ECOLOGIST, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER
FOUNDER OF THE AWARD-WINNING CHARITY TREES FOR LIFE
Two days after my last visit to Dundreggan, when I walked along the lower Red Burn, I was back out there again for some meetings. It was a very different day, with bright sunshine and a clear blue sky, in contrast to the overcast conditions previously. As I had a couple of hours to spare in between the meetings, I decided to make the most of the opportunity and headed up into the woodland to take some photographs. [Read more…] about A sunny winter’s day at Dundreggan
It was my first dedicated photography day at Dundreggan for a couple of months last Sunday, so I decided to take a walk along the Red Burn, the main watercourse on the western half of the estate. It’s easy to access, being just a couple of hundred metres west of the buildings at Dundreggan at its nearest point, and as it was an overcast grey day, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some photography in amongst the trees on the lower section of the burn. [Read more…] about A walk along the lower Red Burn
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
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
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.
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
On 4th June I spent the day at Dundreggan with Tony Hunter, one of the entomologists from Liverpool Museum, who’s carrying out some further sawfly survey work for us at Dundreggan this year. Tony had been up at Dundreggan last year with his colleague Guy Knight, and they made some interesting discoveries, particularly of sawflies associated with dwarf birch (Betula nana) on the higher ground on the estate. Guy wasn’t able to come up this time because of health reasons, but Tony had been up in May, to set out some Malaise traps in the dwarf birch exclosure, and this visit now was a chance to check on the traps and look for sawfly larvae and adults on the plants as well. [Read more…] about Dwarf birch and sawflies at Dundreggan
The week after the planting of our Millionth Tree (on 20th May) we finally had some warm sunny weather, and as it happened I had a couple of days scheduled to be at Dundreggan in that time. On one of the days the Scottish staff of the Woodland Trust were making a site visit to Dundreggan for their annual field trip, so I joined Steve, our Operations Manager at Dundreggan, and Jill and Allan, the other two full time staff there, in hosting the group of 24 people. [Read more…] about Spring sunshine at Dundreggan
Because of having been away on the Millionth Tree Lecture Tour, it had been 4 weeks since my last visit to the Caledonian Forest (and 5 weeks since I’d last been at Dundreggan). I was therefore very keen to get out to the forest again, to see all the new life of spring, so about 36 hours after I got back from England, I headed out to Dundreggan for the day. It was a warm, mostly sunny day when I got there, but I was surprised to see that the birches and other broadleaved trees hadn’t got their new leaves yet. [Read more…] about Delayed spring at Dundreggan
(Blog updated on 17th April 2012 to include details of the slime mould)
It had been two weeks since my last trip out to the Caledonian Forest, as I was busy last week-end, in between public talks on the Millionth Tree lecture tour that I’m doing throughout the UK in the second half of March and April. The weather had continued to be very mild and warm for the season, so a few days after the equinox I set out for Dundreggan, keen to see how spring was unfolding. [Read more…] about Spring gathers pace at Dundreggan