Author: David Miller

Firstly I know this is meant to be based in the Cairngorms, just occasionally I may venture a bit further out of the Park to bring you something of interest, as I have done here. This is a story based on the River Tummel Shingle Islands about 6 miles outside the Park. The Islands are jointly run by Atholl Estates (who’s H.Q. is at Blair Castle so well within the Park) & Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT)

Now like Marmite you either love Beavers or hate them, the chair of our local branch of the SWT loves them & organises these walks ( or should I say commando courses) deep into the vegetation of the islands to show off the dams & lodges of the Beavers. Yesterday was such a day, so as I had not been I tagged along with 4 others to see what we could find. Of course we knew we wouldn’t see the actual Beavers, as it was 2pm & 25C & no sensible Beaver would be out & about then, but we did see a lot of evidence of their activities.

First lets set the scene, The Tummel is a spate river & every year it changes course finding a easier route on it’s way to join the Tay. The islands are formed from the old river bad 20 -30 years ago & though they do flood in the winter are now just a trickle of their old roaring, raging river. This of course is an ideal flow for the Beaver & all through the island dams have been built to make the water deeper in order to make their sleeping/ living lodges. So it was these that we came to see.

As I said before not everyone likes Beavers, but now in Scotland it is illegal to kill them without a licence, a month or so before the legislation came in, around this area of the Tummel, two Beavers were found shot.

So of course my blog would not be complete without some photos & this was a particularly difficult shoot because the sun was so bright & lots of dapple shade, so I know they are not my best.

Just a few shots from what was an enjoyable two hour hike through the jungle of the Tummel Island

At last, just after the longest day, we have something resembling a summers day. Though we still have a fairly “brisk” wind, the sun is shining. My wife of course is straight out in the garden slaving away keeping it tidy & in my opinion looking splendid, she regards it as a mess, but I love the way everything looks so colourful & the bees are buzzing. Showing what a great gardener I am I went straight indoors & got my camera to catch the lovely light.

Most of you whom I know are pretty keen gardeners & know your Onions from your Osmanthus, so I will not show my ignorance beyond naming the Lupins, Foxgloves & Heather. What I like is the variety of colour in the Lupins I presume they cross pollinate so the shades are never ending.

So first the Lupins.

Loved those, now the Foxglove, White is getting very common in the wild & are all around us.

When we moved here I created a pond & our neighbour gave me some water Buttercups, I discovered that within the Buttercups was a single Orchid & every year since up it comes giving us such pleasure.

The only Heather out at the moment is this Bell one, I again love the colour.

In every house we have ever lived in, we have had the Rose Guinea, though it doesn’t do that well up here, what blooms we do get are a great deep red & smell incredible.

We have a very small wild flower meadow which is full of Rattle, a rare plant up here, but I do not know why as our plants are expanding through seed dispersion, a lovely little plant.

I have written enough dribble, will just add the remaining shots & you can decide what they are called.

Lastly for all you wine makers, it seems to be a bumper year for Elderflowers, so any finished liquid, yes please.

Last night sitting at our dining room table, my wife informed me that there was a Hare in the field in front of the house. As for once it wasn’t raining, or blowing a gale, or near freezing temperatures, I thought I might get some photos out of this. Little did I know it would develop into a story line that I could tell you all.

We have half a dozen steps down to our fence which you then have to climb over to get in the field. So the first couple of shots I took were from within the garden, some 50yds from the Hare. As I focused in on the Hare I saw there were two, not just the one. Got that shot in the bag (or at least in the camera)

Decided to climb over the fence now as I was just happy with the one photo. One of the Hares saw me & made a bolt for it.

But the remaining one didn’t seem bothered & carried on eating while I slowly advanced towards it.

It was so relaxed that it then decided it was time for a tidy up & proceeded to have a wash.

Eventually when I was no more than 20yds away it saw me.

And then decided it was time to run off. Though like the true pro the Hare must have been, decided that it would sit and pose for me on the horizon . So this was the last shot, but what an image to finish on. 15 minutes of shear enjoyment for yours truly.

About this time last year we had Megan from the Tayside Ringing Group come & ring some of our garden birds, well having since given birth to a baby daughter she came back to have another go today. As we have had a wet & cold week I for one did not expect to get the same number of birds as last year, we managed I think 37 then & blow me we got 38 this year, but not the variety of birds as last year, but some interesting conclusions to what we did get.

Our Siskin population has increased with many one to two year old birds amongst the 32 we caught, two birds were youngsters from this years broods & had not long fledged. We also had two birds that had been rung before & we expected them to have been either ones we had rung earlier in the morning or from last year. But both were new birds to us, one which had a British ringers ring on, which will require Megan to investigate further with the BTO to see where it came from. The other one gave us the most pleasure of the morning as this had a ring on it’s left leg (all British birds are rung on the right leg) & on the ring it told us this had been rung in Brussels. Now this very small bird weighs 11 grams & had come all that distance up here to Perthshire, no matter if it came direct or across the English Channel & up that is still one heck of a long way for such a small bird. This gave Megan huge delight as both birds were her first rung birds from outside her Tayside area.

The other birds were a Robin, a Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch & two Dunnock, though we must confess one of the Dunnock got away before being measured & rung. So I have attached some shots of the birds caught & a brief explanation of what was happening in the shots.

I had always intended to write a blog about the Watermill & for so many reasons. Mainly because we love the place, visiting at least 3 times a week, also they make excellent scones & I also enjoy the hot chocolate. But food aside, the staff are always friendly even when the place is packed out , they have time to say hello.

Of course T.V. has visited, initially when Rami entered a baking competion om ITV & won the Scottish region finals. Followed By Nadia filming with them all, plus a private visit by Camilla. I can add that they will soon be on another series, but that’s a secret.

As you are aware I very seldom go anywhere without my camera & today when we visited for our usual, the mill was grinding some flour, so I thought time for some action shots, so I had a go. Now I must apologies for the very low standard of shots I got, it is nothing to do with my lovely new lens (that I was using for the first time) (Nifty Fifty for the camera buffs), nor the low light, nor the photographer (well maybe a bit my fault), nor that they were hand held shots. No, it was due to the fact that when the mill is at full pelt with the stones grinding, the cogs turning, the water running over the wheel, the whole building vibrates unbelievably. I think the following internal shots would have been even worse if I had used my tripod, for at least I was able to steady myself a bit.

Well these are my excuses & I am sticking to them.

Hope you enjoyed my trip around the mill, when the machinery is not working I will take some more shots, just to prove I am not such a rotten photographer.

Can you believe it, Scotland the hottest place in Britain this week? We have had a terrific week for weather, sunshine since Monday & with us temperatures reaching 29C. Lovely. Of course this means everywhere has dried up, no water in the rivers, so Salmon have been slow coming through Pitlochry fish ladder only 354 so far this season, where by now it would be over 1000. Goodness knows when they will reach us 8 miles further up on the River Garry, we don’t normally get many until August as they have a few falls to negotiate before they reach my rod & flies.

But with this weather of course things are progressing with nature. Birds are hatching out, where we had no House Sparrows when we came, we have at least 5 boxes occupied and a fair few squawking babies wondering about being fed by very busy parents.

Cannot see it very well, but the Thrush above has managed to find a worm.

Also a fair few baby Siskins are independent, feeding themselves & flying well, plus we are having a constant feeding frenzy by the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, so that must have young somewhere. A rare visitor to our garden ( in fact it is the only time we have seen it ) is the Spotted Flycatcher, which I managed to capture an image of through the double glazing.

I was driving down to the village today & just in a small field beside the road was the family below, not 50 yards from me & not at all bothered about me being there, all they did watch my every move. As you can see the Mother is well pregnant & normally that is the time last years calf leaves home & fends for itself, but, unusually it is still by the mothers side. So pleased to have got these shots, another good reason to always carry my camera.

As you can imagine the garden flowers are shooting on, I don’t like to many wild ferns in the garden but the wife does so we compromise & take a few older ones out each year & let the young uns have a go. The picture below is the only way I like them, just as they are about to spring open, makes for some good photographs.

The person who owned the house before us was a wonderful gardener & we still have a few areas where her original designs still exists, one such area is her Azalea garden, these shrubs give off such a wonderful fragrance & the colours are outstanding, I have tried for a few years through my photography to do them justice, but I just cannot portray them as the beauty that they have. I hope through this shot you can extend your imagination to smell & see the brightness that is these glorious plants.

When you live out in the sticks life is all about getting out & enjoying your area & beyond. For me this can be divided into a few categories.

Walking, this is a problem for me at present as I have damaged a muscle in my knee & as per doctors instructions, no hill walking. Though I have tried it is just to painful & for once am doing as I have been told.

Watching wildlife, though it is so easy to miss a lot I am fairly observant & can spot the unusual going on, which leads me onto —-

Photography, as can be seen on here I love photographing many different subjects, mainly wildlife, but with my new wide angled lens scenery is becoming just as appealing.

Most probably my main thing that takes up a lot of my time (apart from eating) is fishing, be that coarse or game. So lets see if I can combine all of these things into this blog.

I showed you a few bird shots from my walk to Loch Moraig on the last blog, here are some more, of me Photographing Wildlife.

Above a male Stonechat & below a Meadow Pipit.

I belong to the local Angling club we have a small lochan opposite our house some 1/2 mile as the crow flies, but about 1 1/2 miles away by road. I love fishing there for Trout & as you are allowed to take 2 fish a week I also enjoy eating them. Today I caught a beautiful Brown Trout of about one & a half pounds, which I kept as they are superb eating fish. But as you can see from the second picture below, when I gutted it at home I was in for a surprise, will tell you what that was after you have looked at the shots.

Now its contents.

Unbelievably there were 4 dead Newts in different levels of decay, never ever seen this before. I have seen loads of weird contents, including a cigarette butt, silver paper even a bit of crisp bag, but never Newts.

The next couple of shots show what a lovely little lochan this is, just me & a mate, wildfowl & fish.

But just occasionally your fishing & tranquility get disturbed by two low flying big birds (see below)

The first pilot only had mischief on his min, because he was flying over to our right & dipped his/ her wings & flew right over us & of course the second one had to follow his mate. The lens I had on the camera does not do justice to just how low they were above us I could see the two sitting up front in the cockpit & I am sure they had a little grin on their faces.

Just finish off with a shot from the fishing lochan across the glen to my house, if you can see the white blob more or less dead centre to the photo is our house, so you can see by the terrain not much chance of walking without hills.

As I said a couple of weeks ago that I would follow up with some more flowers as the spring progressed, here are a crop from this lovely, warm, sunny Easter weekend. Not going to name all these but all you experts out there will know them anyway.

Love the Pom Poms, but not as big this year as in previous years, could be lack of water.

Very proud of my Trillion , every section goes in threes, except this year I have an extra bloom , I chose the plant (hence calling it mine) but the wife chose the colour, which I also liked.

What garden would not be complete with out primroses, I love the way they glow at night as well.

sorry added this twice & have not got a clue how to delete it.

Bumble Bees loving the heather out at present.

Today My son, his partner & myself got up at 5.45am to go & photograph Black Grouse on the Lek way up on the moors near Loch Moraig. Though my son got a couple of shots of males they did not perform as there were no females about, it was a cracking sunrise & I captured a few images of all that surrounded us.

This first one of a lone sheep on the horizon with the moon above. Although the drive up the hill from our house to Loch Moraig is only about a mile, as it was so early we managed to see at least 8 Roe Deer, numerous Hares, all of which were nowhere to be seen on our return trip.

Just loved this tree in the early sunrise.

Loch Moraig a beautiful Brown Trout Loch which is a pleasure to fish , though hard work to catch any of the large fish within.

Saved the best until last, this Wheatear posed beautifully for me, looking into the sun, showing off it’s wonderful plumage.

I realise that some of you reading this will be well into spring & all your bulbs & spring flowers will be in full bloom , or even over. Ours are (apart from the Snowdrops) a couple of weeks off of being at their best. Unfortunately I am very busy for the next two weeks, so did not want to not cover a time that I really love in the garden, so you will see in the following shots the ones that are out now & maybe, just maybe, in three weeks time when I have recovered from my business the best will still be here.

Before I start talking about any of the plants I must confess most of them I am unaware of their names, but with some help from SWMBO, I hope I have got the right names for them.

Those first two are of a plant that grows wild around here & goes through all different shades of colour, as you can see from the above shots. I hope I am correct in saying it is a Polonaria. What we both like about this plant is that once it is established it will stand up to almost anything the Cairngorms weather throws at it.

Next we have the Heathers, of course a true Scottish favourite & as we get older we are filling the garden with them, as long as you give them a haircut after they have bloomed to stop them from going leggy, they need very little other maintenance, but give you great coverage & bloom.

Next come the humble Crocus, not many of these in our garden, but what we do have are attractive, that is as long as the birds don’t get them first. For some reason, especially sparrows, the birds like to peck off the stems, maybe the sap is tasteful, not sure, but you can have a great display one day & the next they are all flat on the ground. The second shot of a single Crocus is amusing, this one decided to come up in the turning circle of our drive & whenever I have had to turn the car round, the wife has said mind the Crocus. Somehow I actually to avoid it every time & at last it has died back so I don’t have to avoid it.

I followed the Crocus on with the iconic Spring plant, the Primrose, only a few out in the garden at the moment & the few that are out, as you can see, are all different shades of yellow. I like when the purple & pink ones join them & make a cracking display.

The Hacquetia (think that is right) though not a flower (again I think) it is a brack, but is still a colourful addition to Spring in the garden.

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All Winter the next plant, a member of a large family of plants & not sure which one this is, has given us a bit of colour as you come to our front door, now in Spring it gives us this almost Autumn colouring which is very bright & affective. makes you smile as you come around the corner of the house.

See what I mean about the plant above?

Next is this little bulb that is described in the plant book I am using as ” A cheery small bulb, good for naturalising in borders or grass” at the end of the paragraph it adds ” No maintenance required other than to control the self seeding”. So now you can see why we love this bulb, it is so prolific in our garden and such a bright blue it is gorgeous. It is called a Scilla, just plant & let it take over, nothing else will fill your garden with such brightness as this little plant

Lastly I doubt there is hardly a garden in Britain that doesn’t have a Daffodil or two in their garden. Our are not really out yet, a few are when they are South facing & also the miniature ones, but the real display of main crop ones are still to come.

So Spring has started, but way from finishing & I expect we will have another dumping of snow before summer (especially if my neighbour Rod is not here ) (sorry in joke), but we do enjoy our crop of Spring flowers.

Most of you will be aware that Red Squirrels are the minority species of the two we have in the U.K. . Mainly due to the pox that Greys carry that has killed a large number of Reds, but doesn’t kill the Greys who just are carriers. But here in the Cairngorms we have a stronghold of Red’s & our garden is no exception to that. The most we have had at any one time was 5, but we do have 3 regular visitors to our garden feeders, in fact they eat more of our peanut supply than the birds do. The nearest Greys to us are only 20 miles away in Dunkeld, though we did have one stray to up here on a neighbours feeder, that I managed to dispatch of within an hour of it’s arrival.

All the visitors have a different approach to us humans, one in particular doesn’t pay much attention to us, providing you don’t look directly at it. Though it doesn’t mind the camera lens being focused on it & it is very photogenic. Most of the shots below I took this morning of that one animal, just in time before the snow arrived.

The 5 shots below show the various feeding places for them. The first was by the pond where I placed some Sunflower seeds to attract some birds down to takes some shots of, but the Squirrel sniffed them out & got in before the birds.

Second also on the ground but after he had found a peanut loose from when I filled the feeder. This one was first thing in the morning after I had just filled the feeding trough that was visible in my last post.

Fourth is a standard peanut holder but it hangs by it’s back legs & lifts the feeder for ease of extracting the nut, last one is just prising out nuts from our long feeders, note how its feet just grip into the feeder.

The next two show where & how they like to eat their bounty. The first shows today’s visitor having just eaten a nut & ready to have another go, if you look along the perch just to the right of the Squirrel you can see the string going down to the feeder that it eating from in two shots above this. Sometimes (as in the second shot below) they do not bother coming up to the perch to eat, they just hang by their hind legs & eat upside down, how they swallow the nut from that position I do not know.

The last shot is a very rare event, two Squirrels eating from the same feeder. Normally they will scrap over territory & this was the only time I have seen this happen. All I can think is that it was a parent & babe & the parent showing the youngster where the local café is. Or a couple out on a date for a birthday celebration.