These blogs feature my writing and photographs from my experiences out in the Caledonian Forest and other natural ecosystems. Please subscribe to receive automatic notifications when new blog posts are added.
Alan’s blog
Alan’s blog
Magic morning in Glen Affric, part 2
With the sun having burned off the morning fog, Glen Affric was transformed on this October day, as the sunshine illuminated the autumn colours of the birch trees and Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin reflected the blue sky in its still waters. Autumn is when the Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) stand out the most from the birches, with the blue-ish green of their foliage contrasting with the yellows and golds of the birches. [Read more…] about Magic morning in Glen Affric, part 2
Magic morning in Glen Affric, part 1
In the middle of October I camped out in Glen Affric for a night, near Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin, hoping for some special autumn weather to go with the colours of the trees. At that time of year there’s often a lot of fog in the mornings, but it’s necessary to be there early to make the most of the conditions, before the sun burns off the low-lying cloud that accumulates over water bodies such as the loch, when night-time temperatures drop significantly. [Read more…] about Magic morning in Glen Affric, part 1
In search of slime moulds
In September I was privileged to spend a couple of days at Dundreggan with Bruce Ing, the UK’s expert on slime moulds, and one of the best slime mould specialists in the world. I’ve had a long standing interest in this unusual and fascinating group of organisms, and wrote a blog about them last year. I’ve been seeking to get Bruce to do a survey at Dundreggan for a couple of years now, so I was delighted when he came up with some dates for one this year. [Read more…] about In search of slime moulds
Another autumn aspen day
A week after my visit to the large aspen stand in the River Cannich gorge, I spent a day in Glen Strathfarrar. As it turned out, it was another day in which most of my time and attention was taken up by aspen trees (Populus tremula). It was still the first half of October, and as aspen leaves change colour in autumn before most other trees, they were the most brilliant and spectacular trees on this day in Strathfarrar.
Return to the River Cannich aspens
It was the first Saturday in October when I finally had an opportunity to return to the remarkable, large aspen stand I had discovered in the gorge of the River Cannich back in January. I’d been planning to go back there some time during the summer, but I hadn’t been able to fit a visit in, so this was my last chance now, before the trees lost their leaves for the winter. As it turned out, it was good timing, because to access the site requires a long walk through dense, tall bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), which would have been very difficult in the summer – now, in early October the bracken was all collapsing, and was somewhat easier to negotiate! [Read more…] about Return to the River Cannich aspens
The wild garden of Athnamulloch
(Edited on 11th October to add video footage at the end of the blog)
In early September I spent a couple of days out at Athnamulloch, in the western part of Glen Affric, which is the site of Trees for Life’s first tree planting, in 1991-92. In the spring of each of those two years, our first volunteer groups planted 21,400 Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) inside a 60 hectare fenced exclosure that had been erected by Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) in 1990. In subsequent years we returned to plant smaller numbers of broadleaved trees such as aspen (Populus tremula) and some junipers (Juniperus communis). [Read more…] about The wild garden of Athnamulloch
Exploration of a threatened burn
In the second half of July I spent a day in Glen Affric exploring the Abhainn Gleann nam Fiadh burn, which flows down from the upper flanks of Carn Eige, the highest peak north of the Great Glen in Scotland. This is the largest of the tributary burns that feed into the main lochs and river system in Glen Affric, and I’d explored some of the lower section of it earlier in the year. Now, I wanted to continue upstream, particularly in light of the fact that the burn is being seriously considered for a micro-hydro development. [Read more…] about Exploration of a threatened burn
An orchid day at Dundreggan
In late June I heard that my colleague Jill Hodge and local Glen Moriston resident and keen naturalist Jane Bowman had found a rare orchid, the Lapland marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza traunsteinerioides ssp. francis-drucei) on Dundreggan, that we hadn’t previously had any records of there. As I was already scheduled to go out to Dundreggan in the next couple of days, I took the opportunity of going to see these orchids myself. [Read more…] about An orchid day at Dundreggan
Aphid survey at Dundreggan, Part 2
Updated on 20th July 2015 with the correct name of the aphids found on the juniper bushes.
Towards the end of the weeklong survey that Ed Baker carried out in June for aphids at Dundreggan I was able to join him again for another day. He’d found quite a number of other species of aphids since I’d been out with him earlier in the week, and he showed me some of the more significant of those, so that I could recognise them in future, and also take some photographs of them.
Aphid survey at Dundreggan, Part 1
In early June, Ed Baker, a specialist in aphids, came to Dundreggan for a week, to carry out a survey for us there. I’ve had a growing interest in aphids for the last year or so, and I was very pleased when Ed had responded positively to my invitation to do a survey for us. He’d also been very helpful in identifying aphid specimens I’d sent to him over the past couple of months, and I’d been looking forward to joining him for a couple of days during his survey. [Read more…] about Aphid survey at Dundreggan, Part 1