Ospreys & Otters: A Visit to Loch Garten

Loch Garten

Out on the loch beyond the water lilies a goldeneye duck and duckling floated in the sunshine below the cloud-dappled blue sky. A peaceful scene. The only sound the gentle ripple of water on the shore. Abruptly a duck, a mallard, skittered out of the reeds and across the water, wings flapping, legs thrashing wildly, quacking loudly. Just behind it a fluffy duckling paddled frantically, trying to keep up. Something dark surged in the water behind the duckling. A rounded head emerged briefly then a curving body slicing through the water. An otter. There was flurry in the water. Otter and duckling vanished. The duck continued alone. Further out the goldeneyes drifted serenely. Within seconds the scene was calm again, the brief life-and-death drama over.

Loch Garten

This was the one moment of excitement on an otherwise tranquil wander beside beautiful Loch Garten and through the pinewoods of Abernethy Forest on a lovely sunny day. Everything glowed with warmth and life. White water lilies spread round the edges of the loch, more than I’ve ever seen here before. The first blaeberries were appearing in the woods. Nature at its most relaxed and welcoming. Then there was that sudden flash of violence, the sudden ending of a duckling’s brief existence. A reminder of the reality of how much of nature works.

Live video of the osprey nest in the visitor centre.

Earlier we had visited the RSPB’s Loch Garten Osprey Centre not far from the loch, our first visit of the year and rather later than usual. The three young ospreys were almost ready to fly, standing on the edge of the nest and flapping their wings. Their mother perched on a nearby tree, watching.  Using the powerful centre telescopes we were able to watch them and marvel at their grace and power. There are also live videos in the centre that show them closely. Like the otter these are hunters as the piercing eyes and hooked bills showed. Soon they will leave the nest and then Scotland, heading south to West Africa for the winter. Seeing the ospreys and reflecting again on their return to the Highlands and the work that went into protecting them is always inspiring and gives hope for the future of wildness and nature.

Noctilucent Clouds

Five hours after seeing the rainbow described in my last post I was outside watching the sky again, this time to look at the strange phenomena of noctilucent clouds. Now whilst I do sometimes wander out during the night to observe the sky this was not a random chance. I was alerted to the clouds by a Tweet from Wendy @benjiandblossom with an impressive picture of noctilucent clouds over Inverness-shire. That's not far away so I was soon outside to an amazing sight. The northern sky was a mass of bright white swirls and streaks that rose from the horizon before fading into the dark blue of the night sky.

Although I'd heard of noctilucent clouds before I had to check just what they are. It turns out not that much is known about them. The key factor though is that they are far higher in the sky than other clouds, around 80 kilometres up, which means that in northern latitudes in summer the hidden sun lights them from below. Of course the night isn't dark for long at this time of year. I started watching the clouds at 1.30 a.m. By 2.30 they were fading as the sky began to lighten. In the photograph you can just see a few stars. It really was dark and I needed a headlamp to move about safely.

The clouds are mysterious and strange. The name is wonderful. Noctilucent just rolls beautifully round the mouth.

Photography note. I used a tripod of course. Camera and lens were again the Sony NEX 7 with 16-50mm lens at 16mm. Details of this image: 1 second at f8, ISO 800.

Rainbow at Dusk after a Stormy Day

Yesterday was dark and gloomy, with low clouds and heavy showers. The world was dark grey. Then just before it set the sun shone out below the clouds, lighting the trees and fields. The sudden sensation of colour was astonishing. The world lit up. At first there was no rainbow but I suspected one would come and hurried outside to watch. And come it did, a perfect bow curving over the trees. In fact it was a double rainbow - I could just see a second one.

Rain was still falling - streaks of it can be seen on some of my photographs. Knowing the rainbow probably wouldn't last long as I'd just grabbed my camera - Sony NEX 7 with 16-50 zoom lens - and headed out the door. I wanted to be far enough away from the woods to see the whole rainbow. Out in a meadow I found a near perfect scene with long dark shadows from trees behind me and a solitary birch almost under the centre of the rainbow that caught the sunlight beautifully. I could have done without the power line pole but there was no way to block it and still have a good composition (some photographers would remove it in post-processing but I want my photos to show what I actually saw).

To the right of the top photo a herd of cows can just be seen. I zoomed in on these and took the following picture.

For those interested in the technical details all the photos were taken at 1/125 at F8, ISO 200. Only the focal length of the lens was changed. I took raw files and processed them in Lightroom.

The Liebster Award: Thoughts & Answers

The Cuillin & Loch Coruisk from Sgurr na Stri, Isle of Skye (see Question1)

A week ago I was asked by David Lintern to take part in the Liebster Award, something I'd never heard of before. It's a way of sharing blogs - a chain blog in a way - by asking bloggers to answer some questions and then pass on questions of their own to more bloggers. There seem to be several versions of the 'rules'.

After pondering the idea for a while I've decided to follow the examples of  Neilsen Brown and Martin Rye and answer David's questions but not pass on any questions. Instead, like Neilsen, I encourage readers to answer the questions on their own blogs or here or on David's blogs. They are interesting questions - thanks David for asking them. One reason I'm not passing the idea on is that many of the outdoor bloggers I would suggest have already been asked. Maths is not my strong point but I did wonder how quickly every blogger in the world could be asked to take part if everyone involved asks another eleven bloggers as is suggested. The same thought occurred to Neilsen Brown and his mathematical abilities being far superior to mine he came up with an answer, which is that taking the figure of 150,000,000 blogs after 8 iterations (11 to the power 8) every blogger would have been included. I'm surprised I haven't been asked before!

Of course no-one has to respond if asked but even so I felt uncomfortable at putting any pressure on other bloggers to do so. I'm not criticising David Lintern for asking me by saying this. It's just how I feel. Anyway here are my answers to David's questions.



1 Favourite island, why and when did you last visit?

That’s difficult. I have many favourite islands. But if forced to choose one it would be Skye because of the Cuillin Ridge, the Trotternish Peninsula, the wildlife and all the magnificent coastal areas. There’s even a malt whisky distillery – Talisker – though for that the island would have to be Islay!

2 Best book about the outdoors and why?

Again difficult. There are so many. Just one? OK. Colin Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked Through Time, which tells the story of the first through-hike of the Grand Canyon. Fletcher is a wonderful writer – intelligent, thought-provoking and intense – and this is the finest backpacking book I know.

3. Why blog?

To communicate. Which is why I write magazine articles and books as well. Long before the Internet I wanted to share my joy in nature and the outdoors and also to encourage people to realise the importance of wild places and to help protect them. Blogging is just another medium for doing so.

4. Solo or with others?

Solo, usually. Occasionally with others. Solo means being more in touch with the land and nature as well as being free to make my own decisions.

5. Have you ever had an encounter (not necessarily 'close') with a big predator outdoors and if so tell us about it.

I’ve encountered a few bears over the years on long walks in North America. I guess the most exciting was the first time I met a grizzly bear. This was on a walk the length of the Canadian Rockies. I’d been out quite a few weeks without seeing any grizzlies and I was becoming careless. It was raining and the wind was blowing in my face as I hiked above timberline with a noisy stream not far below the trail. These conditions meant I should have been alert as a bear ahead of me wouldn’t be likely to smell me or hear me. However due to the rain I was walking with my hood up and head down and not paying much attention to my surroundings. Then something moving across the creek attracted my attention. I turned and looked and froze. A huge pale grizzly bear was heading towards me. Elation at seeing a grizzly for the first time quickly turned to fear. The bear had its head down and almost certainly didn’t know I was there. Before it came close enough to feel I was a threat I needed to let it know of my presence. Noise was the way so I shouted, clapped my hands, blew my safety whistle (the only time I’ve ever used it) and jumped up and down. The bear stopped and raised its head, moving it from side to side and sniffing the air. Then it changed direction slightly and went off beside the creek. Starting to unwind I watched it as it ambled along, turning over rocks and rooting in the ground, before it disappeared into the willow thickets that lined the creek. Remembering this encounter still thrills me. I was so privileged to see this magnificent symbol of wildness right in the heart of the wilderness.

6. How many knots do you know and which ones?

Not as many as I used to! When I was rock climbing regularly (which was a long time ago and only at a very low standard) I knew quite a few. I still remember the names but if asked to tie a bowline, say, I’d have to look it up. The knots I use most are simple overhand and reef knots. The most technical knot I know is the tautline hitch, which I use occasionally on guylines instead of a slider as it can be slid up and down the line but locks tight under tension.

7. When were you last scared outdoors and why?

This last winter when a snow slope became rather too hard and icy near the top and I was suddenly aware of a big drop ending in a boulder field. I wasn’t wearing crampons and this wasn’t the place to stop and put them on so I had to cut a few steps before I reached easier ground.

8. On trail or off trail?

Difficult off-trail terrain in the Selkirk Mountains on the Pacific Northwest Trail

Depends. Off trail means more contact with the landscape. Sometimes that can mean too much contact though – especially in dense vegetation. At those times I long for a trail. I do prefer minimal trails though – narrow and winding and rough.

9. What is elegant route planning to you?

I’ve never considered route planning as elegant! I’m not even sure what that would be. I like rough route planning anyway. I don’t like too much detail or a precise schedule. I always like room to make it up as I go along. I like not knowing what to expect too.

10. How many tents do you own and how many should you own?


All the tents I have – and there are currently quite a few as I’ve just done a big tent test – have been supplied for testing purposes. Most of those eventually go to good causes such as Gift Your Gear – a few I keep for my own use and for long-term testing. I do have one tarp shelter that I bought a few years ago so that one is really mine. How many should I own? I think three would be fine. A tough winter one, an ultralight three-season and long-distance hiking one and a tarp shelter.

11. What was your earliest/youngest significant outdoor experience?

I was brought up in the countryside so playing in fields and woods was a major part of my childhood. One experience stands out though. Across a railway line from the village in which I lived were some pinewoods through which a path led to the sea. I longed to go there but wasn’t allowed to as access was by an unmanned level crossing. Eventually my father agreed to take me. I must have been eight or nine. But when we reached the level crossing we could see great clouds of smoke rising in the distance. A notice on the gate said the path was closed as there was a forest fire. I can still remember how exciting that seemed. I was disappointed I couldn’t enter the woods but knowing about the fire made them seem even more enticing.

Wild Flowers: The Richness of Summer

Self-Heal & Tormentil

Walking through the fields today it was hard not to crush flowers underfoot. The meadows and banks were awash with colour. After the earlier rain there was a rich smell of damp vegetation and the flowers and grasses glowed in the weak, hazy sun. Overhead lapwings and oystercatchers wheeled and cried but mu eyes were drawn downwards to the masses of tiny bright flowers. This year there seem to be more flowers than ever, though it feels that way every year at this time when the sudden overwhelming lushness of summer belies the cold harshness of much of the year.

Wild Flower Pasture

Much of the afternoon was spent lying and crouching on the damp ground looking closely at the delicate yet hardy flowers. Sometimes the glory of nature lies in the tiny details rather than in sweeping landscapes or charismatic animals. Here's what I saw.

Buttercup

Tormentil, Self-Heal, Eyebright

Forget-Me-Not

Speedwell & Tormentil

Thistle with bumblebee

Self-Heal, Yellow Vetch, Eyebright & Tormentil

Squirrels & Birds & Rain

Heavy rain, low cloud, strong winds. Not a day for the hills. A day for desk work and watching the increasingly bedraggled wildlife in the garden through the rain-spattered windows. Several squirrels came and continued their slow but steady destruction of the wire mesh nut feeders so they can extract peanuts and sit on the supporting beam to eat them. Seeing them regularly we can now distinguish between individuals. Some have tufty ears, some no tufts at all, like this one. Coats may be dark or pale, redder or browner. Tails are often very different too - light or dark, thin or thick, smooth or, as with this squirrel, magnificently fluffy.

Other than the squirrels the main interest in peanuts comes from the great spotted woodpeckers. These visit every day but so far haven't brought any youngsters.

The seed feeder is emptying every day however, the main visitors being greenfinches though it also attracts chaffinches and siskins. The birds we don't see much of this time of year are the great, coal and blue tits - there are plenty of insects for them in the woods. One great tit flew in briefly today but that was all. The young robins that have been bobbing about recently kept out of sight as did the regular ground-feeding dunnocks, maybe deciding that sheltering from the weather was a good idea.

Walking the Yukon, Saving the Yukon

On this day 24 years ago I was camped by the Takhini River in the Yukon Territory. I was two weeks into my 1000 mile walk south-north through this vast wild land, a walk I described in my book Walking the Yukon.

The Yukon is one of the remotest and wildest places I've ever been. I met very few other walkers and sometimes went a week and more without seeing another human being or even signs of one. This is real wilderness. As well as magnificent mountains, rivers and forests I saw wolves, bears, moose, eagles and more.

Towards the end of my walk I was in the Peel River Watershed, just north of the tremendous Tombstone Mountains, which I have since revisited on a ski tour. The Peel Watershed is now under threat of industrialisation for coal, oil and gas. This would an appalling destruction of a pristine wilderness. There is a campaign against this that all lovers of wilderness and nature should support. You can sign a petition here.