A Month of Contrasts

January brought a month of contrasts to the weather experienced on the reserve, with three named storms, a significant spell of cold, wintry weather and finally some exceptionally mild warm days for January.

Temperatures have really fluctuated throughout the month, with mild and windy weather interrupted by a cold, dry and still spell resulting in heavy snow. To cap it all at the end of month we experienced some of Scotland’s highest winter temperatures on record, courtesy of the Foehn effect.

This month we’ve seen clearly how cold northerly winds can bring winter challenges. At the same time a snow clad reserve is simply beautiful.

Across the week 17 cm of snow fell on the reserve.

The Vat entrance. The sun struggles to penetrate into the Vat leading to this artic blue light

A snowy and frozen loch Kinord is endlessly watchable beneath arctic blue skies

When the wind skims the snow it moves over the loch like sidewinding snakes

Mute swan families out on the ice on loch Davan

The snows were followed by fierce Atlantic westerlies which brought some fiendishly high gusts, breaking up the frozen lochs to create these mesmerising flows of ice shards.

This beautiful scene was short lived and spectacular. Wind and wave action pushed the melting ice onto the north east shore line, fracturing it into sharp pieces called shard ice. 

The sound of ice shards lapping the shoreline is truly unique – like a thousand tinkling wind chimes.

Some of our rarer inhabitants took instant advantage of the open water to resume fishing.

Thanks as always to a regular walker for these amazing images taken of 2 otter on Loch Kinord- appearing just so relaxed and at ease.

Although the otter is a large and powerful mammal, they do seem to have an endearing sense of curiosity and play.

Otters are well suited to a life on the water as they have webbed feet, dense fur to keep them warm, and can close their ears and nose when underwater.

They require clean rivers, with an abundant source of food and plenty of vegetation to hide their secluded holts.. Both lochs provide this in abundance as so are designated Special Areas of Conservation – because of their thriving population of otters which move between the lochs and for their pristine clear water with fens and reedbeds.

I was entertained by a male Goosander taking/ fighting with a fair sized eel in waterlily bay . These handsome diving ducks are a member of the sawbill family, named for their serrated bills, used for expertly catching fish

Male goosander

When the winds die down there is a sense of spring in the air and warmth at last in the winter sun. We can experience the most perfect winters days here with cold crisp starts turning into crystal clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine.

There is a captivating word – Apricity – which uniquely refers to the consoling warmth of the sun on a cold winters day.

This term beautifully captures the essence of the winter sun’s delicate touch, offering respite from the chilly air and a momentary reprieve from the winter doldrums.

One of the first signs of spring, dainty snowdrops have erupted in our aspen woodland. pushing there way through a layer of decaying brown litter. While not native to these shores, these hardy flowers have become a familiar indicator of the shifting seasons and a sure sign that warmer weather is on its way.

Winters Grasp in 2024

Happy New Year!

We are starting to see some proper ‘winter weather’ now on the Reserve! The nights have been dropping to -7c, there has been some dusting of snow and there is a nip in the air. Loch Kinord and Davan have been 80% frozen as well.

Beautiful Loch Davan at Sunrise

Loch Kinord at Sunrise

Just before Christmas, there were some very impressive icicles in the vat! I wouldn’t have fancied standing under any of them…

Big Icicles

We have received a mind-boggling amount of rainfall over the last month or so, thankfully the Vat burn hasn’t overflown onto the path again but the Loch Kinord circular remains flooded and impassable without wellies.

There’s a path under there!

The Vat flowing very well after the rains!

With the lochs being frozen, it makes it easier to do our weekly waterbird surveys as they are all concentrated to the middle of the Loch. We have plenty of wildfowl on the lochs at the moment, our count of Kinord this week had 205 Mallard, 83 Wigeon, 20 Teal, 29 Goldeneye and a few Mute Swan. Davan had 23 Goldeneye, 10 Mute Swan, 6 Wigeon, 17 Teal and 11 Mallard.

Frozen Loch Kinord

The ice making bird count a bit easier! They are all concentrated in that dark patch.

Recently, we have been busy installing and maintaining our Goldeneye boxes around Loch Kinord and Davan. We got some lovely new boxes built by WoodRecyclability in Pitmedden.

Some lovely new Goldeneye boxes

Carey, one of our volunteers helping with the sawdust

Each box needs to be filled with 6 inches of sawdust to give the birds some material to help incubate the eggs. We are lucky to be have this rare breeding duck on our Reserve!

I am looking forward to the breeding season ahead, which is fast approaching! Some birds have starting singing already, like the mighty Crossbill which could even be on eggs this time of year. Listen out for the singing of Coal Tit – a soft, repetitive – ‘pewee, pewee, pewee’.

Kirstin, Gordon and the volunteers have been rescuing tree tubes from established Aspen and re-using them on the young Aspen suckers. It’s amazing how well the regeneration is establishing and growing!

Look at the regeneration!

It looks like the cold weather is here to stay, and I am hearing rumblings of an even colder snap on it’s way…i’d rather this than wet and mild!

Keep warm folks!

Winter is near!

Here is Gordon our seasonal reserve officer, writing wonderfully about winters approach…

There is a regular chill in the morning air. The white sparkling of frost often covers the grass before days first light reaches us. The nights are getting longer and the dark draws in. Winter is near!

The low angled winter sun dapples the frost covered grass of our visitor centre.

As the planet circles the sun on a tilted axis, we face the time of year when the part of the planet we live on faces away from the suns life-giving rays of heat and light. Interestingly this phenomenon not only causes us to receive less daylight hours the angle of the planet causes the light to travel through more of the atmosphere before reaching us making winter sun less potent than summer sun.

Bracken is no longer green; in fact, well past it’s best it now carpets the woodland floor in a glorious burnt orange in its passing, like a darkened reflection of the canopy above.

The carpet of orange bracken contrasts with the green of our scots pines.

Our summer birds have long since fled. Gone south for warmth and sunshine, swifts and swallows, wheatears and warblers. Others have gone to the long bed, sleeping till spring. Hedgehogs, adders, frogs and bats all laying down for a long nap lasting months that we all know as hibernation. Will we see them next year?

The trees have displayed their colours of blazing glory, orange, yellow and red all shown in hues of golden or brass. The Aspen have long lost their leaves with the trees now grappling leafless towards the sky. Rowan and birch with their bright yellows still have some leaves clinging on.

Silver birch standing tall and naked dormant for the winter.

The mighty oak still retains green, tempting us that winter is still far off. All our deciduous trees are dormant now the growing season over. This is how trees develop their rings as the have accelerated growth in the summer and complete dormancy in the winter the rings develop, and you can even tell when the tree had good years by the thickness of the rings.

The green of the oak trees still holds on!

Yet all is not lost, all is not grim!

Now our evergreens come into their own, dark green stands of life throughout the reserve whenever our scots pine stands tall. Juniper too dotted around with its vibrant green in contrast to the bleak winter and the humble holly more obvious now with its glossy spiked leaves.

There are still places where life abounds.

The Lochs have become a cacophony of sounds. Swans, teal, wigeon and goldeneye mingle throughout Kinord. But close to my heart and to me the sound that most heralds the winter are geese, our winter Greylags have returned these honking migrants and these skeins of geese have been seen criss-crossing the sky. Having flown all the way from their summer breeding grounds in Iceland who come here for winter warmth and daylight!

A force of Nature

When you call someone a force of nature it’s generally a compliment – that person has a strong personality, they might be full of energy, unstoppable, unforgettable. In short – a person to be reckoned with.

In the month of October the reserve has been experiencing an actual physical force of nature – the pretty relentless downpouring of rain – and it has certainly been unforgettable, challenging and its got to the point where it is just downright impressive. We are all living in our waterproofs and wellies at the moment and have become simply water and weather obsessed. The job of the moment is to dig out our drains and ditches to keep our hill drainage working and closing paths when it all gets too dangerous.

The Vat waterfall yesterday – from intrepid CNPA ranger Will

the Vat interior yesterday. The Vat is now impossible to get into for a few days – its running too fast and too high! Taken by CNPA ranger Will

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The Vat – a panorama from CNPA Will and Kate yesterday

In the 4 days of yellow warnings for rain across the weekend the Vat burn looks like it is about to burst it’s banks for the 3rd time this month – to my knowledge this is unprecedented.

Looking at SEPA’s rainfall data 235 mm of rain has fallen over the reserve this month. This is over half the entire years total rainfall stretching back to October last year. The widespread flooding event over 7th and 8th October with 97 mm falling turned the Vat burn into a raging torrent and scoured out the lower Vat trail leaving the path damaged and storm Babet a fortnight later was a replay with 104 mm of rain falling over 3 days .

If you time it right when the Vat burn is running high and before it goes into spate it is elemental and sublime and well worth a visit.

All of that water has been roaring and churning its way down to loch Kinord which is looking massive and beautiful, inundating areas of willow, birch and alder and creating areas of drowned wet woodland with some fantastic reflections. Autumn seems to have suddenly switched on this week and the loch side is ablaze with intense colours. The loch kinord trail is pretty badly flooded in sections so wellies are a must to get around it. Splashing about is pretty good fun though :).

Wet woodland trees such as Willow, Birch and Alder thrive in seasonally flooded soils, such as river and lochsides. Willow trees support more species of moths and other insects than any other British tree except the oak.

The loch swollen with water looks massive

Scattered evergreen Scots Pine strike a real colour contrast around the loch

Reflections on waterlily bay

Amazing reflections on a limpid calm Loch Kinord

Whilst this weather can have its challenges for people the wildlife seems to be thriving. Our overwintering wildfowl numbers on the lochs are increasing week on week and it looks like our Goldeneye males are already settling close to groups of females.

Goldeneye displaying

A pair of wigeon; she’s preening, making herself look attractive….but he knows he’s gorgeous already!

Springs of Teal make an appearance on the lochs at this time of year

A pretty female mallard. Our mallard numbers sky rocket over winter, particularly on Loch Davan

A really fleeting visit from 12 whooper swan on Loch Kinord

Just to leave you with a few images of the reserve from a mile above taken from a glider in between the rains just a week and a half ago when the sun was shining. I was lucky enough to go up with Deeside Gliding Club. Also a massive thank you to the Deeside Cairngorms National Park rangers who had their final patrols of the season yesterday. They have been an amazing support to the reserve and one and all have given it their full enthusiasm and dedication.

A view over the lochs and the Dee looking towards Aberdeen

A view of Morven, the Hill which overlooks us

A view over Ballater into Loch Muick

Winter Thrushes and Wild Water

We are now into Mid-October, meaning Autumn is in full swing! I arrived back on the Reserve after a week off on Monday morning, and was immediately greeted by the ‘t-seeeping’ of Redwing!

Redwing in a holly tree

They arrived on the Reserve in large numbers, flocks of birds can be seen and heard flying over the trees. They have arrived from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia. Last weeks easterly winds has meant that the ‘Redwing’ floodgate has opened. Birds will often wait for a tailwind to migrate, rather than migrating over the North Sea in a constant headwind.

Large flock of Redwing

As well as Redwing, we get large influx of other Thrushes such as Fieldfare and Blackbird!

Most of these wintering Thrushes are from northern Europe; Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and even Russia. Our oceanic climate means that our winters are milder, this means that food is more readily available here than in the harsh snowy climate of continental northern Europe.

Thrushes love berries and one of the first signs of their arrival is the trees and bushes being stripped of their fruits. Rowan trees are a favourite and you can regularly see 5-10 Blackbirds/Fieldfare/Redwing eating up all the berries!

Redwing – you can see how they get their name! (c) Gus Routledge

Fieldfare chomping on a Rowan berry (c) Gus Routledge

It’s magic to see and hear the winter thrushes again. I urge you to get out and about on the Reserve just now, its full of autumn delights.

Autumn colours a bit delayed this year, but starting to show….

A wonderful Autumn scene

We had a significant rainfall event over the weekend, the vat burst its banks and has sadly washed away the path. It was impossible to get into the vat, it was very ferocious indeed!

Path washed out

New surfacing required

The path to the vat won’t be closed, but it is very uneven underfoot and there is large holes in the path. If you decide to proceed onto the path, take great care! Please bear with us as we look to get the path repaired again. We are at the mercy of water here!

Butterflies & Moths

This week, Gordon our seasonal nature reserve officer has written a piece on the wonders of Butterflies and Moth recording!

At least once a week the team here at Muir of Dinnet (weather permitting of course) carry out surveys of both butterflies and moths. These are known collectively as lepidopterans (Latin for scaled wings) so called because believe it or not their wings are made of tiny scales that slot into place after they’ve emerged from their cocoons and somehow fit together to form these striking patterns.

Large Emerald Moth

There are three reasons why we carry out these counts.

Firstly, all varieties of these fascinating creatures do well within a narrow range of environmental conditions, they need specific habitats for their eggs, caterpillars and when in their final winged form. They are also sensitive to changes in climate and weather patterns particularly temperature. This makes them indicator species to these changes and by counting them we can be aware of minute changes over time we would otherwise be unaware of.

Red Admiral

Secondly, these well recognised flying insects play a role in pollinating plants throughout the world. We all know and love the humble bee for the work it carries out in pollinating our plants ensuring our crops and flowers return each year. Yet lately it has come to light that butterflies and moths have been more significant than previously thought in carrying out this work along side their sting-baring cousins. Due to them being less fussy than bees, wasps and hoverflies and having many more individual species (approximately 2500 in the UK), they are thought to be a crucial force in pollinating our flowers and crops.

Common Blue Butterfly

Thirdly, they are just beautiful and magnificent creatures, and it is a sheer joy getting to see them regularly and learning to recognise them when they flutter by makes us happy!

Six-spot burnet moth

Small Tortoiseshell

Dark-green Fritillary

Next time you spot one of these hard-working pollinators, perhaps you could pop a note on our sighting board in the visitor centre? Or if you want to learn more pop along to one of our moth nights where we catch and identify moths with you!

Ringlet Butterfly

A hint of change

The Reserve is going through the start of a transition period. We are starting to see and feel the season of Autumn creeping in….

Rowan starting to change, a bit early…

Fungi is appearing around the Reserve, I am hoping for a Fungi filled autumn as the amount of fruiting fungi can really differ year-on-year. It was a poor year for Fungi last year, so I am hoping it is a good one this year!

Fly Agaric

Turkey Tail Fungus – you can see how it gets the name.

Sulphur Tufts

A couple of late summer wildlife milestones is the blooming of the heather, and the presence of Devils-bit Scabious around the Reserve. The Scabious always attracts a plethora of Wildlife, especially Butterflies!

The Bloomin’ heather gives the Reserve a purple Hue

Devils-bit Scabious out in abundance

Scotch Argus Butterflies are on the wing in their hundreds!

The berries are out on much of the Rowan trees! An old tale is that if it is a good berry season on the Rowan trees, we are due for a hard winter… however, the good berry crop is much more likely due to the early summer sunshine and abundant rainfall. However, we will just need to wait and see, you never know!

Berries on the Rowan Tree

I have been looking up at the Oak-tops around the Reserve in the hope of catching a glimpse of Purple Hairstreak. These butterflies have been at the focal point of lepidopterists over the last couple of years and they have been discovered at a number of locations in Deeside. Not quite on the Reserve yet, but I will keep looking!

A common view for the Purple Hairstreak hunter!

I am enjoying the last few weeks of summer before things really start to change! Soon, we will be welcomed by the season of Autumn, but until then lets make the most of the Summer!

Loch Kinord with a view up the Pinewood

Thanks to all who came to our Osprey Watch yesterday evening, unfortunately, the Osprey didn’t show but we did see views of Buzzard and Red Kite! There is still a chance in the next 4 weeks to spot Osprey, keep your eyes peeled!

Keen Osprey spotters – at least the view was nice!

Enjoy folks, a change is on its way!

An Autumnal summer with some Lovely surprises

I don’t know if this a return of the old normal or a new “new normal” development in the Scottish weather but we have had many cool and rainy days throughout July on the reserve. This has actually been really beneficial in recharging the burns and lochs and rewetting our raised peat bog on Parkin’s moss.

All that rain at the height of summer has led to a few nice surprises. Like a mass flowering of the incredibly dainty and hairy flowered orchid Ladies creeping tresses.

This lovely flower is almost exclusively found in Scotland and is mainly restricted to remnants of ancient Caledonian Pinewood.

This nationally scarce flower is easily identifiable as the outer petals are coated with bristling hairs.

Flowering in late summer it adds a splash of white to the greens and purples of the forest understorey as it nestles amongst mosses, heathers and blaeberry.

As well as reproducing sexually by producing seeds, creeping ladies tresses can propagate itself via runners that spread through the pine needle litter, giving rise to the first part of its common name.

We counted all the flowering orchids we could find and were astounded at 376 flowering plants this year. All orchids demonstrate one of the closest symbiotic relationships known in the plant kingdom, and creeping ladies tresses is no exception.. Orchids have a very intimate relationship with specific mycorrhiza, rhizome- dwelling fungus. Creeping ladies tresses can only germinate in the presence of one of two fungi, either Rhizoctonia goodyera-repentis or R. lanuginosa.

Flowering in late summer, this delicate orchid adds a splash of white to the usual greens and purples of the forest understorey.

Out on Parkin’s Moss Round leaved sundew is flourishing and looked stunning when it came into flower.

Round leaved Sundew. The round-leaved sundew is a strange and beautiful plant that can be found sitting among the soggy sphagnum mosses at the shores of bog pools, on wet heaths and peaty moors.

The Lure
On each of the round-leaved sundew’s leaves, hair-like tendrils tipped with glistening droplets attract passing insects..
The droplets contain a charmingly-named substance called mucilage. Opinion is divided as to how the mucilage attracts insects to the plant but it’s either because it resembles nectar or water, or because it has a sweet smell. Whatever the reason, insects love it.
The trap
Luring the insects to the plant is only half the battle. Once there, the insect needs to be trapped and held,
Sun dews use what is known as a flypaper trap, which is to say they rely upon a sticky substance to hold their prey fast on the leaf. While the mucilage they secrete is attractive to insects, it is also highly viscous and sticky. In fact the more the insect struggles the faster it is held! The leaf then slowly closes around its victim,
Developing a taste for meat is a sound strategy for these plants that belong in nutrient poor but insect rich habitats.
Just imagine how well you would do in Scotland if you developed a taste for midges?

The nicest surprise has got to be the fantastic breeding success of our Goldeneye on Loch Kinord this year.

More than 25 young goldeneye have fledged at the reserve – the best breeding return in more than a decade! The good news follows measures taken at the reserve since 2021 to reduce disturbance on the reserve’s Loch Kinord. A big thank you to everyone for following the access guidance, it really does make a difference!

Goldeneye duck. ©Laurie Campbell

We watched with interest the instant uptake of our newly installed Goldeneye nest boxes. In fact about 3 weeks into our 1st flush of females sitting on eggs we had other females go on to take up available boxes which led to a really extended breeding season. These late nesters are probably younger inexperienced females.

A lovely spectacle to behold we have got very good at judging the age of ducklings and following our broods through their development from gorgeous black and white chicks who are too buoyant to dive to independent young birds. It can be a nerve wracking time and we have definitely seen both young and experienced mums sadly deserting broods and thankfully some super mums who are incredibly vigilant around their chicks. We have seen big and small broods ranging from 5 to 13. We can’t wait to see what next year brings!

Out in the Old Kinord fields our Lapwing returned after a years absence and raised 2 broods.

By 9 days old lapwing chicks are starting to develop their feathers and are able to potter around the meadows. They spend time foraging for invertebrates whilst sticking close to the protective cover of nettles.

On Loch Davan our mute swan family are doing brilliantly with their 9 cygnets getting pretty big now – so big that they have split the brood and share the baby sitting duties.

9 cygnets is an impressive brood size

Right now we are seeing another wave of baby robins bimbling around the Burn O’ Vat carpark. All very naïve and pretty bold.

Baby robin

Always voted Britain’s favourite bird, Robins are prolific breeders, often producing a whopping three to five broods a year. These broods can overlap, with the male feeding the chicks of one clutch while the female sits on the eggs of the next.

But they sometimes pick funny places to nest. They’ve been found nesting in old teapots, backyard BBQ’s, the engine of a WWII plant, wellington boots and even on the body of a dead cat.

The rain has also brought a colourful eruption of wild mushrooms throughout the woodland.

Just beneath our feet in the forest is a fuzzy mat of ectomycorrhizal fungi, which can be seen by pulling up the top layer of moss and soil. These fungi form an underground network in the forest, which allows trees connected within network to transfer resources such as carbon, nitrogen, and other important nutrients among each other, in addition to producing many spectacular mushrooms, and some tasty ones as well, such as chanterelles..

Sulphur tuft

tawny grisette

tawny grisette

Russula

Chanterelle

False chanterelle

The most entertaining has been watching the stages of the shaggy inkcap.

The shaggy ink cap, lawyer’s wig, or shaggy mane starts as young fruit bodies first appear as white cylinders emerging from the ground, then the bell-shaped caps open out. As its name suggests it has a woolly, scaly surface to its bell-shaped toadstools. In a matter of days the gills change from white at first, then turn pink and eventually black, dissolving from the margin of the cap until it is almost entirely gone. 

This gruesome process of self digestion is actually a strategy to disperse spores more efficiently. The gills liquefy from the bottom up as the spores mature. Thus the cap peels up and away, and the maturing spores are always kept in the best position for catching wind currents. This continues until the entire fruiting body has turned into a dripping mass of black ink.

Four female slow worms coiled together for warmth – you can see 3 distinct heads here

Just to leave you with this image of these four slow worm coiled together – we think female from the darker stripe running down their backs and possibly pregnant too from the size and girth of the body when it tapers down to the tail it very suddenly narrows in.

Unlike our other reptiles, slow-worms rarely bask in the open, instead preferring to hide under logs or in compost heaps. Slow-worms feed on slow-moving prey, particularly small slugs. Like common lizards, female slow-worms incubate their eggs internally and ‘give birth’ later this month.

A Summers’ Landscape

The weather has been nothing short of baking here the last week or so! We were seeing temperatures climb up to 27c. Thankfully, we were given a nice thundery downpour last Monday and this has temporarily alleviated our extreme fire risk! We need a bit more rain to keep me happy though. I have taken a host of landscape shots throughout the last week, you can feel the sunshine through the photos…

Old Kinord in the baking heat

I should really introduce myself, I am Simon Ritchie and I am the newly appointed Nature Reserve Manager here at Muir of Dinnet NNR. I have previously worked at Muir of Dinnet as a Practical Student Placement in 2015, and since then worked primarily at St Cyrus NNR and more recently Loch Leven NNR. It’s so great to be back, I absolutely love Deeside and Muir of Dinnet is a place that I cherish. I am looking forward to what the next two years bring, it’s fantastic to be able to manage such an amazing site!

Water Lily’s on the east side of Loch Kinord

I have been seeing some specialist wildlife in my first week, Northern Damselflies, Pearl Bordered Fritillery, Fledging Redstart chicks and much more. The woodlands, bogs and lochs here provide a fantastic habitat for scarce and rare species.

Loch Davan, home to a plethora of Wildlife

A wet forest pool, a fantastic habitat for insects like the northern damselfly.

We were out doing a bird survey on the lochs, the lochs are looking glorious this time of year.

Loch Davan

Looking towards Meikle Kinord through the oaks

Surveying for duck broods!

The Vat has been really low the last few weeks, the waterfall was merely a trickle. It was boosted a little bit by Monday’s rain, but the water is still very low!

The Burn o’ Vat

It’s been great to familiarise myself with the Reserve again. Hopefully we will see some more rain in the coming days, as the wildlife is really needing it! If you see me out and about, come and say hello. I am so happy to be here and I will be out and about as much as I can taking the Reserve in on my first weeks. For now, enjoy the Summer and the bountiful wildlife that comes with it!

The Pure Optimism of an Early Spring Day

Our Aspen woodland on a sunny early Spring day is glorious to behold. The first of our spring flora are carpeting the woodland floor here and mingle to create a throng of cheerful nodding blooms. These spring flowers are delicate yet hardy and provide a vital early nectar source for our emerging pollinators such as bumblebees and butterflies. They include Snowdrop, Primrose , Lesser Celandine, Spring Crocus and coming up right now Daffodil.

Blooming Primrose in our aspen woodland. Primroses represent eternal love and purity . The scientific name “Primula” is a diminutive of the Latin primus, “prime”, alluding to the fact that this flower is among the first to appear in spring.

The symbolism of the Primrose was used to great effect by Shakespeare and he references this flower 7 times in his work. They often have melancholic associations as he links their paleness to early death, especially of young maidens.

In another use he coins the phrase the “primrose path”. This literally stands for a path strewn with flowers and means taking the path of pleasure, indulgence, or the easy route in life.

The star shaped flowers of the lesser celandine. These flowers close up fast in the face of cold weather and before rain. Traditionally first blooming on 21st February it makes it one of the first woodland flowers of the year. This also gave the lesser celandine the name ‘spring messenger’.

Frost coated Snowdrops thawing in the morning sun. Snowdrops are especially adapted to life in winter. Their leaves have hardened tips to help them break through frozen soil and their sap contains a kind of natural antifreeze! The common snowdrop we normally see with one flower per stem is a Galanthus nivalis which translates as ‘milk flower of the snow.’

The Spring crocus Crocus vernus is a resilient flower. A waxy cuticle protects Crocus flowers and leaves from frost. They can therefore withstand the changeable and unpredictable temperatures of a Scottish spring. They actually need the cold to spur growth.

The joy and optimism of lengthening days and the return of the sun easily make it my favourite season by a country mile. Unbelievably in early February we began to enjoy some glorious warm spring like days. I keep finding myself furiously willing things to grow – but everything has it’s ideal time and place.

In reaction some of our hibernating and dormant species began to wake up – a trifle too early for the awaiting conditions to be honest.

Butterflies such as Peacock and small Tortoiseshell butterfly are on the wing – too early for many of the flowers theses butterflies feed on.

Peacock butterfly on the wind in the 1st week of February

Small Tortoiseshell awake in the VC. These These butterflies tend to enter hibernation by mid to late September. Typically this butterfly will try to hibernate in dark sheltered locations such as our houses. Because of this hibernation, they need to accumulate a lot of fat to survive the winter. Central heating in the depths of winter can also stimulate them to wake up! Now safely hibernating in the fridge in the office.

I came in to find a somewhat confused small tortoiseshell butterfly fluttering around the visitor center where it has been hibernating under our giant jigsaw.

It is often a problem of how best to help these poor butterflies unwittingly tricked into thinking spring has come early. While the weather has been warm and spring-like the flowers that it nectars on are not out yet!

Releasing a butterfly into the winter is usually dooming it. The butterfly rapidly loses the ability to fly when its body temperature plummets in the cold and is picked off by birds or mammals. The other problem is starvation. The butterfly built up vital fats by gorging on nectar in our gardens and countryside before switching off for winter and long periods of unseasonable activity reduces these reserves.

Strange as this sounds if you come across a butterfly awake in winter you can place it in a dry, transparent container lined with a folded section of kitchen roll to absorb moisture and place it in the salad drawer in the fridge, where the temperature is around four Celsius. The butterfly will soon settle and can be kept there until warm, sunny weather arrives in March or April. Alternatively, remove the butterfly from the container when it is quiet and place in an unheated shed or room to complete its winter rest.

A gravid female frog . It is the males that call and the sound of them can fill the evening air in early spring.

We have encountered our 1st frog of the year and we think a gravid female full of eggs from her rotund look. Between late summer and early spring, a female frog develops thousands of eggs – up to a whopping 4,000 – inside her body.

Around the month of March, the female will release those eggs – to be fertilised by an awaiting male – – into their breeding ponds – to create frog spawn. Our toads are generally a bit later in the year.

Unbelievably our reptiles are awake – so we can put winter to bed right. Maybe hold that thought for another month! We spied this common lizard on the 8th of February – the joint second earliest we have seen them and staying within the warm shelter of this dry stane dyke.

So how might Scotland’s terrestrial reptiles be affected by climate change?
To begin to answer this, we have to consider the direct effects of climate change on reptile adaptation and behaviour, and the indirect impacts from changing populations and dynamics of predators and prey.

Common lizard hiding in dyke. As cold-blooded animals, they need to bask in order to reach a body temperature of 30°C and activate their metabolism; cleverly, they can speed this up by flattening themselves to maximise their surface area. 

Our reptiles are more or less at the northernmost edge of the range for their species, although the adder, common lizard and slow worm have Scandinavian populations at higher latitudes. These three species are viviparous, meaning embryos develop within the body of the adult and born live.

All UK reptiles however, have cousins residing in the warmer southerly climes of Iberia and Central Europe and the Balkans. So, we could assume that warmer climate here will improve survival in existing reptile populations, while enabling a northward shift of their distributions.

Under various warming scenarios modelled for 2050 and 2080 it is however, unfortunately not great news.

Slow worms, here in good numbers, show a mixed northward shift with a contraction of southern populations. For adder and common lizard species modelling predicted widespread population decline, greater under higher warming scenario’s.

A slow worm, Seen in really good numbers here on sunny summer days , often across our paths

Being ectothermic, reptiles are highly sensitive to their environment, with a tight set of requirements to achieve their optimal climatic conditions.

Temperature and rainfall strongly influence reptile behaviour, and a changing climate has great potential to create mismatches – for example if temperature and rainfall is less than the ideal either for reptiles or their prey species, especially at key points in the year such as hibernation emergence. If our retiles emerge into a cooler baseline temperature it takes them longer to gain energy from the sun and they remain basking out in the open – lethargic – for longer. This leaves them more vulnerable to predators such as Pheasant and Buzzard.

Interestingly warming could accelerate reptile growth and time to sexual maturity, due to longer periods of activity. Milder winters will likely reduce hibernation lengths for our reptiles. Earlier spring emergence, and activity extending further into the autumn and winter months would likely bring reproduction forward in the year, as length of pregnancy is generally shorter in warmer climates. Larger body sizes in warmer climates may result in greater reproductive success .

This has been subject to experiment by placing common lizards in climate-controlled chambers subject to current average temperatures and future climate predictions. Warming did increase growth rates, bring mating forward and resulted in more broods per season. However, this was coupled with a reduction in adult survival rates. Perhaps the greater energy requirement required by larger individuals can’t be matched by foraging opportunities, especially across hot summers. It can be too hot.

Out on the water our birds have ranched up their courtship displays with the goldeneye sheering off into smaller groups of breeding males and females.

A female Goldeneye. Their warm copper brown heads make their golden eyes quite startling. Common Goldeneyes are dinky, fast-flying ducks that reach speeds of over 40 miles an hour. In flight their wings make a distinctive whistling noise. Unlike many diving ducks, they only need to run or “patter” a short 3 to 6 feet across the water before taking off. These strong swimmers and divers spend much of their time on the water. When they synchronise and dive together it can make counting them a little confusing.

For these breeding birds we have been racing around trying to replace our more dilapidated goldeneye nest boxes in time for them to start nest prospecting.

Getting ready for the off!

A few trips required to get tools and people across

1st nest box up

A huge highlight of the week – on Saturday I was joined by a small team to place Goldeneye nest boxes onto Castle Island – the 1st time I have stepped foot on the island.

A massive thanks to Jeremy and Simon from Loch Leven and their expert boat handling, trailer driving skills and to Judy CNPA ranger and Carey. An especial thanks to Jeremy for his rope with a stick trick which meant an easy way of maneuvering these heavy and bulky boxes onto the tree.

Once on the island we spent some time dismantling 3 big firepits and litter picking – a good haul of beer bottles and abandoned inflatables

Just to leave you with a mystery offering from a visitor which frankly confused me until Butterfly Conservation recorder Helen Rowe identified it (immediately) as a Northern Eggar moth cocoon.

The northern Eggar is a Northern sub-species of the Oak Eggar moth – so called because the shape of its cocoon is acorn-like.

The caterpillar of tthe Northern Eggar is large and rather floofy feeds and not a fussy eater of heather and woodland heather and bramble and trees including sallow and hazel.

 Males fly by day in a zig-zag fashion, particularly in afternoon sunshine.  Females fly from early dusk.