing landscape and although, from the distance, it can look like a vast "empty" space it is in fact teeming with life. However it requires time and effort to see some of the most spectacular elements of this beautiful environment because they are so small.

Recently we had the pleasure of having a camera crew on the Dubh Lochan Trail from Maramedia who were filming…

This is the second time Forsinard Flows has taken part in National Insect week. The national event is organised every two years by the Royal Entomological Society and aims to interest people of all ages in insect science, natural history and conservation.

http://nationalinsectweek.co.uk/

We are lucky here at Forsinard Flows to see a diverse range of insect species (not just midges!) and so this is a perfect event…

 For any of you who watched BBC Springwatch this year from our RSPB Minsmere reserve, you would no doubt have seen the tawny owl (Strix aluco) chick in the tree that they had a camera on and marvelled at the variety of items that it was fed by the adults.

While not a peatland species, we do have tawny owls at Forsinard in the strath (valley). Tawny owls are normally found in woodland habitats and predominantly broadleaved…