ECOLOGIST, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER
FOUNDER OF THE AWARD-WINNING CHARITY TREES FOR LIFE
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
On the 2nd of January I spent another day out in the Caledonian Forest, but the day was a complete contrast to my trip on Boxing Day to the pinewood on the south shore of Loch Mullardoch in Glen Cannich. That had been a cold but clear and cloudless day, whereas this one was an overcast and damp day. Although it was warmer, with temperatures ranging around 10 degrees all day, the dull weather, combined with the limited daylight at this time of year, prompted me to choose an area which was easier and quicker to access. [Read more…] about Rainy day at Badger Falls