Ray Colliers Highland Country Diary -Pied Wagtails

Pied Wagtails 24th July

One of the easiest birds to identify in the Highlands is the pied wagtail as it is the only bird which is mainly black and white and has a long, wagging tail. Part if its success is its ability to adapt to a wide range of conditions. As long as there are insects about, it will nest in walls, old blackbird's nests, steep banks, buildings, abandoned cars, cliffs and roadside verges. These birds frequently nest near roads, on a wall or cliff, and will often fly out from the nest in front of vehicles, especially if the incubation of the eggs has not started, yet it is rare the find a pied wagtail dead on the highway. Insects seem to be the reason why pied wagtails are attracted to roads, partly because vehicles disturb insects from the verges and partly because they will feed on insects killed by the passing traffic. Even someone walking along the grass edge of a country road will stir up insects and attract the attention of a pied wagtail. The birds are very territorial and will attack any other pied wagtail that approaches their "patch", so much so that they can often be seen attacking their own reflection in the wing mirrors of stationary vehicles. They can also be seen jumping up at the radiators of parked vehicles picking off insects that have been "caught" by the car. In contrast, in the winter months they can be very gregarious, forming large roosts in such places as greenhouses, reed beds, buildings and trees. As far as trees are concerned, a roost forms in the poplars at the car park to the Inshes Retail Park in Inverness most winters and some years there are over 300 birds there. However, this gregarious behaviour does not happen to all pied wagtails because if the weather is relatively mild, then one or two adults may well choose to stay in the same area where they bred. For those territories that have been "abandoned" for the winter it will not be long before the birds turn up again, with their heavily undulating flight and characteristic call notes as they chase insects. These attractive birds breed all over the Highlands, including the Western and Northern Isles, and perhaps it is their abundance and distribution that has attracted the cuckoo to parasitize their nests. The adult wagtails have very little defense against the cuckoo, although they have been known to bury the cuckoo's egg in the nest lining, or simply leave the nest and build another. One of the most amazing aspects of this parasitism is how the cuckoo knows when to lay its egg so that it hatches just before the other bird’s eggs. Then, just as remarkable, is the way in which the young cuckoo will move around until it has one of the other eggs on its back and dumps it out of the nest. This goes on until all the other eggs have gone and the host bird just carries on feeding the young cuckoo. Most of the pied wagtails that breed in the Highlands stay here all the year round, although some migrate to the Continent, but we do get another type of black and white wagtail that visits us in the winter, the white wagtail that has a grey back and comes from such places as Iceland.

Ray Colliers Highland Country Diary - Birch Trees

Birch Trees 20th July

There are three types of birch trees native to the Highlands with the two large ones referred to as the downy birch, which is reputed to be more common in the north, and the silver birch. Reference books talk of the silver birch having triangular leaves, drooping foliage and large diamond shaped marks on the bark. In contrast the downy birch has more rounded leaves, a more upright profile and the diamond marks are not so conspicuous. However, there is a problem with all these characteristics and that is throughout the Highlands these two trees freely hybridize and such hybrids are widespread. Young birch trees are rather fragile looking and graceful but this appearance belies the fact that it is one of the hardiest of trees and, with rowan, it grows higher up the hills than any other deciduous species. Birch would have been one of the first trees to colonize the Highlands after the ice caps retreated and in Iceland they can be found colonizing the ground before the retreating glaciers. The third birch is very small compared with the others as the dwarf birch, as indicated by its name, only grows to three feet and is quite rare. The downy and silver birch are scattered throughout the Highlands although the distribution maps make the downy birch more common and widespread. There are large specimens of the silver birch at Loch Maree and Novar and large downy birch at Drummondreach on the Black Isle near Inverness. The dwarf birch grows in a few localities in Central Scotland and in the Highlands. One of the easiest places to find them is near the roadside at the north end of Loch Glascarnoch north west of Garve where it grows in open moorland. Birch, together with willow, hazel and rowan are pioneer trees that quickly colonize bare ground with birch, in particular, readily rooting in quite poor soils. Their seeds are so small and light that they can be carried long distances by the wind. It is the birch trees that siskin and lesser redpolls go to for seed in the latter part of the year and the trees, on getting older when branches fall off, often form natural holes for a variety of birds to colonize and rear their young. Birch is one of the five richest trees for supporting insects - the others being willow, oak, hawthorn and blackthorn. Roe and sika deer like to hide out in birch thickets and browse on the branches and strip the bark. The light shade that birch trees casts enables many plants to grow under them and on acid soils heather and bilberry thrive. Young birch trees and grass attract brown hares, some of which will often spend most of their lives in woodland or use it as their winter quarters. Our relations with birch have been very diverse - although they do not grow big enough to be used as commercial timber it is used for making the backs of brushes and tool handles. Birch twigs are cut in winter to use as besom brooms and to make fire beaters, although they really need replacing each year. When the sap is rising it is tapped off because it is rich in sugar and this can be made into a delicious birch sap wine which is commercially marketed just to the west of Inverness. The silver birch was the holy tree, revered by the old tribes, and it was considered to have powers of renewal and purification so it was used in a ritual to drive out the spirits of the old year.

Ray Colliers Country Notes - Black Headed Gulls

Black Headed Gull
16th July 2006

There are a number of misnomers in the bird world such as the long eared owl whose tufts have nothing to do with its hearing and everything to do with display. The common gull is not common compared with the other gulls as only the great black-backed gull has smaller numbers. The black-headed gull also come into this category as the head may look black from a distance but, in fact, it is chocolate brown and during the winter there are only one or two small spots of colour showing. Although from a distance some gulls look the same, a closer look at the black-headed gull reveals that it is readily identified as it is one of the smaller gulls and has a dark crimson beak and legs. In flight the white leading edge of the wings gives it away from some distance. In the Highlands, black-headed gulls are the most widespread of this family of birds, partly because of their numbers and partly because they will breed and feed well inland. The noisy colonies are scattered throughout the mainland and the Northern and Western Isles and they choose wet, marshy or boggy areas so that their nests are difficult to reach by predators such as foxes. Choosing such places to build their nests can cause the birds problems if there is little rain and the area dries out, allowing four footed predators to take their toll. Avian predators such as carrion and hooded crows, for example, take the eggs and small young but such invaders risk the wrath of the whole colony of gulls if they get too close. At one time the number of these dainty gulls were adversely affected by egg collecting for food, although now it is only permissible to do this under license (unlike the herring, great and lesser black backed gulls whose eggs can be taken by any person with the owners permission). There is some evidence that the numbers have decreased in the Highlands with colonies disappearing for various reasons such as drying out or disturbance by predators. One colony close to licensed premises near Inverness was disturbed until the birds simply left and nested elsewhere. Apparently the reason was that the birds' droppings were fouling the top of a large sun lounge that was a dining area. The breeding colonies attract attention, but it is the noise itself and the wheeling birds that is intimidating to people and other birds and animals - a sort of safety in numbers approach. Most colonies in the Highlands have between 20 and 100 pairs, although elsewhere in Britain there are several colonies with over 10,000 pairs which must be quite spectacular especially when the chicks are well fledged but still near their nests. Numbers are boosted in winter by immigrants from Northern Europe and Scandinavia, so much so that 10,000 have been known to stay over around the Beauly Firth near Inverness, with even more elsewhere. Being such a widespread bird, the black-headed gull has attracted a range of local names, such as brown headed gull, red legged gull, masked gull, pigeon gull and peewit gull. Pigeon gull may seem odd, but there is some resemblance, in shape, between the two. Peewit gull comes partly because these birds feed in the same places as peewits and partly because they are sometimes a parasite on peewits by stealing their food. As for seeing black-headed gulls virtually anywhere will do from the coast to places inland where groups of gulls are being fed such as rivers and parks where they compete with other gulls for handouts from people.

Ray Colliers Highland Country Diary - Water Lilies

Water Lilies
8th July

Several years ago in the Highlands there was a major scandal when hundreds of water lilies were confiscated by the police from collectors who had all the appropriate clothing and equipment for going under water. They had raided a number of lochs and lochans, taking hundreds of plants, and were being paid a mere pittance for each plant that would have gone on sale at plant nurseries for over £20 each. This incident, and the fact that you could now pay over £25 for a water lily in the Highlands, if you can find one, is an indication of how popular these plants are and what people are prepared to pay to have one in their garden pond. Whilst they may be simply attractive to many people, to the naturalist they often indicate that a loch is good for aquatic plants - which is also frequently a sign of a rich insect life and, to the angler, that means good fishing. Many lochs and lochans in the Highlands have beds of water lilies and as these need deep water as well as shallow it means the water can be rich in dragonflies and the deeper water also attracts toad colonies. By far the commonest water lily in the Highlands is the white water lily. The yellow water lily is very rare, though in some places it has been deliberately introduced. The other water lily to be found in the Highlands is the least yellow water lily and it is also very rare and only found in a few lochs and lochans in hilly areas. The white water lily may add much to the landscape but a closer examination also reveals a very unusual plant especially as the fleshy stems may rise nine feet from the rhizome, with all the flowers and leaves on the surface of the water. The flowers, the largest in Britain, open during the morning and stay open until the evening. When the light fades they close again and sink partly below the water's surface. The leaves are large, up to eight inches in diameter, and, yes, frogs and toads will sit on them, especially young ones when their legs first form. While the flowers of the yellow water lily are smaller, its leaves are larger at 16 inches by 12 inches and in fact they are the largest leaves of any aquatic plant in Britain. The yellow water lily has the nickname "brandy bottle" for two reasons - its flowers give off a smell like stale alcohol and the seed capsules have a remarkable resemblance to miniature bottles of spirits. The white water lily has, over the years, captured the imagination of people, particularly the attractive flowers that have been called "lady of the lake", "swan amongst the flowers", "bobbins" and "waterbells". For poets the white water lily was a symbol of purity of heart and for doctors it was the source of oils and medicines that treated skin blemishes, sunburn and even baldness. The underwater fleshy stems were once eaten as a delicacy and are still served up in some countries. Although water lilies have been much prized in the past for garden ponds and people have always collected them, sometimes illegally, fortunately the plant is very difficult to obtain as the rhizome holds fast to the bottom and the stem is normally too strong to be pulled - and it is the rhizome that is the important part. If this was not the case, there would be far fewer water lilies in the wild.