Weekend away... Part.2

On Sunday (22nd) we decided to take a trip to the Falls of Shin which is located between Lairg and Bonar Bridge and is famous for it's falls and leaping salmon but also has a visitor centre and plenty of forest walks.

We took the long way round bypassing Lairg first with the intention of doing the full loop via Bonar Bridge on the way home. Upon arriving it was fairly quiet to start off. A quick toilet stop and then we headed down the steps to the falls. The river was in full flow and looked impressive as the sun came out. Grey Wagtails were seen again from the viewing platform and also a Dipper which landed not far from the platform with a beakful of invertebrates and then flew up into a clump of moss on the slippery rock which turned out to be it's nest!

Dipper at nest.

We then headed into Achany Wood just beside the visitor centre. The wood is very attractive with native Scots Pine and Birch with Larch and Douglas Fir scattered throughout. Plenty of Blue, Great, Coal Tit, Chaffinch were present as was a small group of Siskin and a Buzzard flew over. In a small clearing near the path two male Orange Tip butterflies were sunning themselves and returning to the car park a single Raven flew overhead and Pied Wagtails were foraging around the parked cars. To finish the visit we had a very tasty ice cream before heading on towards Bonar Bridge.

Achany Wood

 

Male Orange Tip

After Bonar Bridge the route took us through the small hamlet of Spinningdale. Driving along the road my girlfriend shouts for me to stop and pullover. I had no idea what was going til she directed me to a large Pine tree in a small group of trees in the middle of a field a couple hundred metres from the road. It was an Osprey nest with a pair of Osprey flying around it. I had seen an Osprey before but only at the Loch Garten Osprey centre two years ago. They gave fantastic views from the car and we watched for a few minutes before moving on as to not disturb them.

I couldn't believe my luck at seeing a pair of Ospreys and a nest as we carried on back to the A9. Not long after returning to the A9 my girlfriend spotted another nest with two more Ospreys but this time we couldn't stop but we still managed to see them both, literally 5 minutes after the last, fantastic. It is important to remember that these birds are a fully protected species and should never be disturbed (by law) and exact nesting locations never given out publicly.

As we neared the turn off for Dornoch I decided to instead carry on a little further North for the turn off to Loch Buidhe a site I had read about in Gordon Hamlett's book. We headed up the single track road into the surrounding hills for a few miles. On the way I spotted a Wheatear on a roadside patch of grass.

Female Wheatear

Heading up the road for a couple more miles and we finally came to Loch Buidhe. As well as the stunning views there was also a Common Sandpiper, my first of the year at loch side and Meadow Pipits along the fence line surrounding the forestry plantations.

Loch Buidhe

Common Sandpiper

As we turned round to head back down another Osprey flew over the loch, unbelievable, the only slight disappointment that it didn't crash down into the water to catch a fish! A Kestrel was also spotted on the way down and near the bottom of the valley I saw what I thought was a gull when on closer inspection it was a Fulmar, another first for the year and pulling over there was infact a small breeding colony on a natural inland cliff. Heading back round by the South shore of Loch Fleet the same lay by from the day before produced more Common Seals on the sandbanks. A great end to a great day.

Fulmar

Common Seals

On the final morning Monday (23rd) we had to vacate at 10am so we packed up and headed back to Dornoch for one last walk on the beach. Again plenty of larks and pipits in the dunes and Rooks, Jackdaws and Herring Gulls in the beachside car park. Around the golf course were groups of Linnet and Starling. We headed up the beach and I noticed a hirundine flying over the sand. At first I thought Swallow but it was actually a House Martin which turned out to be 1 of a group of 5, another year first. At that point it started pouring with rain so we headed back to the car but on the way I spotted a dead Puffin on the strand line that looked fairly fresh.

A quick coffee and a cake in Dornoch and we headed back down the A9 when my girlfriend spotted a Swallow flying over the road near to Tain, yet another first of the year and a nice end to the trip which takes me to over 100 species for the year.

Integrated Land Use

As mentioned in previous blogs I attended a conference on Thursday (29th) and Friday (30th) at the Carrbridge Hotel just north of Aviemore within the Cairngorms National Park. The subject of the conference was Integrated Land Use and was organised by RSPB, University of Highlands & Islands (UHI) and the Cairngorms National Park Authority. It was designed for students undertaking environment related courses within the UHI so that they could come together to discuss and share ideas on land management. There were students from Forestry (of which I was one), Environmental Sciences, Gamekeeping and Heritage Studies courses with a number of UHI and RSPB staff and a variety of managers representing their chosen land use sectors.

We arrived at the hotel at 1pm on the Thursday and checked in before an introduction was given and then we headed to the Kinveachy Estate for a site visit which would form the main focus of the conference workshops. We filled up the minibuses and drove a couple miles to the site. We were split up into mixed teams and talked with managers located around the site to gain a better picture of what was going on and to form ideas. The weather was stunning and the trip well worth it. Discussions ranged from grazing and wader management to tourism, forestry and upland management. We spent 3 hours up there and once we had  finished we headed back to the hotel.

At 19:00 we were welcomed by George Campbell of the RSPB and given a brief introduction to what will be involved in the workshops the next day. Afterwards a very nice three course meal was had before we all sat down to enjoy a presentation from Peter Cairns. Peter is an award winning nature photographer and writer and he talked about the 2020 vision project which I found very enjoyable and inspirational. Some of his photos were simply stunning. Find out more HERE. A quote that Peter used in his presentation struck a chord with everyone present and is one I totally agree with. He said:

"Keep your mind open when others have made their mind up"

A great piece of advice for anyone involved in land management these days and anyone in general.

After a rather late night with quite a few drinks had in the hotel bar, the second day started with breakfast at 8:00 and a brief introduction to the day from Will Boyd the Senior Land Management Officer for the Cairngorms National Park Authority.

The keynote speech was given by Pete Mayhew the Senior Conservation Manager with RSPB in North Scotland and he discussed integrated land use and talked about the RSPB's Futurescapes project which promotes conservation on a landscape scale.

Following on from Pete was a talk given by Will Anderson who is the Forestry Director for Seafield & Strathspey Estates of which Kinveachy is a part of. He talked about the fact that Integrated Land Use in forestry is not a new thing and the importance of continuing it on a larger scale within forest management.

The second talk of the morning was by Peter Duncan from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). Peter is currently the reserves manager for South Highland and previously for East Highland. His focus was on the Creag Meagaidh reserve and the complexities of restoring native pinewood without deer fences and how this affected neighbouring estates and the benefits of everyone working together.

A mid morning break was then had with tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits on offer before the second half of the morning resumed.

Following on from the break the third talk of the morning was from Brian Lyall. Brian is currently the Head Stalker at Badanloch Estate and a part-time lecturer at the North Highland College. He talked about the importance of deer management to local economies and families in the North Highlands and changes in priorities of land use in his time at the estate most notably the afforestation in the Flow Country.

The final talk of the morning session was from Jamie Evans who is currently a land agent for Smiths Gore with 15 years experience in rural land management. His focus was on the holdings of the Crown Estate and talked about different land uses on Glen Livet Estate

After the final talk lunch was had and a small amount of time was available before the afternoon workshops commenced and a few of us sat outside in sun which was incredibly warm for the end of March!

In the afternoon session we sat down in our groups to come up with a management plan for Kinveachy Estate using what we saw and heard on the site visit the previous day and the talks given earlier. Each group was to come up with a plan for integrated land use and was given a primary objective to focus on, for example our group's primary objective was agriculture. After much discussion and a land use map drawn up each group gave a short presentation on their plan.

Overall it was a very informative and eye opening couple of days for everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and it was nice to get a chance to mix with students from other environment related courses as most of the time we are at separate campus' widely spread across the Highlands. A big thanks to the UHI, RSPB and Cairngorms National Park Authority for organising the event.