ECOLOGIST, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER
FOUNDER OF THE AWARD-WINNING CHARITY TREES FOR LIFE
For quite a few years I’d been wanting to visit Glasdrum Wood, a special area of temperate rainforest that is protected as a National Nature Reserve (NNR) on the west coast of Scotland, and at the end of July I finally made a visit there. Situated about midway between Fort William and Oban, on the north shore of Loch Creran, the wood is about 3 hours by car from my home so I set off at 6 am to ensure I had enough time to explore the woodland. [Read more…] about A day in Glasdrum Wood, part 1
This winter continues to be one of constant change, with wildly fluctuating weather and frequent storms hitting the north of Scotland. After a cold spell of two or three days in the second half of January, with snow and freezing, sub-zero conditions, a warm front moved in quickly from the west, and within less than 24 hours the temperature rose to 14°C. As a result, the snow held in the mountains melted very rapidly, swelling the rivers and burns, making for spectacular torrents where there are normally more sedate and gentle flows of water. [Read more…] about A torrent in the forest, soon to be diverted?
In the middle of December, on a cold and frosty morning, I decided to make a return visit to Inverfarigaig, to explore more of the temperate rainforest in the gorge there. I’d spent a very satisfying day at the site in early November, which featured in a recent blog I wrote, and my appetite had been whetted then to discover more of this special area, on the southeast side of Loch Ness. On that day I’d spent almost all my time in a very small section of the gorge, and I suspected that there would be a lot more of interest, if I looked at other parts of the area. [Read more…] about Hair ice and frosted lichens
Inverfarigaig is a small village on the southeast side of Loch Ness, about halfway down the loch’s 23 mile length, which takes its name from the River Farigaig that discharges into the loch there. ‘Inver’ is derived from the Gaelic word ‘inhbir’, meaning ‘the mouth of a river’ and the Farigaig flows from the Monadhliath Mountains, which lie between Loch Ness and the Strathspey valley to the east. Near its confluence with the loch, the river flows through a narrow gorge which provides both an important habitat and some degree of protection for a special area of woodland. [Read more…] about Autumn in the Inverfarigaig rainforest
About six miles downstream from Dundreggan, and just a mile from where the River Moriston flows into Loch Ness, Glenmoriston narrows dramatically at a place called Levishie. The topography there steepens, and on the south side of the glen in particular the land slopes precipitously down to the river. This provides shade from the sun for most of the year, as well as some protection from the wind, and these factors, together with the constant spray of water from the gently tumbling water, create ideal conditions for a small patch of temperate rainforest to flourish alongside the river there. [Read more…] about A day in the Levishie rainforest
In 2012, during a survey he did for us of aphids on Dundreggan, Ed Baker discovered a species that had never been recorded in Britain before. This turned out to be the giant juniper aphid (Cinara smolandiae), which up until then had only been found in Sweden, Finland and north-west Russia. Restricted to juniper bushes (Juniperus communis), it is one of 10 species that have been found at Dundreggan that are not known from other sites in the UK, and which have led to our estate being described as a ‘lost world’ for biodiversity. [Read more…] about Rediscovery of a rare species at Dundreggan
In late May, we organised a trip for seven Trees for Life staff, plus eight other people from Scottish conservation organisations (including one of our board members) to southwest Norway. We flew over to Stavanger and were met there by Duncan Halley, a Scotsman who has lived in Norway for about 20 years, working for NINA, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and who had very generously offered to be our guide for the week we’d be there.
[Read more…] about Study tour to Norway: Part 1 – Fidjadalen
Spring has been really late in northern Scotland this year and by the end of April most of the trees were still leafless. In most years, the birches, rowans and other trees generally get their new leaves in the second half of April, but the cold spring we’ve had in 2015 has delayed everything. It was only in the early part of May therefore that the new leaves finally started opening on the trees, and when I went to Glen Affric on the 10th of May, the forest was radiant with the vibrant, bright green flush of the fresh leaves. [Read more…] about The return of the leaves
At the end of February I made a return visit to the area in Glen Cannich that I’d visited last December, which I wrote about in a blog back then. Because of the very short hours of daylight at that time of year, I hadn’t had the opportunity to fully explore that section of the Cannich River then. However, I’d seen enough to realise that there was a lot of interest to discover there, hence the reason for making another trip once the days were lengthening again. [Read more…] about A lichen day in Glen Cannich
In the middle of December I was out at Dundreggan with a couple of my colleagues, including Doug Gilbert, our Operations Manager at the Estate, and Colin Blyth, a consultant whom we work with on our forest restoration projects there. The reason for our visit was to scout out the possible line of a new fence for our next tree planting scheme on the estate. However, the day turned very wintry, with blizzards and white-out conditions, so we had to abandon our mission, and Colin and I decided to walk back to the lodge, down through the woodland on the east side of the Allt Ruadh, or Red Burn. [Read more…] about A new discovery at Dundreggan