Cairngorms Life

The last couple of weeks have been a non eventful time within our community, nothing much going on. The fact is the busy time is on it’s way.

The International bi-annual Scout Jamboree happens at Blair Castle commencing tomorrow, hundreds of Scouts from all over the world arrive & have the time of their lives. Games, activities campfires with sing a long’s, you name it they do it. The village & Pitlochry are full of groups wandering around in different styles of uniforms, initially anyway looking very smart, but going downhill as the fortnight progresses. Hope to get some shots for you of all that happens, but can be a bit tricky taking shots of youngsters in this day & age, we shall see.

Meanwhile in the garden we have at least 4 Red Squirrels wondering about, most of the time fighting each other over food & territory. But as you can see from the first shot I think these two are related & for a while tolerate each other on the feeders.

One Red has become particularly tame & as from the next three shots allows me to get within 5 yards of it. I just love the agility of them, it stayed in that downward position on the tree, not sure if it was safe to come & feed with me that close or not. Then sat on the cross support for the feeders wondering the same. Before eventually going down & sticking it’s nose into the bird seed, which if you enlarge the third image you will note just how much didn’t go in it’s mouth.

The last shot is of one of my bird boxes taken over by Wasp’s, not content with filling the inside with their nest they have decided to insulate the outside of the box as well. Though I am not a lover of Wasp’s (in fact allergic to their sting) , you have just got to admire the structure & beauty of their nest building skills.

 

As promised, went up Glen Fender & photographed some of the many wild flowers that grow on the meadows, all these were taken within 100yds of where I parked my car  So if I went further afield I am sure I could find loads more.  I must admit I am not as good a gardener as the wife & names are not my forte, so I am grateful to a magnificent book called “Glen Fender Meadows (A Celebration of Diversity)” by John Ford , for providing me with the plant names.

These first two are different colour variants of the Heath Spotted Orchid

Next is a Northern Marsh Orchid

Common Birds Foot Trefoil  

As above but mixed in with wild Thyme, followed by a close up of the Thyme flower.

A Marsh Thistle not yet out in it’s purple flower.

The one below is a Water Aven, natures natural Velcro, that distributes it’s self by clinging to passing animals.

Not sure on this one but 99% think it is a Soft Rush, the seed comes out half way up the stem

Lastly my favourite this time of the year & it is really prolific in Glen Fender, the Mountain Pansy.

At last the season has changed to real Summer weather, hot & sunny here at present & this is bringing out the best in the bird world. Though I showed you in the last post we have had our failures with the Wagtail being predated & the Buzzard having the baby Pheasant, we have also had our successes. Loads of Blackbirds, we have had up to seven youngsters coming down for the sultanas at the back door & the first couple of shots show an adult female having just got out of the bird bath & sunning itself, after all it’s breeding, well deserved.

It seems though that there are a lot of second, even third broods in progress as can be in the next shot of a male filling it’s beak with sultanas to take back to the nest. Once the babes have fledged the parents tend to bring them down to feed rather than them filling their beaks in this manner.

The next shot is of just a few of our many Siskins on our feeders, normally if you are far enough away you will see over 20 on the feeders, but they are very easily frightened, as the Sparrow Hawk is always around. Any chance of getting close for a shot of the gangs of them is ruined because of this. These lovely birds are also bringing their young to the feeder or collecting food & going off to their nest to feed the babes. I would say the population of Siskins with us at the moment are treble the numbers when we had the ringing session.

Sparrows can be found all over the world & in my opinion are a much forgotten species that people just take for granted. Tree Sparrows are really disappearing from Britain & surprisingly House Sparrows are also in decline. When we moved here there were plenty of House Sparrows in the village & the other small hamlet 500yds away from ours, but none with us. So we had a mission to get them to come just that little further UP the glen to us. I built 3 Sparrow hotels, Sparrows love to live in communities & by having 3 separate nest boxes in one block they prefer that. Took us two years but we did get some residence in the garden, as far as I am aware this year we had three boxes where they bred & these youngsters are now fledged, but still relying on the parents to feed them. So the last two shots are of a lone babe on the lawn (you can still see the yellow line by it’s beak that makes the mouth look bigger for the parents to find) & 3 of the 5 babes up on the garage roof waiting to be fed. I of course was waiting for mum or dad to turn up with food for that perfect shot, but the babes decided to go find them instead of waiting. Typical youngsters spoiling my photography.

While this great weather lasts I intend going out & getting some wild meadow flower shots in the next couple of days, so watch this space.

 

 

Does not seem possible but I have been writing this blog for just over a year & I hope you have enjoyed what I have written & photographed. The one thing that I would like to see more of comments coming back to me, in that year I have only had 5 people make any & I would love to have some feedback. The space is at the bottom of this page.

Dave

This week with all the wonderful, dry, sunny weather we have been getting has seen a influx of newly fledged birds. Those that are not yet fledged are busy being fed in the nest by their overworked parents.

The first shot shows one of our 3 Blackbird babes, it has already learnt that if it comes to our backdoor it will get fed sultanas, in fact once one of them had learnt it to well & came into the kitchen & then panicked it could not get out, pooped everywhere & had to be rescued by yours truly. Well now it has decided to follow us around the garden just in case we are carrying any food.

Second shot is our Pied Wagtail, which at one stage we thought had deserted the nest, now has young, fluffy balls of babes in the nest, not sure how many hatched out of the 5 eggs, but the parents seem to be feeding them well.

Of course all birds feed on different food as the last photo shows. We were sitting having a midmorning drink when we noticed a commotion in the field in front of the house. At first we thought the Buzzard was trying to kill the female Pheasant, but then realised the Buzzard had something in it’s claws. Turned out to be a Pheasant chick, which the mother was very bravely trying to rescue from the Buzzards clutches. Unfortunately, the mother didn’t succeed & the Buzzard flew off to feed it’s chicks their breakfast. Such a brave little bird the Pheasant, but a happy ending as half hour later we saw her taking 6 other chicks , hopefully, to safety. The Buzzard did come back though looking for another easy meal, but with no success.

 

It is so hot today, that the thought of walking up a hill was tiring let alone actually doing it. So the wife walked down to the village & I took the car down to The Mill, did a few chores & met the misses. We walked down Ford Road & you never guess what is at the end of the road? …. A FORD, no not the car, a river crossing. Not used much these days but the track down to the river is still there as can be seen in shot one. Now  you cross the River Garry via a foot bridge, from where shot 2 was taken, looking Northwards.

The river is very low at the moment as we have had a long, hot, dry spell, so on the walk South parallel to the river we did not expect any Salmon to be spotted. But we did see the Dipper below.

The next two shots are looking North up the river to the junction pool, which is where the Rivers Tilt & Garry  meet. This pool has a nostalgic soft spot for me, it is where I caught my first ever Salmon, all of 2 1/2 lbs but it got me very excited indeed (the next day I went further up the Garry & caught a splendid 13 1/3 lb Salmon, not caught one in 40 odd years of trying then two in two days). the second one from the same spot is looking South.

Further along on the walk we came across this huge bracket fungus, everyone was a s big as a dinner plate & beautiful in the dappled light.

The houses at the end of Ford Road are beautiful Atholl Estate cottages of which the next shot is typical. I should say a good ten feet above the river, but since we have been here they have flooded a couple of times, the threat is always there with a spate river like the Garry & now the village has contingency plans in place to offer shelter in the village hall for the residents.

No visit to this end of the village would be complete without stopping off at Jock’s garden, it is an absolute site of beauty, with him devoting so much time making it look wonderful. I think there are more plants in one arrangement than in the whole of our garden & he grows the vast majority from seed in his two greenhouses.

Then we had the luxury of just getting in the car & driving up those everyday getting longer hills.

 

This morning a wonderful young lady, called Megan,  from Tayside Bird Ringers came to our garden to ring some of our birds. In a 2 1/2 hour session she managed to ring 31 birds, a mammoth task for one person & as I was not   qualified to help other than with recording the data she got from the birds.

First the birds were caught in a mist net (like the Male Siskin in shot 1), then very carefully extract them (shot 2) , placed in a bag, before  :-

1/placing the appropriate size ring on their right leg.

2/ sexed & checking how old they were (by feather shapes, colour & how worn).

3/ if they had been brooding (by checking their brood patch)

4/ length of wing (from shoulder to tip)

5/ weighing them (in various size containers)

6/ releasing them.

Some of the birds like the Siskin were easy to collect the data from, but the Greater Spotted Woodpecker was a different kettle of fish, it was not so much the beak you had to worry about, but the very sharp claws it uses to grip on trees. Poor old Megan needed a couple of plasters for the blood that was drawn. Surprisingly enough apart from the Woody the Blue Tit was a bit feisty & had a fair peck on it.

The 31 birds were collected in just 4 sessions with the earlier ones being most productive, I think mainly down to the fact that as the saying goes “The early bird catches the worm”, or in this case the fact that the birds know that by 9am I would have been out daily to fill the feeders. After collecting the birds on each session, the net was rolled up so that for 30 minutes the birds could feed freely & not get caught up while feeding, then we let the net out for 15 & go from there. The exception to the rule was the 2 occasions we caught the Woody’s & you need to get to them asap.

The bird totals were made up as follows:-

14 Siskin, 6 Chaffinch, 2 each of Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Woodpecker & 1 each of House Sparrow, Dunnock, Blue Tit.

So below in order are , Male Siskin, Great Tit, young Male Blackbird then mature Male. Followed by ringing, weighing & releasing a male Woodpecker.

A most enjoyable morning, on a very warm summer bank holiday in Perthshire. Was hoping to get down to the Highland Games at the castle, but never made it so something for next year if I am still about.

 

 

Yesterday was a decent day (especially as it was my birthday) So we went for a walk up the Bruar Falls. Normally a walk I prefer to do out of the holiday season 1/ because it is peaceful & we have it to ourselves & 2/ there is a lot more water coming down them. Though there was plenty of people about it was fine, not much water coming down. Most days when there is plenty of water you will see Nae Limits (a local adventure company) taking a group down the falls on a canyoning exercise, jumping off the rocks or floating over the rapids. All of which makes some interesting shots for the camera, unfortunately none out today. I expect they were bungee jumping off the Garry Bridge or rafting down the River Tay today.

The walk is a circular one of maybe 1 1/2 miles, which sounds easy, but as you would expect on a deep long waterfall, it is a steep climb whichever way you wish to go. Atholl Estates have provided steps in the steepest parts & also plenty of viewing areas, to look at the falls. Though the annoying thing is people go off the provided path to see if they can improve their views, but it never does, but others follow & thus wear down the surrounding habitat.

The estate has been felling a large amount of the surrounding pine trees so at present the area looks a bit barren, but you can now note the growth of vegetation growing up beneath what was a dark canopy. Though they take out the pines, occasionally (as can be seen in my last shot below) a rouge Birch grows amongst them & the foresters tend to leave them, creating this bleak landscape with a solitary tall tree growing in it. A sight that I find really photogenic.

The bridge is one of two you cross (top & bottom of the walk) which I find beautifully built, using local stone & not sure how old but wonderfully built by true craftsman of a yesteryear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having spent a week down in Cornwall I have noticed just how much difference that 500 odd miles South makes to birds & plants. Many of the Spring/early Summer plants down South have finished, where ours our either not out or still blooming. Also with the birds, down there families of things like Sparrows are fledged & nearly feeding themselves, where here the later birds are still building nests.

When we left last weekend our House Martins had just returned & were flying around our artificial nesting shelves, we come back & as you can see the blooming Sparrows got in there first & even though I have 3 Sparrow hotels around the house they decided the House Martins didn’t deserve such luxury as ready made nest’s they did.

The Blackbirds are normally as early as the Thrushes (as seen inn last post), but even they are late as daddy Blackbird is showing in the next shot, collecting sultanas to feed the babes.

While the Dunnock is busy collecting food on the front lawn.

Below are some of the plants that have come out in the week we have been away.

 

   Azalea

  Rhodi.

 

  Pieres

 

  Bluebells just coming out.

 Primula

 Wild Garlic on our riverside walk.

Following on from previous articles I thought it would be good to show you how much later things actually come out up here. Admittedly as you can see from some of the shots the Daffs are starting to go over, but all else has just bloomed in the last few days. It has been a wonderful year for those Pom-Pom Primula  “things”, with such variety in colours. Primroses are spectacular, especially at dusk when they are iridescent. We do not have many Grape Hyacinths as they tend to take over, but they are looking splendid as well.

We think the mice have enjoyed some of our Fritillary, but what we have left are a cracking colour & in this rare bit of sunshine they show up well. As you can see from the shots of the Daffs some are being eaten as they die while others are in tip top condition. I particularly like the 4th shot showing the flies on it & if you look close I am chuffed with the fly hovering to the right of the flower.

Last two are of the Cherry blossom now fully out & the Water Marigold looking things that live on the edge of my pond.

As you can note I am not that good on names of plants, but I do enjoy the colour & pleasure they bring to the garden.

I am away for a week or so but I expect all will be different by the time we get back.