ECOLOGIST, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER
FOUNDER OF THE AWARD-WINNING CHARITY TREES FOR LIFE
I set out alone on the second day of my Treelay leg from our overnight campsite, near the Mullardoch dam in Glen Cannich, after my son Kevin had gone home. It was a much longer route than the first day, heading east initially in Glen Cannich, and then going over the hills to the north to Glen Strathfarrar. There, I’d have an extended walk to reach the rendezvous point at the end of my leg, at the entrance to the glen near Struy. [Read more…] about Two days on the Treelay, Part 2
On Saturday 5th May, our sponsored Treelay event began – two weeks of walking and cycling around our Project Area – the 1,000 square miles west of Inverness and Loch Ness where we’re working to restore the Caledonian Forest. The first leg on Saturday, from Dundreggan to the RSPB’s Corrimony Reserve, was walked by Fay Blackburn (long term Trees for Life supporter and volunteer group leader) and Jill Hodge, our Dundreggan Project Coordinator. The second leg, on Sunday, was from Corrimony to Coille Ruigh na Cuileige in Glen Affric – the site of our first significant project in 1990, when we paid for the fencing of 50 hectares (125 acres) of land for natural regeneration of the forest there. It was walked by Fay and Fiona Limbrey, the coordinator of our Millionth Tree events, and three guests on programmes at the Findhorn Foundation. [Read more…] about Two days on the Treelay, Part 1
After a busy week in the office, and two weeks since my last dedicated photography day out in the forest, I was looking forward to some quality time out in Nature. So on Saturday I headed to Glen Affric again, on an overcast but dry day, with the vague intention of continuing my exploration of the Abhainn Gleann nam Fiadh burn, which I’d visited a couple of times in the past few weeks. [Read more…] about An early spring day in Glen Affric
I didn’t have a dedicated photography day out in the forest this past week, because I spent two days out with the Findhorn Foundation’s Ecovillage Training programme group, in Glen Affric and at Dundreggan, so this blog entry covers that trip. That programme has been running for 14 years now, and takes place for a month each year in February/March – I’ve done a session with them in each of those years. I’d given this year’s group of 25 people a talk and Powerpoint presentation about the forest and the work of Trees for Life on Wednesday evening at Findhorn. [Read more…] about Two days with the Ecovillage Training group
I had been planning on going to Glen Strathfarrar this week-end, but there’s a gate across the access road, and when I got there I found that it was still closed for the winter, so I was unable to get in. I decided to go on to Glen Affric instead, and this change of plans gave me an opportunity to return to the gorge on the Abhainn Gleann nam Fiadh burn, where I’d been two weeks ago. Then, I’d explored the lower section of the gorge, but I had run out of daylight when I’d reached a large cascading waterfall. Now, with a whole day ahead of me, I could pick up where I left off, revisiting the waterfall and then continuing to explore the gorge further upstream. [Read more…] about Another gorge-ous day in Glen Affric
After my experience last week-end, in the gorge of the River Cannich, where I found a large aspen stand we had no previous records of, I decided that this week-end I would visit another gorge I haven’t fully explored before – that of the Abhainn Gleann nam Fiadh burn in Glen Affric. This burn rises on the upper flanks of Carn Eige (which is situated between Glen Cannich and Glen Affric and is the highest peak north of the Great Glen in Scotland) and flows down to discharge into Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin. On its way, it passes through the Meallan exclosure, which we funded on Forestry Commission Scotland land in 1991 (and where we planted over 28,000 trees in 1992-4) – I know that section quite well. Downstream, however, a section of the burn passes through a steep-sided gorge, which I had never gone into, so that was my destination for the day. [Read more…] about Another day out, another gorge …
The last week has been one of wild weather in the north of Scotland. The beautiful snow from last week-end stayed for a few days, but then a tremendous storm hit the country, bringing heavy rain and very high winds, so most of the snow disappeared, at least at low elevations. On Saturday morning, there was fresh snow again, so I headed out to Glen Affric, to make the most of the winter landscapes, before the weather changed again.
On the way, there were scattered areas of snow, while in other places, especially alongside Loch Ness, there was virtually no snow at all, so I wasn’t sure what I would find when I arrived. As it turned out, there was snow in Affric, but it was mostly left over from the previous week-end’s fall, and it looked like only a little had fallen overnight. [Read more…] about Snow in the Affric River gorge
The weather forecast on Saturday was for high winds and rain, but I decided to go out for the day anyway, thinking that the conditions might make for some interesting photographs. Following my intuition, I went to Glen Affric and stopped at an area downstream of the dam in the glen, at a point where I knew there were lots of lichens on the trees. I’d been intending to go there for a while, so it seemed like an ideal day to do so.
Yesterday I was back in Glen Affric again, at the same spot I’d been to a week before. Then, I’d finished the day off by taking some more photographs of one of my current favourite subjects – slime moulds. When I sent the images to Bruce Ing, the expert on slime moulds who helps me with identifications, he said that it was too early to identify that species, as it wasn’t at the spore-producing stage yet, but it could be one of three species, all of which would be interesting records for the glen. So, a week after I’d last been there, I found myself back at a small Scots pine log by the roadside, overlooking Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin. [Read more…] about Life on a log
Last weekend I went to Glen Affric again, camping there overnight. On Sunday morning it was very still, and there were perfect reflections in Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin, with the mist adding a very special atmospheric quality to the scene. The trees and their reflections seemed almost to be hanging in mid-air, as there was nothing else visible to give a sense of perspective to the view. [Read more…] about Webs of delight & fungal galls