Alan Watson Featherstone

ECOLOGIST, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER
FOUNDER OF THE AWARD-WINNING CHARITY TREES FOR LIFE

Search Results for: fungi

Life and death in an aspen tree

Dundreggan: 1 Comment

Trunks and leaves of an aspen tree at Dundreggan.
Trunks and leaves of an aspen tree at Dundreggan.

In a recent blog I wrote about the fallen giants – some of the large Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) and oaks (Quercus petraea) that were blown down by the powerful storm that hit Dundreggan on the night of 5th December 2013. Since then, we’ve continued to find other trees throughout the woodland on the estate that were either uprooted and blown over, or had substantial limbs broken off them. This blog entry is about one of those – an aspen tree (Populus tremula) – that lost part of a major branch in the storm. [Read more…] about Life and death in an aspen tree

A cornucopia of catkins

Dundreggan: 5 Comments

Catkins on a hazel tree (Corylus avellana) at Dundreggan.
Catkins on a hazel tree (Corylus avellana) at Dundreggan.

This is a remarkable year for hazel catkins. I don’t recall ever seeing quite as many in the area where we work as there are out at the moment. The hazels (Corylus avellana) are completely loaded with them, making them stand out very visibly from the other broadleaved trees in our forests in the Highlands. Some trees are utterly bedecked in hanging tassels, with the catkins crowded together, like sardines in a can. [Read more…] about A cornucopia of catkins

Colourful autumn day in Glen Affric, part 1

Glen Affric: 6 Comments

Scots pines and birches in autumn, with early morning mist rising at the east end of Glen Affric.
Scots pines and birches in autumn, with early morning mist rising at the east end of Glen Affric.

In late October I spent a couple of days in Glen Affric, as I do most years, to photograph the autumn colours of the trees there when they’re at their peak. The weather forecast for the day seemed ideal for me – it was predicted to be a wind-still, overcast day with morning mist and fog – so I made an early start from home, arriving in the glen just as it was getting fully light. On my way past the village of Cannich, in upper Strathglass, there had been a lot of low-lying fog. I knew from past experience that as the day warmed slightly, this would most likely rise up out of the strath and move into the eastern end Glen Affric, where the River Affric discharges through a narrow gorge into Strathglass itself. [Read more…] about Colourful autumn day in Glen Affric, part 1

Fallen giants

Dundreggan: 14 Comments

One of the large Scots pines at Dundreggan that was blown down by the storm that hit Scotland on the night of 5th- 6th December.
One of the large Scots pines at Dundreggan that was blown down by the storm that hit Scotland on the night of 5th- 6th December.

On the night of Thursday 5th December, an unusually powerful storm hit the north of Scotland, with winds gusting at over 100 miles per hour. It caused widespread disruption, with all train services cancelled the next morning, numerous roads closed by fallen trees and a loss of power to thousands of homes. At Dundreggan, our staff were left without power and telephones for almost 48 hours, and had no water supply for a while either, but otherwise were not harmed by the storm. [Read more…] about Fallen giants

Return to the Wonder Tree

Dundreggan: 6 Comments

The rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia) beside the Allt Ruadh, or Red Burn, on Dundreggan that was home to aphids (Dysaphis sorbi) and lots of other life.
The rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia) beside the Allt Ruadh, or Red Burn, on Dundreggan that was home to aphids (Dysaphis sorbi) and lots of other life.

At the beginning of September, I posted a blog about the ‘Wonder tree’ – a rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia) on Dundreggan that I’d visited with some aphid surveyors in July, and which was supporting a whole host of invertebrate life. About 10 days later I spent a week at Dundreggan, when I was co-focalising a special ‘Up Close to Nature’ volunteer Conservation Week, so I took the opportunity during the day off in the programme to re-visit the tree, to see if the aphids were still there, and what else might be on the tree.

[Read more…] about Return to the Wonder Tree

Beside the River Moriston

Glenmoriston: 6 Comments

Scots pine sapling beside fast-flowing water in the River Moriston.

One week-end in the middle of February I was on my way out to Glen Affric for the day. Leaving Loch Ness at Drumnadrochit, I headed up Glen Urquhart towards Cannich, but the road was blocked at Balnain. There was a large rallying event taking place there, and a combination of cars parked beside and on the road and many people walking on the road meant that no traffic was able to proceed. After waiting for a short while, with no sign of any forward movement on the road, I turned around. I headed back down towards Drumnadrochit, and, changing my plans for the day, decided I would go to a very nice area of native woodland beside the River Moriston, downstream from Dundreggan, instead. [Read more…] about Beside the River Moriston

The other side of the Cannich River gorge

Glen Cannich: 8 Comments

Trunks of aspen trees and waterfalls in the Cannich River gorge.

At the beginning of March I made a trip out to Glen Cannich with Ruth May, a former Trees for Life staff member who had returned to her native Germany about 15 months previously, but was back now for a visit to Scotland again. In the last year I’ve made a couple of visits to the gorge on the River Cannich, where I discovered a large, previously unrecorded stand of aspen trees just over a year ago. I’d been there again last October to photograph the aspens in their autumn colours, but on both those occasions I’d been on the east side of the gorge. This trip therefore I was interested in exploring the west side of the gorge, where I’d seen there were some more aspen trees when I was looking across the gorge in October. [Read more…] about The other side of the Cannich River gorge

Ice on the Red Burn

Dundreggan: 2 Comments

Ice formation beside cascades on the Red Burn at Dundreggan.

A couple of weeks after my last visit to the Red Burn on Dundreggan I was back there again for another day of photography. The weather had been unseasonably cloudless and warm during  the previous week, but there had been hard frosts at night, so the ground was frozen. There was no snow anywhere to be seen on the lower slopes of the estate, which was unusual after such a run of freezing nights, but when I reached the Red Burn I was delighted to see some beautiful ice formations lining its banks in many places. [Read more…] about Ice on the Red Burn

A walk along the lower Red Burn

Dundreggan: 6 Comments

Cascades on the lower Red Burn on Dundreggan, amongst birch and alder trees.

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

The ephemeral beauty of ice

Glen Affric: 9 Comments

Ice on the stems of a heather plant (Calluna vulgaris) in Glen Affric.

When I headed out to Glen Affric on 2nd February, it was for my first day out in the Caledonian Forest in a month, as I’d been away for 3 weeks in January. Two of those weeks were in Thailand, a very different environment and climate entirely to the Highlands in winter, but I’d returned from that trip refreshed, revitalised and renewed, and I was looking forward to reconnecting with one of my favourite places again. [Read more…] about The ephemeral beauty of ice