Ray Collier Country Diary- Brown Rats

Brown Rats - 30th December 2008

Brown rats can be readily identified as adults by their eleven inch long head and body and the nine inch tail. The colour of the coat varies from brown to black but is generally brown or grey streaked above and paler grey below. Sometimes there is a white patch on the chest and light coloured forelegs. The tail is thick, dark above and pale beneath and is often scaly and the ears are short with some hairs. Tracks of prints are star like and the tail is rarely dragged unless in soft mud, sand or snow. Pathways or runs between holes appear as depressions in soil or plants. One feature of the runs or paths is that if they are used over long periods whenever the rat’s body touches an object the fur leaves a dark greasy deposit. They are found in many places associated with man such as farmyards, refuse tips, sewerage systems, game rearing pens and gardens. They can also exist away from these places such as the bottom of hedgerows and in field crops. Shore lines such as the firths around Inverness often attract them and they take virtually any carrion that is found washed up. They swim readily and will colonise islands on lochs and lochans if the food supply on them is adequate.
The origins of the brown rat is thought to have been in Asia, possibly China, and it arrived in Europe in the first part of the 18th century and was first recorded in England in 1720. It was also known as the Norway rat but did not occur in that country until 1762. The black rat came to Britain with the Romans but despite being widespread and in large numbers they were eventually ousted by the brown rat. The population of black rats now in Britain is estimated at fewer than 1,300 which, ironically, makes them one of the rarest mammals in Britain. There is a colony of black rats on the Shiant Islands off the west coast of the Highlands. In contrast the brown rat population for Britain is a minimum of 7 million and in the Highlands they are widespread and only absent from the exposed tops of hills and some marine islands
Part of the success of brown rats is due to their varied diet that includes live food such as slugs, snails, frogs, young mammals and birds eggs. They can travel three to four kilometres a night and can climb well, such as up rough walls and high into trees after birds nests and eggs. They are predated by a wide range of birds and mammals including weasels, stoats, badgers, foxes, tawny and barn owls. Currently tawny owls are taking advantage of the large number of brown rats in the Highlands and are probably the main predator.
Controlling numbers of brown rats has always been a problem and even more so in recent years with the series of mild winters we have just experienced in the Highlands. Predation on sea birds has been a serious problem on islands such as Canna and Handa and there are also problems on the Isle of Rum where predation has taken place on the world famous Manx shearwater colonies on the tops of the hills. There are various poisons that can be used but some of these can cause serious problems to other wildlife and pets by secondary poisoning if they eat dead, poisoned rats. This was so serious with red kites on the Black Isle that a code of conduct was produced.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Snowberries

Snowberries - 8th December 2008

There have been reports from around Inverness and other parts of the Highlands of a shortage of wild berries and fruits this Autumn. Whilst this will mean shortages for wildlife such as the Scandinavian thrushes it will also affect people. The Autumn ritual of collecting berries and fruits for making wine, jams, syrups and soups just did not take place in some areas. In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in what is popularly called "food for free" and the numbers of books on the subject is a testimony of this pastime. This year, in many parts, people were out but either found a complete lack of berries and fruits or in such small quantities they were not worth collecting.
Blackthorn is a popular source of small blue-black plums called sloes and they are used for making a superb jelly and the traditional liqueur, sloe gin. A less known fact is that the juice of ripe sloes can be used as an indelible marking ink. A well known source of sloes is a line of bushes along a field on the southern edge of Inverness. The normal plan is to assess the crop in late summer but a walk along the two hundred yard long stretch this Autumn revealed just six berries. There were many disappointed people after the first frosts when you are supposed to collect the sloes. In the same area are some old and very large beech trees but very few people bother to collect the mast as the fruits are called. For some reason very few books mention food from the beech although it is in Richard Mabey’s book "Food for Free" the latest edition published in 2001 by HarperCollins. The brown three sided nuts of the beech can be used for cooking oil and for beechnut butter. This Autumn these very impressive beech trees were a rich golden brown as the leaves shone in the sunlight. Not a single beech fruit was found although one explanation could be that good crops only occur every three or four years.
The rowan trees seem to vary considerably although in some areas there were very few berries compared with the last few years. Rowan berries are used to make the famous rowan jelly recommended to be served up with venison. The fresh juice can also be added to gin imparting a flavour like Angostura bitters. Those berries that were there attracted the chaffinches and family parties of mistle thrushes and most trees were soon stripped. This means that the Scandinavian thrushes simply moved through and any fieldfares and redwings still to come will also move south or west until they find some berries.
A look in various parts of the countryside gave a mixed picture for many other berries and fruits. Some areas had a reasonable crop but others were so devoid of them that there is cause for concern. Interestingly in one area the white form of berries of the raspberry seemed to be doing well whilst the normal red form was very scarce. Brambles also seemed very patchy and there were few people out picking them although the poor weather could have been another reason. One exception seemed to be the introduced snowberry that had a rich crop of the conspicuous white berries. These berries are up to 15 mm in diameter and the photograph was taken on the roadside on the Black Isle. Ironically we cannot put this surplus of fruit to any use as it is poisonous. Perhaps all these berries and fruits are cyclic and will be back to normal next year.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Collard Doves

Collard Doves - 22nd December 2008

There are plenty of pigeons and doves, sometimes called doos in the Highlands, in and around Inverness. At this time of the year large flocks of feral pigeons sometimes form of over a hundred birds or more. They will rest on the tops of buildings and, increasingly, they plunder bird tables and feeders in gardens. They compete on the tables and feeders with collared doves and, increasingly, wood pigeons. There seems to be a very variable range of colour in the feral birds and it can all be rather confusing. So what should be called doves and what should be called pigeons? The woodpigeon is straightforward with no other birds interbreeding with them. They are large plump birds with grey upperparts and pinkish underparts. Collared doves often feed with them on bird tables and the photograph was taken of one of these attractive doves on a table near Inverness. The collared dove is now widespread in the Highlands and the Western and Northern Isles. It seems difficult to accept that it did not breed in Britain until the 1950s.
The flocks of so called feral pigeons are a different and more complex matter as far as their origin is concerned. Despite their wide range of variations in colour including black and white ones they are all from the same source namely rock doves. A few decades ago there were three groups of the pigeons. One was the true rock dove that was a species in its own right. It was mainly found along the coasts of the Highlands and Islands where it bred in caves. These colonies were not necessarily remote as there are "doo" caves along the coast of the Black Isle near Ethie. Charles St. John in the 1850s went there and stood outside whilst the rock doves were disturbed and he shot them as they flew out.
Another group of pigeons were in the doocots scattered throughout the Highlands and Northern Isles, but for some reason, not the Western Isles. As these very old buildings fell into disuse the pigeons fared well in the general countryside and as they spread they met and paired successfully with the rock doves. The third group were the pigeons of the lofts holding birds for racing. Some of these birds just never came back, for a wide range of reasons, from their races. They moved into the countryside and they too made contact with rock doves and paired successfully.
The result of the masses of feral pigeons in various parts of the Highlands is that it seems likely that there are no true rock doves now breeding anywhere in the Highlands and Islands. A decade or so ago, perhaps even longer, there were claims that true rock doves still bred in the Western and Northern Isles. The current picture is unclear but what is the fact is that even 15 years ago there was a feral pigeon with a small party of rock doves on North Rona, forty miles north east of Lewis. The current feral flocks cause damage to structures by their droppings and compete with other birds for food, even in gardens within Inverness. To many people they are treasured and people just love feeding them. To others they are called " rats with wings" because they consume so much. Part of their success is that they have been found breeding in every month of the year even in winter. Such is the case in Inverness and other towns simply because the temperature is often several degrees higher that the surrounding countryside.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Herons

Herons - 15th December 2008

Herons, with their very long legs, long necks and large dagger shaped beaks cannot really be confused with any other bird in the Highlands. Whilst there is pink colouring on the beak and legs the plumage is essentially black and white and varying shades of grey. These large birds can be found in wide variety of places and seem equally at home fishing the shallows of the firths to the burns inland. They can be seen in fields where they hunt frogs and small animals such as voles or in the shallow bays of freshwater lochs. They are not averse to coming into garden ponds, even small ones, after goldfish and other types of fish, and if they come in at first light, as they often do, they can take fish before anybody is up in time to see them. They take a very wide variety of freshwater and saltwater fish from sticklebacks to fish so large you wonder how the birds cope. The studies on the herons diet that have been undertaken show that the largest percentage of food in rivers are eels. With such a powerful looking beak it would seem natural to pierce a fish but this approach is unusual. Normally fish, even large one, are gripped rather than skewered, and then there is a great deal of manoeuvring as the fish has to be positioned so that it can be swallowed head first. If the fish is large and struggling then the heron will walk or fly ashore so that if it drops its prey it is not lost in the water.
Whilst part of the success of the heron in recent years is its ability to feed in a wide range of habitats the range of its food is also important. They tend to take fish but will also take large numbers of frogs especially in the spring when the frogs are active and vocal during the mating season. Water birds are also taken especially ducklings whilst dippers have been on their diet. They will also go for larger birds and water rails and moorhens have been recorded. Historically there were few enemies of herons although they were much valued at one time as falconry targets for the peregrine falcon. The problem was that the heron was considered a coward as rather than confront its pursuer it chose to fly ever upwards. Herons also featured on old recipes and were on the menus in many banquets as "heron pudding". Apart from persecution by anglers and fish farms, which still take place albeit illegally, it is severe winters that take their toll. The continuing series of mild winters has meant the birds have increased at some colonies. Another factor has been the clean up of some river catchments areas in recent years which has meant an improvement in numbers and health of fish.
Herons can be seen virtually anywhere in the Highlands and surveys have been carried out at regular intervals so the distribution of their colonies, called heronries, are fairly well known. In last years two volumes of "The Birds of Scotland" from the Scottish Ornithologists Club there is an interesting map of the heronries. Those with more than 30 nests are marked and there are ten of them. Two are near Inverness, on the Black Isle and near Clachnaharry on the west side of Inverness. There are two on the east coast, two on the west coast and four on the Western Isles where one is in a reed bed. There are many other smaller colonies and sometimes only one or two nests are involved.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Mink

Mink - 1st December 2008

Escapes of non-native mammals into the wild have caused serious problems in the Highlands such as the damage to agriculture by the rabbit and sika deer, either introduced for sport such as in Strathdearn south of Inverness or escapes from deer parks such as Rosehall in Sutherland that brought their own problems. Sika are now freely hybridising with red deer to the extent that some people believe there will eventually be no pure red deer anywhere in mainland Scotland. Perhaps the most calamitous of all the introductions has been the North American mink that was originally imported to Britain in the late 1920s with the aim of breeding them in captivity for their valuable pelts. The first mink farms in Scotland were established in 1938 but everyone underestimated the ability of the mink to escape and they soon became established in the wild.
Mink are about the size of a pine marten but slightly smaller with the original wild ones being dark chocolate brown which looks black especially when wet. There is often a white chin patch and the white varies in shape and size so no individual is the same. The mink in captivity were bred to a variety of shades and colours, but once breeding in the feral state the offspring soon revert to the original colour and pattern. The normal litter is five to six and the young are weaned after eight weeks, reach adult size in four months, and can breed the following year. The breeding sites, called dens, have been found in a variety of places such as in tree trunks, and holes and crevices among stones including scree.
Soon after the mink were brought into the "fur-farms" there were reports of escapes and of feral mink living in the wild, but it was not until 1956 that the first breeding was noted. At first the animals were regarded as pests and they were trapped and shot wherever possible, and although thousands were killed it had little effect on the populations. At one time there was even a school of thought that said we might as well accept the mink as an addition to our wildlife as it seemed to be permanently established and in any case eradification did not seem a possibility. As the mink numbers rose and it spread through much of the landscape from hills to coastline and woodland to moorland their effect became more apparent. Part of its success is the very wide range of food they will predate. Rabbits, where common, are a major food but myxymatosis still effects the numbers of rabbits and other food is sought . Mink on the coast can cause havoc in seabird colonies and any ground nesting birds. Breeding birds on islands are often predated such as gulls and terns and some of these colonies were wiped out. Coastal mink will feed on prey found in rock pools such as crab and blenny whilst in rivers they take all species of fish but especially the slow moving ones such as eels. There is evidence that they have had a devastating affect on water voles and on some rivers and burns these increasingly rare mammals have been wiped out. At one time it was thought that mink displaced otters but now the reverse seems the case so there must have been other factors involved. It now seems that where otters moved into rivers and burns the mink move out. Better techniques for capturing mink have now evolved so there is the chance that the numbers of mink can at last be controlled.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Eels

Eels - 24th November 2008

Adult freshwater eels, sometimes called yellow eels, are dark brown along the back and more yellow below. Its serpentine form and slimy body is unmistakable and it is unusual in that the fins extend all along the body to the tail. The front part of the fish is rounded but towards the tail it is more flattened. The scales are transparent, small and deeply-embedded in the skin and laid down as concentric rings. The migration of eels and their life history has been one of the all-time wildlife mysteries and the very early stages are still being solved. The true story was not revealed until the first three decades of the 20th century and it began 2,500 miles away in the Sargasso Sea - so called after the floating seaweed of that name. The eggs have never been found nor, for that matter, no spawning eel has ever been seen. The smallest eels found in the Sargasso were about half an inch long with remains of their yolk sacs which means they were close to their birthplace. They soon start drifting across the Atlantic and reach the coasts of Europe. Round the British coasts the young eels will stay in brackish water for a few weeks and then they begin to move into freshwater. At this stage they are called elvers and in some rivers millions move with the tides, and their exploitation as food has been overtaken by their use to stock rivers in other countries. In the Highlands, these elvers can be seen entering water courses from rivers to burns, some of the latter only two feet across. These tiny eels have been recorded several miles inland trying to scale the dam walls of hydro-electric schemes. They can wriggle through wet moss on the side of waterfalls and they can scale wet, almost vertical, rocks. They are probably the most widespread fish in the Highlands, for a number of reasons, although mainly unrecorded because of their nocturnal and mud dwelling habits. One of these is that large eels have extraordinary means of reaching even land-locked water bodies such as ponds and lochs. The slimy coat of mucus prevents drying and water loss and helps them survive out of water for long periods and they simply wriggle from one area to another. The eel in the photograph was well away from water but it was raining. The British rod- caught record is about 11 lbs but much larger eels have been found either dead or when a loch is drained. Eels have been found weighing 23 lbs and 27 lbs with both being over five feet long. When underwater cameras have explored Loch Ness there have been many sightings of huge eels sliding away on the bottom. Their food depends on their size and a wide range of prey is taken such as snails, frogs, tadpoles, fish eggs and smaller eels. They have many predators, particularly in the smaller stages, and they are a common prey of goosanders and mergansers as well as pike and ferox trout. Herons can often be seen feeding on eels along the Moray Firth and the birds even have special feathers that produce a powder that is used to coagulate the slime of eels so that it can be removed by the bird’s claw. Some eels mature by the time they are nine years old but others have been recorded over 50 years old before they return to the sea and back to the Sargasso to lay eggs and die. When they start the return journey they change colour and are known as silver eels because they are grey backed and silver bellied.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Woodpigeons

Woodpigeons - 17th November 2008

Woodpigeons that breed in the Highlands and nest in woodlands, gardens and parks are sedentary and just stay in the same area for summer and winter. So the recently seen large flocks in arable areas such as Tarradale, Evanton and Leys Castle on the southern edge of Inverness are immigrants. Flying in from Scandinavia as the weather turned colder they could be seen in numbers along the east coast before breaking into smaller groups. Two thousand were counted along the east coast in Easter Ross and similar numbers were seen east of Inverness, again along the coast. Within a few days the birds had formed small groups of around 300 in the arable fields such as at Leys Castle where they shared the feeding and resting areas with up to 150 greylag geese and they are still there at the time of writing. There are advantages to being in such large groups as there are more birds to find food and more birds to see predators.
To many, the cooing of woodpigeons in spring is a sign of the warmer weather whereas to the shooting man it is a legitimate quarry not only because it damages farmers crops but also because they are difficult to shoot and make delicious eating. The winter flocks also play a major part in the success of over wintering birds of prey such as sparrowhawks, peregrines and the rare goshawks. The woodpigeon is a bulky bird being between 15 and 16 inches long and quite chubby. For some reason they also have a much larger number of feathers than most birds of similar size and young birds of prey can find this off-putting and they normally only take the breasts and leave the rest. For the same reason some gundogs find woodpigeons difficult to handle and they feel a mouthful of feathers hard to cope with and sometimes the birds are just not retrieved.
These bulky bird causes problems with the smaller birds of prey such a the sparrowhawk where the female is much larger than the male. Males can successfully handle birds up to and including blackbird size but only the female can tackle birds to the size of an adult woodpigeon. With the male and female peregrine falcon, whilst the female is noticeably larger than the male, both can take the woodpigeon. They either out fly them on level flight or fly up rapidly from below and surprise them. A more spectacular way is when they climb to a height some way away from their prey and then stoop down, as the flight is called, folding the wings to the body to increase the momentum. Peregrines that breed in the Highlands often spend their winter months along the coast feeding on sea birds. In Easter Ross along the coast there are also arable fields where the peregrine can take woodpigeons to make a change from waders and ducks.
The other bird of prey that benefits from the winter influx is the rare goshawk where both male and female are larger than the peregrine. The female is again the larger of the two and is almost the size of a buzzard. Although being a woodland bird means goshawks will try and surprise their prey they will also stoop like a peregrine although not in quite a spectacular fashion. All these birds of prey have problems with flocks of birds such as the woodpigeon as once the flock is in the air they can be confusing as to how to sort out a single bird from such a mass. This is another benefit from birds being in a flock as it can confuse a predator especially with younger more inexperienced birds.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Badgers

Badgers - 10th November 2008

This is a dangerous time of the year for badgers as in the many setts scattered throughout the Highlands young cubs are facing up to their first winter and possible food shortages. The adult badgers mating and fertilisation could have taken place at any time of the year but the implantation of the fertilised egg is delayed until December and the cubs are born in March. Further south the births may take place as early as mid January but what evidence there is of Highland badgers suggest early to mid March. When they are born the cubs have a pink skin and are covered with a silky, greyish white fur and are blind until they are about five weeks old. Weaning starts at 12 weeks old but as the cub may venture out of the sett at 8 weeks they do not venture far as they are tied to the sow for all their food. By the time the cub has emerged its hair and colour are similar to the adults. The back is greyish and the legs dark brown to black and the tail is pale. This camouflages well in the dark but the head markings are conspicuous. There are three white stripes on the head with the two side ones extending back onto the neck and the ears are small and have white tips. The cub in the photograph is about nine weeks old and was taken at a sett on the southern edge of Inverness in broad-leaved woodland.
Adults badgers in the Highlands would appear to have no natural enemies apart from humans. They are seldom killed by other animals although there have been cases involving foxes and occasionally badgers have been killed by hounds if found above ground. Even then it may be because the badger was injured in some way as a fit, adult badger is extremely strong. Hugh Miller wrote about badger pits in some public houses in Scotland where the badger was deliberately injured in some way so that the dogs let loose in the pit for sport had a better chance. Such is the strength of an adult badger. The cubs are a different matter and because of their size they are more vulnerable. During the first few weeks of their life they are left on their own for long periods and dogs such as terriers may enter the setts and kill them. Vixens and boar badgers have been known to kill them and if the sow is disturbed just after the birth of the cubs she may kill and eat them. Just occasionally small dead cubs can be found on the spoil of earth outside the sett as if the dead cub has been cleared out, sometimes with old bedding. Badger cubs have been recorded in golden eagle nests but it is likely that they had been taken as carrion but there is evidence that eagles and buzzards have taken small cubs in the late evening. Starvation just after weaning has been recorded especially if there is a dry spell when food, such as earthworms, is difficult to find and the cubs may be inexperienced in finding food if it is short.
Despite all these problems and the even greater ones affecting the adults it would appear that badgers are thriving in the Highlands and despite the horrific number of road casualties many of the clans of badgers around Inverness seem to be increasing in numbers. Some setts have been badly affected by the sprawl of urban development particularly between Inverness and Nairn and it appears that this will only get worse in the foreseeable future.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Wildlife in the winter in the Highlands

Wildlife in the winter in the Highlands - 3 November 2008

The ways that wildlife in the Highlands copes with the winter months depends on how bad the weather becomes. The dipper is a good example as these small, rotund water birds build their domed, bulky nests under bridges over rivers and wide burns. The pair that nest under one river bridge each year sometimes use one of the artificial nest boxes installed there. Intriguingly they sometimes ignore the boxes and built their own nest. Dippers feed mainly on insects and small fish so the food is there all the year round. Therefore they not only spend the winter along rivers and burns but also defend territories by singing between October and July. It is quite a melodious song and it seems strange to hear it during the winter when other birds are silent. If the river or burn partly freezes the dippers survive but if lengths get frozen over then the birds just move to the coast until the weather improves. In contrast there are two mammals and one bird that turns white so they blend in with the snow. Two, the ptarmigan and mountain hare, are found on higher ground and form part of the prey of golden eagles. The other mammal is the stoat and these can be found on the lower ground although they will hunt on higher ground on occasions. Not all the stoats in the Highlands turn white and at one time this was thought to be because the cold temperatures brought the change on. The cold does play a part but in the main it is hereditary so some stoats change to white whilst others stay brown. From tracking in the snow it has been shown that brown hares spend the day in the shelter of woodland and come out to graze at night. If the weather is severe the hares just stay in the woodland where they can dig for roots and debark trees. To a certain extent roe deer and sika deer do the same. Red deer have for a very long time been deer of open moorland but if the snow lies for a long time they will come to lower ground. All the other mammals in the strath are active throughout the winter apart from bats and hedgehogs. Even the hedgehogs will emerge if there is a mild spell any time in the winter and this can cause them problems. To wake up from hibernation takes a lot of energy and to replace it before the hedgehog goes back into hibernation is difficult. Most mammals in the Highlands such as badgers, foxes, red squirrels and pine martens store enough food to lie up and stop hunting for short periods if the weather is really bad. Even in winter most of these mammals prefer to move around at night so are difficult to see. Tracking in the snow reveals many of their secrets but conditions must be just right. The precise conditions may only occur two or three times each winter, sometimes not at all. Ideally the snow should fall just before it gets dark and form a two inch deep layer for the rest of the night with no more snow. This means that any mammals that venture forth and go on the ground are going to leave tracks. Probably the best book for identifying such tracks is "Animal Tracks and Signs" by Preben Bang and Preben Dahlstrom and Published in 2001 by Oxford University Press. Why not try tracking as you can find out so much more about the mammals in the Highlands?

Ray Collier Country Diary- Marking Birds

Marking Birds - 20th October 2008

Marking birds can take many forms from tiny leg rings to sophisticated miniature transmitters whereby you can follow individual birds by various means. There are other means of marking such as wing tags and these have been extensively used on birds of prey in the re-introduction programmes of the red kites and sea eagle. Tags have large letters or numbers that can be read in the field by using binoculars and telescopes. The movements of many bird in these programmes have been followed and used to work out their whereabouts. Tiny transmitters have been extensively used in the red kite programme but these have also lead to unexpected results. Tracking such individual birds means that if the bird literally stops moving there is something wrong. The high percentage of poisoned and shot red kites, particularly in the north of Scotland, including the Highlands, has been revealed by such transmitter programmes.
As regards small birds the only way in which a bird can be identified is if the bird is caught again or dies and then the age of the bird, its origin and other aspects can be determined. With larger birds such as swans and geese neck rings and leg rings can be so large, still minute for the bird, that the letters or numbers can be read in the field with binoculars and telescopes. In the Highlands this has particularly been the case with whoopers swans that breed in Iceland and come south for the winter. Such flocks, known as herds, frequent the field around the Tain area and people with telescopes often search the birds for the leg and neck rings. The birds seem to use that part of the Highlands but sometimes using it as a stopping point before going on to Ireland. Some of these birds are ringed in Iceland where for a while the adults and juveniles are flightless and are caught up.
One method of identifying individual birds started at Slimbridge in south west England in the 1960s when Peter Scott realised that he could identify individual Berwick’s swans by their yellow markings on the beak. This research and other studies came to the remarkable conclusion that some birds pair for life. At first this was thought to be the case with only the larger, long lived birds but now it is thought that very many birds do, even the small familiar ones in gardens such as blue tits and great tits. In large seabird colonies this may seem even more remarkable that one bird can identify its mate. Perhaps even more so with night birds such as petrels and shearwaters when they come to the colony under the hours of darkness.
What seems even more remarkable is what happens if a bird cannot fly. Sometimes large birds such as geese and swans fly into overhead cables or are hit by shotgun pellets. It sometimes means they cannot fly and therefore cannot join the rest of the birds when they fly north to their breeding grounds. Their mate will often choose to stay with them for the summer. Such was the case with a pair of whooper swans in South Uist a few years ago and a nest was built and the female actually laid eggs. A pair of greylag geese did the same thing at Loch Flemington a few years ago. More recently just after the New Year a mute swan hit overhead cables in Strathnairn. The bird broke its neck and for a few days its mate flew up and down the strath trying to find it.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Larch

Larch - 27th October 2008

At this time of the year the larch trees with their golden yellow needles brighten up many areas of woodland in the straths, glens and hillsides but unlike other conifers all the needles will be shed for the winter. The next colour on the trees will be in the spring but you have to look close because it is the loganberry red of the female flowers and the yellow of the male flowers. The cones grow all around the twigs and are egg shaped with tight scales and are unusual in staying on the trees years after the seed has fallen. There seems to be a mystery as to when they were introduced to Scotland as although there are records going back to the 17th century it was not taken seriously until much later. It is, arguably, the one introduced tree that transformed the landscape and as regards its value in timber terms it produces a much better quality timber than Scots pine and grows much faster. Unusually, it was widely planted before the Forestry Commission was formed in 1919 and the most famous example is on the Atholl estates in Perthshire where, from 1740 to 1830, 14 million larches were planted. Larch trees support a variety of wildlife and are particularly important for crossbills as the seeds from the cones are ready in August whereas the seeds of the Scots pine, that are their staple diet, are not ready until later. Various small birds take advantage of caterpillars on larches and the small birds that nest in them include lesser redpolls and siskins. Larger birds, such as buzzard, sometimes build their nests in the older trees. As these trees let in more light than other conifers they also allow a herb layer to form such as bugle, bluebell, wood sorrel and grasses and this in turn attracts a wide range of insects including butterflies. Part of the trees success is its timber that is as hard and strong as Douglas fir. Its great strength in big timbers made it the tree for the heavy beams needed in trawlers and as it is highly durable in the ground or the air it is the traditional timber for fencing posts on the farm or croft. The use of larch in building ships is legendary with, in the early nineteenth century, a brig being constructed of larch timber. The first British warship to be built entirely of larch was a frigate of 28 guns built between 1816 and 1820. Unlike oak, larch does not corrode iron bolts and fittings and it is less prone to shrinking. For warships in battle the fact that larch is not prone to splintering meant fewer lives were lost. We may just accept the larch in the straths, glens and hillsides but along with a few other trees such as Sitka spruce it changed the landscape of the Highlands and will do for some years to come.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Geese

Geese - 13th october 2008

The wild geese around Inverness such as the greylag and pink-footed geese are commonly seen in large flocks, called skeins, flighting to and from their feeding and roosting grounds. Skeins at this time of the year tend to fly low but in late Autumn some of them are very high with some descending whilst others flew further south. These could well have been birds that had flown direct from their breeding grounds in Iceland in one non stop flight, such is their strength. Other geese are much smaller and the brent goose is a good example as it is only the size of a mallard drake although the neck is longer. These geese are plump with rather short black legs and small black beaks. The head, neck and upperparts are dark looking, black from a distance, and contrasting with the white under tail feathers. The underparts are either mottled grey or brown. The adults have a white collar of feathers on the sides of the neck that is absent in young birds. They are a bird of the sea coast and estuaries where their favourite food is eel-grass but they will eat saltmarsh plants such as glasswort, sea aster and grasses.
Historically the brent goose in the Highlands poses a mystery as at one time it was reputed to be by far the commonest goose. Old records for Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty indicate that they outnumbered other geese by 100 to 1. There are old records with, unfortunately, no date of up to 4,000 being seen in the Cromarty Firth whereas these days a flock of over ten birds, anywhere in the Highlands, would be noteworthy. It is not as if large numbers no longer come to Britain as each winter England and Ireland support over 130,000 that represents nearly half of the world population. Why there are so few in the Highlands these days may be tied in with the food as perhaps there has been a dramatic change in the amount of eel-grass available.
The reason for the increase in the south is put down to legislation against shooting, and their move onto agricultural land. There are still some causes for concern such as habitat loss, disturbance and the lobby that seeks to put the goose back on the quarry list so they can be shot for sport.
The brent goose is one of the more remarkable of the geese as it breeds further north than any other goose. The dark bellied race breeds in Siberia and in northern Russia
and they winter mainly in England and France. The pale bellied race from Canada and Greenland winters in Ireland. In these Arctic areas the weather suitable for breeding last only around 100 days so even slight variations in conditions can affect the success of gosling survival. Families migrate together and remain together until the following breeding season. Some of them can survive 28 years or more.
The best places to look for brent geese around Inverness include Nigg Bay, Tarbetness, Udale Bay, Clachnaharry and Alturlie Point. The latest Highland Bird report states that the brent goose is a "Scarce (but increasing) migrant and winter visitor" so we can put hope that the numbers will return again in the future. The photograph was taken of a bird caught for ringing along with some pink-footed geese on the east coast. The Scots names for the brent goose include ware goose, clatter goose and routhurrock. The Gaelic name is Geadha-got meaning brent goose. The main problem for the future would seem to be whether the bird is on the quarry list or not.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Berries

Berries - 6th October 2008

This Autumn has seen a marked decrease in some areas of the amount of berries, fruits and seeds on trees and shrubs in and around Inverness and for that matter in other parts of the Highlands. Perhaps the most notable is the lack of rowan berries that so many birds rely on to boost their body weights for the winter months ahead. The lack of the bright red berries is particularly noticeable as in the last two years there have been such bumper crops the branches were weighed down. The beech mast is also poor and although some birds such as wood pigeons can find alternative food smaller bird such as bramblings may find it difficult. Their problem is that they will have to join chaffinches foraging in open fields where modern farming techniques means there is little seed left behind.
In contrast there seems to be a bumper crop of apples both the crab and, in particular, the domestic apples. In the wild the distribution of both is confusing as they hybridise and the latest plant Atlas of 2000 combines all records as if they were all native. Records are scattered in and around Inverness with a few on the west coast but virtually none in Caithness and Sutherland. Some birds such as blackbirds will attack the apples when they are still on the trees although most birds wait until the apples fall or surplus apples are put out in gardens for the birds. Other birds will take them, especially other thrushes such as redwings and fieldfares, pheasants and some starlings will take them. The mystery over the starlings taking apples is that whilst some of them are enthusiastic over eating them others completely ignore them.
Some mammals will eat apples and one perhaps comes as a surprise, namely the badger. Whilst they have a reputation of feeding mainly on earthworms they in fact take a wide variety of food. Their diet may include mammals and birds but they will also take berries and apples as the opportunity arises. In one garden near Inverness at the beginning of November surplus apples were put out on a small lawn for the blackbirds with three or four feeding on them at any one time. The general idea was to put the apples out at dusk so that the birds could have a good feed at first light the next morning. One morning the remains of one apple indicated something else had been feeding on it and there next to it was the dropping of a pine marten. Based on studies in northern Scotland the food of the pine marten includes birds, mammals, often as carrion, and frogs and toads. Eleven percent of its diet is fruit and nuts so it is not surprising that apples are taken.
In the last two weeks an experiment was carried out in a garden just south of Inverness where red squirrels come in daily to peanuts and other nuts in containers. Small apples were put out in a variety of situations including on the ground and wedged in the fork of branches which the squirrels frequented. For three days whilst apples were attacked by blackbirds the red squirrels seemed to ignore them. Then one morning a red squirrel was seen scurrying along the branch of a tree with one of the apples, whole, in its mouth. We tend to think of red squirrels taking seeds out of cones or biting into a hazel nut and splitting them into two. A recent innovation has been red squirrels raiding bird feeders in gardens and this now seems to have extended to apples.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Herring Gulls

29th September 2008 - Herring Gulls

One of the commonest birds in and around Inverness is the herring gull and they can be seen in the various firths, parks, gardens, car parks, bus stations, rivers and lochs, in fact virtually anywhere. Because of its size and numbers it has been the subject of many studies over the years but there are still two mysteries about them. One of these is regarding its methods of feeding and the other over its name. As for food, this gull is truly omnivorous, in other words they will eat any type of food indiscriminately. One method of feeding is along the shoreline to get into shell fish that are too hard for the bird’s beak to break open. The birds tear them off the rocks and then fly up and drop them onto a hard surface. It may take several attempts to do this but the method has its problems.
Some birds, such as other gulls and crows, have learnt to wait until the shell hits the ground and then they rush forward. The point is that by the time the gull that took the shell up into the air has flown down again the food has gone. One gull at Cromarty overcame this problem as when it flew up into the air at the last moment instead of just dropping the shell it jerked its head violently and threw the shell several feet higher. This meant that by the time the shell smashed on the ground the gull was well on its way to grab the spoils. Whilst this approach may seem to be innovative so is the mysterious way it feeds when on short grassland. Any roadside grassy verge will do, even roundabouts and, of course, fields and parks. You can see them doing this right close to roads so these days they can often be seen in and around Inverness. The bird stands on one spot and patters with its feet almost as though it is dancing. This encourages worms to come to the surface and the gull quickly grabs them. The mystery is whether the pattering feels like rain to the worms or does the vibration sound to the worm like a mole it has to escape from? For the first part of their lives the chicks and juvenile birds are fed by the adults who regurgitate their food. The way the young birds stimulates the adults to bring up their food is to peck at the red spot on the lower part of the beak. This vivid red spot can be seen on the photograph that was taken on the sea wall at Nairn.
As for the name "herring" gulls it seems to be a mystery as to why they were given this name as whilst they will take this fish they also take a wide variety of others. It has been called a herring gull since the 17th century so the origin seems to have been lost in time. Herring means " army" in Old Norse so perhaps it came from the sheer numbers of the birds, like a host or army. Apart from its main call notes that have been described as similar to laughter they also have a plaintive mewing cry that in the Highlands has given it the Scots name of cat gull. Others include silvery gull, white maa and greyback. The Gaelic name is Faoileag-an-sgadain meaning seagull of the herring. One of the myths about the herring gull is about weather as the old Scottish rhyme goes
"Sea-gull, sea-gull, sit on the sand;
It’s never good weather when you’re on the land"

Ray Collier Country Diary- Bats

Bats - 22nd September 2009

There are 16 resident species of bats in Britain although only four of these are found in the Highlands and one of these is very restricted in its distribution. The Natterer’s bat is not found north of a line roughly from Tain to Kyle of Lochalsh. Perhaps the reason for this is that it is a bat that favours a wide range of broadleaved woodland, large gardens and open parkland and there is not much of any of these north of that line. The Daubenton’s bat is found over almost all of the mainland but absent from either the Northern or Western Isles. It feeds low over water of lochs, rivers and burns and forages almost exclusively in the one metre airspace above the water. Insects are taken on the wing by the large feet or tail membrane and quickly transferred to the mouth whilst it continues its flight. The insects are taken both in the air and from the surface of the water and some of these bats have been seen taking as much as 40% of their prey from the water surface. The brown long eared bat with, as the name suggests, large ears, is more widespread in that it also occurs on the Northern Isles as well as the mainland. It prefers open woodland and parkland and is found in urban areas with large gardens and trees. The pipistrelle bat is the most widespread and commonest of the four in the Highlands and it occurs on the mainland and Northern Isles. Recent distribution maps show no records for the Western Isles but there have been a few roosts found in Stornoway although, as yet, none in the Uists Its abundance must be due in part to their adaptability as they feed wherever there are enough plants to support an adequate number of insects. Pipistrelles also come out earlier than the other bats and are often seen flying in the daylight before the light fades.
Just in the same way as bird boxes can help birds so bat boxes can help the four bats found in the Highlands as all of them will frequent such boxes at varying times of the year. Pipistrelles are unusual in that they more frequently use the boxes as mating roosts in the autumn. The boxes are meant to compensate for the lack of suitable holes in old trees, old buildings being renovated and new ones designed so that birds or bats cannot find a niche there. There are many thousands of bat boxes in Britain and one of the very first efforts was a large number of such boxes erected in Ardross Forest by the Forestry Commission. The bat box schemes vary from a few put up by individuals or large schemes involving hundreds of boxes put up by various organisations including bat groups. The success rate varies considerably with some only having 10% occupation and others even 100% although occupied boxes may only be used for a few weeks in the year. Daubenton’s, Natterer’s and brown long-eared bats will use the boxes as nursery roosts. The boxes vary from a simple design with a slit in the bottom and grooves cut to enable the bat to crawl up inside the box to other designs that have been used with success such as one with a variable number of narrow chambers stacked together, each just wide enough for a bat. Bats could well be the most successful mammals ever to have evolved and it is an interesting thought that in Britain one in three of the native land mammals is a bat.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Hazel

Hazel - 15th September 2009

Although hazel is often classed as a shrub rather than a tree it can grow to 30 feet. Very few reach this height because they have been traditionally cut and the many stems rising from the "stool" form coppiced hazel. These very pliant hazel rods have been used in a wide variety of ways from building primitive boats to hurdles to pen sheep. At this time of the year the tree is in full leaf each leaf growing to four inches long and broad with a variable outline. The leaves are alternate, with saw-toothed edges, a drawn out tip and hairy surfaces. The nuts grow in clusters of up to four with each partly enclosed in leafy, overlapping bracts. The characteristics of the leaves and nuts can be seen in the photograph that was taken on a roadside in September at Strathnairn just south of Inverness. The trees widespread throughout the Highlands and occurs on the Western and Northern Isles. It grows under larger trees in woodland but is equally at home on roadsides, hedgerows and cliffs.
Hazel was one of the first colonisers, after birch, once the ice age had retreated and at one time it would have been the most abundant shrub. The new shoots have always been used by man and there is evidence that deliberate coppicing may have started some 4,000 years ago. The hazel rods can be split lengthways and twisted and bent at sharp angles without them breaking. This enabled them to be woven, bent back on themselves and even tied into knots. It is still used to peg down thatch in which pieces of hazel have to be bent through 180 degrees. The cutting of hazel, usually over a cycle of about seven years, was of considerable benefit to insects such as various species of butterflies. This coppicing cycle meant light came into the woodland in the form of glades that not only gave calm and sunny conditions but also a wealth of wild flowers that the butterflies used as a nectar source.
The myth and folk lore surrounding the hazel manifests itself in a variety of ways. It was considered to be a protective tree much in the same way as the rowan. Carrying a twig or a cluster of nuts, particularly a cluster of three, was supposed to guard against all evils. Twigs could protect horses from enchantment from fairies by tying hazel twigs into their manes. The nuts ripen from mid-August to October and it is said to take nine years for a tree to produce its first full crop of nuts. Nine is a sacred number and this is one of the reasons the hazel is anciently revered. The ancient Celts regarded the hazel as the Tree of Knowledge and all knowledge was contained in the hazelnut’s kernel, hence the saying "in a nutshell". The nuts have always been a food source for a variety of animals such as red squirrels and wood mice plus wood pigeons and pheasants.
One of the less known uses of hazel was for divining water. Forked hazel wands, traditionally best cut on Midsummer’s Eve, were gripped in each hand and pulled apart until a pressure pulled them together. The fork is supposed to turn back and turn as you pass underground water. This practise has also been used to search for mineral veins and even buried treasure. Hazel is the plant badge of Clan Colquhoun and was formally registered at the Lyon Court. Bearberry was also used but not registered. The Gaelic name for hazel is "calltainn" although the spellings vary and a local name is "nuttall".

Ray Collier Country Diary- Butterflies

Butterflies - 8th September 2009

Butterflies need two types of food, nectar or other liquids for the adults and food, mainly in the form of leaves, for the caterpillars. Nectars come from a range of flowers with some butterflies seeking only one or two species of flowers whilst others take a wider range. Most of the thistles found in the Highlands, including the white form of the marsh thistle in the photograph, provide a nectar source for a wide range of butterflies. Areas with thistles at this time of the year are well worth looking at when the sun is shining. One of the commonest garden butterflies, the green veined white, uses a wide range but is particularly attracted, for some unknown reason, to both white and pink flowers. In contrast the dingy skipper, which is rare around Inverness but found at Nairn dunes, mainly seeks nectar from common bird’s foot trefoil. We are all used to a range of butterflies such as red admiral, small tortoiseshell, peacock and painted lady using Buddleia but some butterflies will look elsewhere for substitutes.
A good example is red admirals that will freely go to any fallen apples as juices are available after they have rotted slightly or have been attacked by birds or insects. A more specialised source is obtained by such butterflies as the speckled wood that in recent years has spread to new areas of the Highlands. The adults will seek nectar from ragwort and other wild flowers but the main source of food comes from honeydew from aphids found on ash, birch and oak. The purple hairstreak, that has only recently been recorded in the Highlands, goes one further in that it drinks the honeydew from aphids only on oak trees. It is perhaps not surprising then that the food plants of the caterpillars of the purple hairstreak are the leaves of the oak. Sap oozing from trees is often visited by butterflies and some of the old collectors used to attract some butterflies such as the red admiral and purple emperor by putting out decaying meat, such as rabbit, along woodland rides. In periods of hot weather, certainly not like this summer in the Highlands, butterflies will often freely go to water, such as puddles, to drink.
One critical part of the butterflies life cycle is finding the correct food plant for the caterpillar stage and some butterflies accept a wide range of plants whilst others, as with the nectar source, are more specialised. One of the commonest butterflies in the Highland is the Scotch argus and the caterpillars feed on virtually any of the broader leaved grasses. They have even been seen laying their eggs as the adult female flies just above the vegetation such as a roadside verge. White butterflies such as the large white and small white will feed on a wide range of brassicas which is one of the reasons they are so successful. Six species of fritillary, including the two pearl bordered fritillaries, that occur in the Highlands all feed on various species of violets. In contrast 12 species of butterflies that occur in Britain are reliant upon single caterpillar food plants.
One aspect of the life cycle of butterflies is why some species have an association with ants. This is particularly the case with members of the "blue family", which in the Highlands includes the common blue, which is widespread. What happens is that the caterpillar emits sweet liquids from a gland that attracts ants day and night and they simply drink the liquid. The attendance of the ants helps the caterpillars chances of survival because the ants keep predators and parasites away.