Atholl Estates Ranger Events 2013

The ice and snow outside are giving local wildlife a hard time. But meanwhile we have been thinking forward to next year. Our events programme for 2013 is now complete. You can view it at http://www.athollestatesrangerservice.co.uk/ranger_events.cfm or by clicking on the link at the top of the blog. There is also a pdf poster link on the same webpage which you can print out.
As usual we have lots of family and children's events in the summer. We have some longer adult walks in June and have re-instated our walk round the farm at Easter to look at some of the newborn lambs and calves.
We look forward to seeing you next year.

Treecreepers Exposed

The leaves are now definitely gone from all the trees here, and autumn is slipping into winter. Much of our wildlife has left to go warmer places, though some birds from the arctic have arrived too. The treecreeper is here all year round. It's an insect feeder and so struggles to find food in the winter. Its favourite feeding technique is to fly to the bottom of a tree and then slowly spiral its way up the tree trunk looking for insects in all the crevices and nooks in the bark.



Lime tree avenue to Blair Castle. Planted in 1737.



A closer look at one of the lime trees. Lots of crevices and
hollows where insect food might be hiding

The lime trees on the Castle drive are full of wee nooks and crannies, and now with the leaves gone, treecreepers are regularly seen foraging here.



photo credit - Pawel Kuzniar

A close look shows you its curved bill - great for plucking insects out, and stiff tail used for balance. Many of the insects it finds at this time of year will be hibernating, tucked away in holes and hollows. If it can't find enough insects it has to resort to eating seeds, but these are not nearly as nutritious.

Fair-Weather Fowl

The cold was fairly bitter last night after getting used to the milder, damp weather of late and we woke up to a light covering of snow on the fields and a frost that turned getting into vehicles the first fun challenge of the day! But it was bright, sunny and clear - perfect weather for admiring the snowfall on the higher tops. And also perfect weather for investigating the local waterbirds as part of the BTO's wetland bird survey.

The view North-East to Carn Liath (the grey hill), first summit of Beinn a' Ghlo,
and a stand of Scots Pine jutting out into Loch Moraig in the foreground.

The Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) monitors the populations of non-breeding waterbirds in the British Isles and provides important information about population numbers and trends. It has been going on since the late 1940's and over 3,000 volunteers now take part in the survey each year, all going out once a month on a designated date to record the species' on 'their' site. Co-ordinating the day on which the count takes place means that the BTO can obtain a relatively complete picture of the waterbird population across the whole of the British Isles. Not bad for a scheme that started out only on the wetlands around London and Birmingham.

 We recently took on several of these surveys on some of the lochs down at the Dunkeld end of the Estate. Although Loch Moraig isn't on Atholl Estates, we are 'caretaking' the WeBS count here for a while, until a new counter can be found as the dedicated recorder for this site has retired after an impressive twelve years (at least!) on the case. It's a lovely site too, which was looking stunning this morning. If you are reading this and thinking that you would be interested in volunteering to carry out monthly counts on Loch Moraig please get in touch with us through the ranger service website and we will do our best to help you out. You don't have to be an expert at bird identification to do one of these surveys and it's a great motivator to get out and brush up on your skills.

Here's hoping next month is as pleasant as it was today!

Looking South-East across Loch Moraig towards Ben Vrackie

Small Cow-Wheat in Glen Tilt

Last week the ranger service and the rare plants officer for the Cairngorms National Park went out to protect some trees from the grazing teeth of sheep and deer. If the trees can grow, they should help the very rare small cow-wheat to spread a little bit wider in this area. The small cow-wheat seems to grow best under the shade of broadleaf trees, so we put tubes around some small hazel and birch trees - these trees are small in size but are actually older than you think, they just cannot grow taller because they get continually chewed down. The tubes should protect the trees until they are big enough to be out of danger.

Small cow-wheat is only found in 18 sites in Britain, and only in 2 sites within the National Park. It is closely related to common cow-wheat, which looks similar and is widespread.

small cow-wheat

Rowan Berry Bonanza

This year may be a poor one for apples, pears and other tree fruit, but not for the rowans. The trees are red with fruit, and adding to the spectacular autumn colour show we have this year. The early frosts have given our trees dramatic colours and because we haven't had too many windy days, the leaves are lingering on the trees.

Glen Tilt looking glorious. Notice the bright red rowan tree.

Back to the rowan... the berry bonanza is great news for many birds. Visitors such as redwings and fieldfares are well known for stopping on migration to feast on the berries. But it's not just the birds that enjoy the feast. Clues on the ground show us that some mammals have been enjoying them too! But what mammal is nimble enough to climb up to where the berries are ? Only squirrels or pine martens. The red squirrels are busy enjoying the harvest of beech nuts and hazelnuts just now, and also the size of the dropping indicates something bigger. Pine martens also enjoy blaeberries earlier in the year, and leave purple trails behind!

Clusters of rowan berries

Pine marten dropping in Glen Tilt

High Flying Painted Lady Travels Well

We may not have been seeing many butterflies around Atholl for a good few weeks now but they are still managing to make the press (if not the major headlines). There are several stories in the news today covering the publication of a scientific study that has discovered exactly what happens to Painted Lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) over the winter.

Painted lady (Vanessa cardui). Image rights: Butterfly Conservation

Grey Squirrel Alert!

Several grey squirrels have recently been sighted in the area north of Dunkeld, an area which has previously been free of grey squirrels. Information on the movements of invasive grey squirrels is important for the protection of Scotland's native red squirrels. Grey squirrels carry a virus, parapox, which is devastating to populations of red squirrels, while the greys remain relatively unaffected as immune carriers of the virus.

If you have seen a grey squirrel in the area mentioned in the poster below please report it to redsquirrel.project at dundeecity.gov.uk

Click on the image below for a larger A4  version which you can print out.