Spring at Loch Garten

The return of the iconic ospreys to their nest at Loch Garten in Abernethy Forest is an event I look forward to every year and I always go to see them soon after their arrival. For me they are a symbol of wild nature and a signifier of the coming of spring. Hearing that both birds were back (the RSPB reports in detail with http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifa daily blog and live videocams here) my partner and I headed for Loch Garten on a day of warm breezes, cloudy skies and touches of sunshine. Sometimes both birds are away from the nest before eggs are laid and sometimes one is there but low down in the big bundle of sticks. There can be a long wait to see the birds. Today we were in luck and arrived to find the female, EJ, on the nest and the male, Odin, perched on a branch just below eating a fish EJ had brought for him (a rare event as usually the male brings fish for the female). They both looked magnificent, birds of prey in their prime.

After viewing the ospreys from the RSPB hide we had a quiet wander through the pine forest along the edge of Loch Garten and then onto Loch Mallachie. Two red squirrels entertained us chasing each other in and out of the branches of a big pine, stopping occasionally to watch us warily. Their reddish fur and the reddish coloured tree were well-matched, both catching bursts of sunlight. Out on Loch Garten we could see distant flocks of ducks, small black bobbing dots on the water too far away to be identified. Then in a calm bay, where water lilies appear later in the year, a few came close to shore – beautiful goldeneye with their distinctive plumage and ringed eyes. In a flooded marshy area in the trees two mallard paddled. Out on the main body of the loch the breeze rippled the water and the reflections of the clouds shimmered. Beyond the water and the forest the hills rose, dark against the sky as most of the snow has gone.

The forest was calm and quiet, with just the gentle rustle of the wind in the tree tops and the occasional calls of woodland birds. In the distance came the soft murmur of doves. Just once a loud “chrr” broke the peace, a great spotted woodpecker warning of our presence. The forest floor was starting to green over with bilberry bushes and other low shrubs. Soon there will be flowers and more colour.

The photo shows Loch Garten, April 8, 2011.

Icons of the Wild: The Loch Garten Ospreys

Every spring the ospreys return to their nest near Loch Garten, as they have done for over 50 years now, ever since they returned to Scotland after decades of absence. Today ospreys breed in many places in Scotland but it is those at Loch Garten that are iconic, special birds in a special place. As I’ve written before, every year I make at least one visit to the RSPB’s Loch Garten Visitor Centre to see the ospreys. Having been away for two weeks in both April and May this year’s visit came late, just a few days ago, but was as important as ever, a pilgrimage of a sort to a place that marks a restoration of wildness, despite the large visitor centre and the reinforced, heavily protected nesting tree. From the centre through binoculars we could see the head of EJ, the female, sitting on the huge tangled bundle of sticks that is the nest. Nearby, her new mate, Odin, perched on the branch of a dead tree. EJ was calling, asking Odin to bring her a fish. In the centre a video link gave a close-up view of the ospreys. This live video can be viewed online here.

The area round the centre is alive with other birds (and birdwatchers!). There was some excitement about the appearance of a capercaillie in front of the centre. We failed to spot this but didn’t mind as we see them in the woods around our house. Indeed one of these huge turkey-like birds had flapped noisily across our path only a few days earlier. We were more interested in a redstart, a bird not seen around home. Leaving the centre we walked through the forest beside Lochs Garten and Mallachie, relishing the fresh green of the new vegetation and the damp smell of the woods after rain. A goldeneye with a family of small fluffy ducklings slid out of some reeds and out into the choppy waters of Loch Garten. Across the loch fresh snow sparkled on Bynack More. The air was soft and quiet, high clouds making the sunlight hazy and weak. My partner remarked that the woods and the atmosphere made her feel diffuse and spread out, replicating the gentle and unfocused peacefulness of the silent forest and lapping water.

Photo info: View over Loch Garten and Abernethy Forest to Bynack More, capped with fresh June snow, and Meall a’Bhuachaille. Canon EOS 450D, Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS@55mm, 1/800@F5.6, ISO 100, raw file converted to JPEG in Lightroom 2.

Spring in Strathspey: Waders & Ospreys

Whilst the snow still lies deep on the hills there have been signs of spring in the glens and straths for several weeks now. At a glance the land still looks bound by winter, with no leaves on the trees, no flowers and no green grass, just the faded browns and greys of last years dead vegetation. A closer look does show buds on the trees and touches of green on open ground, faint hints of spring. It’s not to plants that I look for the first signs of winter’s fading however but to birds. In the rough pastures outside my home the waders have returned to breed and the bubbling calls of curlews, the piercing whistling of oystercatchers and the softer double note cries of lapwings fill the air. It’s the first sight of these birds that signifies spring for me, especially the lapwings, wheeling and swooping over the fields, their broad, fingered wings rushing through the air.

Even more significant is the return of another bird to Strathspey, an iconic symbol of the wild (and now the logo of the Cairngorms National Park). This is the osprey, a fish-hawk that winters in Africa and flies north to the Highlands to breed every spring. Extinct for many decades due to persecution ospreys returned in the 1950s to nest near Loch Garten in Strathspey. They have come back every year since, using the same nest in the same tree, and the Loch Garten Osprey Centre in Abernethy Forest is one of the RSPB’s major attractions in the Highlands. Ospreys now breed in many other places in Scotland but the Loch Garten nest has a special significance and the return of the ospreys and the progress of the breeding season is widely reported in the media and followed by many people, including myself. This year the first Loch Garten osprey returned on March 26 and a second on April 13. Last week I made my annual visit to Loch Garten to see the ospreys, a spring ritual I have followed for nearly two decades. The osprey centre is set well back in the trees from the battered old dead pine holding the big tangled bundle of sticks that is the nest. Telescopes are provided for viewing the distant birds without disturbing them. The female osprey, known as EJ and here for a fifth season, was perched on a nearby tree overlooking the nest, gazing across the forest.

Loch Garten is set in Abernethy Forest, a remnant of the ancient Caledonian Forest, a remnant that is now regenerating and expanding under the ownership of the RSPB. Leaving the Osprey Centre I walked through the silent pines past Loch Garten and Loch Mallachie. Rich ground vegetation fills the spaces between the trees, a contrast to the sterile dark confines of a plantation. Out on the lochs goldeneye were drifting with the breeze, vanishing every so often as they dived for food. These distinctive ducks, named for their yellow eyes, breed in nest boxes on trees at the water’s edge. Beyond the lochs rose the snow-covered Kincardine Hills, a reminder that winter was not over yet.

View over Loch Mallachie and Abernethy Forest to the Kincardine Hills. Photo info: Canon EOS 350D, Tamron 11-18mm lens@ 14mm, f8@1/500, ISO 100, raw file converted to JPEG in Capture One Pro.