How better than to start the week with another beautiful piece of art by Janice Duke. This time Janice has captured the spirit of one of our most acrobatic species; the lapwing (or peewit as some of you may know them).

We hope you enjoy seeing Janice's artwork and get the chance to explore www.rspb.org.uk/lapwing and http://www.arkive.org/lapwing/vanellus-vanellus/video-00.html to find out more about these stunning…

I started thinking about volunteering after graduating from uni last year.  Having done some volunteering before I knew it would be a great way of gaining the experience I needed to help me find a job.  I had worked in a busy visitor centre for the past five years so was keen to gain some practical reserve experience particularly in monitoring and surveying.  I also knew it would be a great way to find out about potential…

We have been notified by Network Rail that:

• Works will be undertaken from 22:00hrs on Saturday 27 April until 08:00hrs on Monday 29 April 2013.
• PLEASE NOTE: A full road closure will be in place from 22:00hrs on 27 April until 08:00hrs on 29 April with appropriate diversionary signage.
• The works will involve resurfacing of the level crossing using site lighting, generators, small plant and heavy machinery.

The…

Well it's that time of year again, just when we think winter is over and we mention the word "spring" and it promptly snows or similar. Regardless of the weather, however, our reserve visitor centre is once again open from 09:00 until 17:00 daily, so if you would like to learn more about the flows and what we do then please come and visit.

Guided Walks & 4x4 Safari's

Our regular guided walks…

 There are always certain groups of birds that we see so often that we start to not really notice them; such groups as gulls and corvids (crow family).

At Forsinard we are lucky to have the largest member of the corvids; the Raven (Corvus corax) all year around and when you stop to take a closer look at them they really are really spectacular birds. When seen closely they are large birds with a wingspan of approxima…

Not all of the land at Forsinard is peatbog; we have a large area at Forsinain that is classified as ‘in-bye’ land. The current Scottish Government definition of ‘in-bye’ land is as follows:

• 'In-bye' is that part of the farm which is used mainly for arable and grassland production and which is not hill and rough grazings.
• 'In-bye' land has fields that are bounded by a fence, a dyke…

Well every so often we like to get away from the bog. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing we like more than peaty pools and mile after mile of heather, sphagnum and open hill! However from time to time we do like to broaden our horizons...with this in mind Paul Stagg (our peatland apprentice), Ewan Munro (residential volunteer) and myself headed off on Saturday to help with the annual "Beach Bird Survey". Now this…

For some parts of the country winter never left, but at Forsinard we have been lucky enough to grab a couple of days without the "white-stuff". Today, however, we have had it return with strong winds blowing icy snow across the landscape.

Despite the conditions I ventured off to take photographs of a bridge on one of our access tracks with two of our volunteers (Dario and Ewan) and our Assistant Warden Claire…

Recently we have been able to capture some of our wildlife on camera, but now for something a little bit different!

Snow Bunting: Acrylic on A4 canvas board

Janice Duke is an artist and illustrator inspired by wildlife, nature and mythology. This piece is the first in a series by her, inspired by various trips to RSPB Forsinard. (Check out our blog during the course of the year to see more from Janice!)

Snow Bunting…

A blog from Philippa Faulkner, Campaigns Co-ordinator Scotland, talking about her recent visit to the reserve...

I work in RSPB’s media team where I help coordinate our campaigning activity and engage the public in stepping up for nature. I was recently fortunate enough to visit the RSPBs largest reserve, the Forsinard flows, to look at an example of how campaigning can influence our work.

During the 70s and…

What lives in the shed by the volunteers’ house at Forsinard, comes out at night and avidly devours peanut butter? The answer is, of course, a pine marten, and this blog entry will report on the recent antics of Forsinard’s friendliest mustelid.

The pine marten first made its presence felt by the less than salubrious activities it got up to in our shed: pine martens are certainly not house trained, and, in…

It’s the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine!  Assuming the world does not end today then you are hopefully reading this blog and looking forward to the festive season. As a final entry for 2012 I thought we could have a look back at the year and some of our favourite photographs.

From all the staff and volunteers at Forsinard we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.  We…

This week I have asked one of our residential volunteers, Michelle, to write the blog....

So I have been asked to write about the weather we are having at Forsinard these days.  After the months of beautiful sunshine and cloudy night skies, which cleared away just enough to see the northern lights one late autumn night; the winter sun has afforded us the chance to see clear night skies with shooting stars and space debris…

It has taken me a while to get around to writing this blog, for which I apologise, but I wanted to give it the time and attention it deserves. 

In Scotland, under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, everyone can enjoy their outdoor access rights as long as they are exercised responsibly.

In summary, these right are:

• Everyone has the statutory right of access
• Access rights apply to all land and inland waters, unless…

On 5th November we had 6 waxwings at Forsinard, but they all vanished before I had a chance to get my camera. Luckily there was a lone straggler who didn't turn up until Sunday 11th November! Below are a couple of photographs...they won't win any prizes, but hopefully they will give you an idea of just how beautiful these birds are.

What I failed to catch on camera was a great spotted woodpecker harassing this…

I often ask our long-term residential volunteers to write blog entries, but here are some boggy points of view from a couple of our short-term volunteers; Kirsty Egan and Dan Mason.

“My Boggy Experience" – Kirsty Egan

When I was at Forsinard I learnt a lot of interesting, new and exciting skills and tasks. On the reserve, I took part in two very exciting projects: forest to bog restoration and…

Apologies for taking so long to get a new blog up, but hold onto your hats as we have a couple for you over the next week or two. Firstly from our Assistant Warden Claire on building homes for our wee feathered friends...

"The Wild North festival has been taking place across the north of Scotland over the past four weeks, from Assynt in the west to John O’Groats in the east, and not forgetting Forsinard and all those…

After 6 months of working at Forsinard as our Information Assistant we have had to bid farewell to Kirsty.  She has been a wonderful asset to the team at Forsinard, engaging with visitors and school groups and we will greatly miss her as she heads south to study for her masters. I asked Kirsty to write one final parting blog so...enjoy...!

Kirsty in the Visitor Centre at Forsinard

I have had the pleasure of working…

Over the summer we have asked our long-term residential volunteers (Paul, Will and Sergio) to write several blogs about their experiences. However we also take short term volunteers at Forsinard and so we have asked two of our short term volunteers, Jodie and Molly, to write a bit about their volunteering experience on the reserve. The girls have been amazing and settled into the team really well, helping with both practical…

Recently Forsinard has been shaken by massive changes...changes so great that they make glaciation and continental drift seem small by comparison. Ok, so maybe I am exaggerating slightly, but it is with great regret that we bid farewell to two of our stalwart residential volunteers.  Paul Stagg and Will Rundle have been an amazing pair of volunteers who have allowed us to achieve so much this summer. As an organisation…

Just a quick "thank you" to all the people who came and spoke to us at the Helmsdale Highland Games on Saturday. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we hope you all had as much fun as we did!

Claire (Assistant Warden) & Kirsty (Information Assistant) with our stand at the Helmsdale Highland Games

In every career there is equipment that is termed “essential”.  Working on a reserve such as Forsinard this probably covers things like our 4x4 vehicles for accessing our massive reserve (approx 21,000ha), our GPS (Global Positioning System) Units for marking survey routes and the exact locations of interesting plants or our waterproofs (this is Scotland after all!).

While all of these things are essential…

Unfortunately we are going to have to cancel the walk on Thursday 16^th August as the reserve staff will be undertaking a deer count.

The Dubh Lochan and Forsinain Trails at the reserve are both open to the public to explore and are self-guided so if you are interested in visiting the reserve they are still an option, along with our visitor centre.

Guided walks will be back to normal next week!

Our blog this week comes from our Financial Accounting Manager; Russell. Read on and discover what he got up to at Forsinard...now updated with some of Russell's Forsinard photographs at the bottom of the blog!!

The RSPB give staff members the opportunity to take a sabbatical every 7 years.  I work in the Finance department and after 7 years of helping the RSPB balance its books I thought it would be great to use…