ECOLOGIST, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER
FOUNDER OF THE AWARD-WINNING CHARITY TREES FOR LIFE
We’ve been having some unseasonably mild weather recently, and, at Findhorn where I live, snowdrops and crocuses have been in flower for a while and catkins have unfurled on hazel trees. I was going to Dundreggan for the day on Saturday, and I wondered if there would be any signs of spring there, as things are usually a week or more later in Glen Moriston, because of the colder climate in the mountains of the western Highlands. [Read more…] about The first signs of spring
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
On my previous visit to Dundreggan there had been a lot of beautiful hoar frost on the vegetation. The last few days had been similarly very cold, with sub-zero temperatures, but it had got warmer over night, with quite a lot of rain falling, so I was expecting a wet day rather than a frosty one this time. Arriving in Glen Moriston, there was low mist drifting across the hillsides on the south of the valley, giving a very atmospheric appearance to the landscape. [Read more…] about A rainy winter’s day at Dundreggan
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 …
This week-end I decided to go somewhere different to my usual favourite places, so I headed out to Glen Cannich, the next glen to the north of Glen Affric. On the way into the glen the road climbs quite steeply from the village of Cannich, as it heads to the north, and then it drops down again a little and levels out beside the River Cannich, before making a turn to the west into the main part of the glen itself. [Read more…] about In the gorge of the River Cannich
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.
This blog entry actually dates back to the 19th of September, when I spent a day at Dundreggan, photographing the huge abundance and large diversity of fungi fruiting there then. In particular, I spent quite a long time with a specific group of one species, taking about 50 photographs of them. However, it is only recently that I’ve had the species identified as being the common cavalier (Melanoleuca polioleuca), and so I’m taking the opportunity of writing up this blog about it now. [Read more…] about Portrait of a fungus
I was on my way out to Dundreggan, and, as I sometimes do, I stopped at a special place beside the River Moriston, downstream of the dam, and about a mile before Dundreggan. The glen narrows at this point and the river passes through a series of cascades, with beautiful old Scots pines on the rocks on both sides. There’s also some very nice old oaks and aspens amongst the pines, and they are covered with mosses and ferns, because the topography and constant spray from the river create a temperate rainforest micro-climate there. [Read more…] about A special place beside the River Moriston
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