Do you enjoy our blogs, reading our observations, exploits and musings from the bog?  Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work and live in such a wild, remote and dramatic area of Scotland? 

If you have answered yes to these questions, then read on...

We have one remaining vacancy for a residential volunteer for this winter at Forsinard and you could be the person to fill it! Over the past couple of months…

Just a quick blog to say "thank you" to everyone that came and said hello to us on the RSPB stand at the Caithness Show. The weather managed to stay good and we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

RSPB staff from Caithness Reserves, Forsinard and our North Scotland Office

This week the blog comes from Will Rundle (one of our residential volunteers), so over to Will...

I find the best way to learn, for me at least, is total immersion and at Forsinard that is definitely what you get. The wildlife and wilderness is all around you and both the working week and the weekend often involves experiencing it, and learning something new about it. So what is it like at Forsinard?

Well, it’s often…

 Last week Paul Stagg described the challenging process of locating hen harrier nests and the cunning plan that involved acclimatising the birds to the presence of the camera using a screwdriver, a paint-roller, gaffer tape and a little imagination.

This week I am pleased to be able to say that we now have three very healthy looking harrier chicks on the monitor in the Visitor Centre.

When the nest was first discovered…

We've asked one of our residential volunteers, Paul Stagg, to tell you a bit about some of the work he has been undertaking over the last week or two...

It’s June and at Forsinard, as with RSPB reserves across the country, the survey season is in full swing. This is the time when the success of management that has been carried out through the rest of the year is measured through monitoring the breeding success of…

Well what an amazing period of weather we have had recently. It has allowed our brilliant volunteer force to carry out a huge amount of survey work on the reserve, but rather than listen to me talk about it we have asked one of our volunteers to tell you all about what has been going on...

Hello! My name is Sergio and I'm a residential volunteer at Forsinard, primarily assisting with survey work over the busy field season…

So...last week was another busy week here at Forsinard.  Six members of staff were trained in the use of the new Argocat that we took possession of recently.  This will primarily allow us to transport equipment and materials out onto the bog to enable us to block old hill drains that are drying out areas of the bog and causing erosion of the peatland. There is also potential in the future for the Argo to be kitted out to…

Things have been very busy on the Forsinard reserve over the last couple of weeks.  Both staff and volunteers are now involved in survey and monitoring work on the reserve and we have been out and about undertaking a variety of different surveys.

Poo!

Yesterday we were out spending a couple of hours looking at...well...poo!  Each year, as part of our monitoring work, we carry out predator scat (poo) transects on the…

So apparently it is spring here at Forsinard, although from the rain and wind hammering against the side of the office you would probably never believe that. The sky is grey, it’s cold again and I can barely see Ben Griam Beg through the cloud. The correct Scots word is...dreich! However over the last couple of weeks when the weather has been reasonably good we have had all manner of breeding birds starting to turn up…

So this blog is probably telling you that I am Paul Turner but I’m actually Kirsty Godsman, the new Information Assistant at Forsinard. Hello! I have been here for a few weeks now and I am really looking forward to spending my summer here. You will probably find me in the visitor centre at Forsinard or out on the reserves leading guided walks (just in case you didn’t know, the guided walks will be running twice a week…

New Equipment

Christmas has come early/late(delete as appropriate) to the reserve with the arrival of our new ArgoCat (see photo). While we try not to drive out onto the actual bog itself there are times when it is necessary, for example when we are moving dam pilings into place as part of re-wetting the bog. 

Staff and volunteers admiring our new 8x8 ArgoCat

The new ArgoCat

We also have contractors on the reserve…

Feeling pretty smug after the success of the campaign to catch the Barn Owl on a camera-trap I thought I would try putting four cameras out on the reserve.  Forsinard being the largest RSPB reserve there was sure to be a wide variety of wildlife that might possibly appear on the cameras...maybe a pine marten or a fox, a red grouse or even a stoat.  Well things didn’t really work out that way and I was brought down to earth…

Things have been busy on the reserve over the last week and with some spring-like weather we hope to continue to get ready for the coming breeding and monitoring season as well as the opening of our visitor centre on the 1^st of April.

Last week we undertook two days of deer surveys on the reserve, monitoring the number of red deer that live here.  This is  part of a co-ordinated count by all landowners and estates in the…

You heard me right, the Beached Bird Surveys at Strathan, Talmine and Armadale Bay turned up nothing..not a thing...zero! Four hours of scouring the beach, looking for the slightest sign of any species and we didn’t get a single bird.  Although to tell you the truth we are absolutely over the moon that we didn’t find anything.

Why on earth would the RSPB be happy NOT to find any birds?!? – Well...read on.…

 
Well, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that spring is in the air.  Any subsequent arctic conditions, flash flooding or similar drastic acts of nature are therefore my fault!

 On the reserve we have seen the arrival of workmen to carry out some maintenance work on our visitor centre and other buildings, ready for when we open at the start of April.  “That’s ages away!” I hear you all cry, but time…

It turns out we have a mystery guest staying in one of our buildings here on the Forsinard reserve.  Nobody saw our visitor moving in, and to be honest they have left the place a bit of a state with poo and leftover meals discarded all over the place.

In an attempt to catch the culprit in the act, one of our volunteers (Will) and myself have set up a series of camera traps. You can see some of our results below.

After…

The next couple of weeks at Forsinard will see the changing of the guard between our winter residential volunteers and our summer survey volunteers. It’s exciting times: we are re-wetting the large expanse of blanket bog known as the Uair at the moment.  This is an area of over 1,000 ha of bog habitat in the heart of the Flow country. We already have the first sign of spring, with the first Golden Plover being heard…

Despite the title of the blog, last Sunday started early and icy in Forsinard. After a bit of a drive and dodging a couple of rain showers I found myself, along with our three residential volunteers (Mark, Martin and Will), in Gordon Memorial Hall in Rosemarkie on the Black Isle. Why you might ask...because it was World Wetland Day!

Blanket bog might not be what you would normally consider to be a “wetland” in the sense…

Welcome to the first blog from the RSPB Forsinard Flows nature reserve in Sutherland.  The reserve can be found in the “Flow Country”, which is the common name for the vast peatland which blankets much of Caithness and Sutherland – mainland Scotland’s most northern counties.  This spectacular  landscape  is home to the largest blanket bog in the world, covering over 400,000 hectares!

The rugged…