Well, even though the Osprey Centre is now closed for the season, work carries on here at Abernethy. It already seems a long time ago that my wonderful team left in mid September, as so much has happened since. I have to admit to feeling a little bereft now that they’ve gone – it’s a strange position to be working so closely with a group of people for six months and then they all disappear in a matter of days. I guess I’m going to have to get used to it, such is the nature of the set-up here at Loch Garten.
As 2016 was my first full season managing the Osprey Centre, I was obviously desperate to get a good team to work with, and I can honestly say that I couldn’t have wished for a better bunch. Those of you who visited the centre over the spring and summer will have met with boundless enthusiasm, passionate knowledge, easy conversation and warm smiles (not to mention Mediterranean hugs!). The team gelled right from the start and not only worked together with ease, but lived and spent their free time together, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. I was truly blessed with such an easy-going, hard-working team and their departure has left a hole in my day to day working life. I wish them all well for whatever the future holds and dearly hope to see at least some of them back next season. I’ll follow their progress with interest and affection.
Before they went we had one or two celebrations, starting with cupcakes and fizz (both boozy and non!) on the loch shore after work on the last day of the Osprey Centre. It was a little midgie, but we all braved the little blighters and had a lovely time. Over the next week we enjoyed a beautiful swim in the loch – cold, but exhilarating and such good fun, prompting us all to wonder why we hadn't done it before. Of course we had the usual end of season party, with dancing till the wee small hours and gazing at the stars, followed the next day by tea and cakes with the rest of the reserve team up at Forest Lodge. Oh, and we also managed a team breakfast, courtesy of Fergus, who is a Scottish breakfast expert, it turns out. Again, we wondered why we hadn't done more of that during the season. All this in-between getting the Osprey Centre packed away and tucked up for the winter. They certainly knew how to work and party hard, that lot.
Cupcakes and fizz after shutting up shop for the last time in 2016
It was a beautiful, end of summer, evening
So now it's down to just little old me, but even though the centre has shut, there's still plenty to be getting on with. People often ask me what I do when the centre is shut and this winter is going to be exceptionally busy. I'm working on getting the information boards rewritten – they haven't been changed for around eight years and are looking a little out of date. We have seven such boards on the reserve and each one holds at least five, sometimes seven, individual panels. In addition, a lot of the panels are seasonal, so they will need updating too. That's approximately 50 panels which need updating!! It's going to be a bit of a slog, but I'm ably assisted by my colleague Charlotte, from the Inverness office, otherwise it would be impossible.
We're also working on updating the interpretation at Ryvoan Bothy. Those of you familiar with the bothy will know that at the moment it's a right mishmash of very old panels and posters. We would like people to have a greater understanding of the work we're doing on the reserve to expand the forest, the wildlife which is around, the history of the bothy (fascinating! And the subject of a future blog I feel!) and appropriate behaviour in accordance with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. All exciting stuff and the kind of thing I really enjoy getting my teeth into, but all very time consuming too.
Perhaps most importantly, I will also be working with a team of colleagues to look at the Osprey Centre and see how we would like it to develop into the future. This isn't a piece of work which will be completed in a few months- it will be a long term, work-in-progress project for quite a while. But exciting times ahead I feel and more than enough to keep me busy.
Then of course, come November, I start the recruitment process for the Osprey Team 2017! It comes around remarkably quickly! Phew. Barely have time to catch my breath!
Hopefully by the middle of November we will also have our satellite internet set up. I'm off on annual leave for a fortnight as of tomorrow, but when I return, Peter from Carnyx is coming up to sort out the necessaries – no concrete date as yet, but it will be at the earliest opportunity. I hope it will be straightforward and that we will be able to start streaming the feeder cam again. I'm very sorry it hasn't been working. Usually it's something we can fix from the reserve's limited expertise, but this time it seems to be a little more serious. It seemed like it would be a misuse of funds to pay for an engineer to come out (our usual guy lives over 50 miles away) when we're having Peter coming up soon anyway. I do hope you can appreciate that.
Autumn is definitely on its way here in Strathspey. We've had some really cold mornings this week, when it's been down to –3, but these have been followed by glorious days of weak sunshine. The birch trees around the loch are starting to turn, as are the other broadleaves such as rowan and aspen. It all makes for a very beautiful scene. No winter thrushes as yet, but the rowan trees are groaning under the weight of red berry clusters, so when they do arrive they'll find plenty to feed up on. One glorious sign of the changing seasons sprang on me last week as I was walking up the Osprey Centre track – a wonderful skein of around 200 greylag geese, honking away, flying south to who knows where. It was a breath-taking sight and one which reminded me why I love autumn so much. It almost makes me sad to be jetting off on holiday for two weeks, as I'll probably miss the best of the colours and maybe the first of the rest of the autumn visitors, but then again, maybe absence will make my heart grow even fonder for Abernethy...if that's possible.
Autumn is on its way...
Site Manager (People), RSPB Abernethy National Nature Reserve