Ray Colliers Highland Country Diary - Sika Deer

Sika Deer
16th October 2006

Sika deer are intermediate in size between red and roe deer and, at this time of the year, have grown their thick, dense winter coat and some of the stags will appear almost black. One conspicuous feature is the white rump patch outlined in black with the black striped tail hanging about half way down. The facial pattern is also distinctive because the dark lines above the eyes contrast with the pale area between them. At close quarters, the small, whitish patches on the rear, lower part of the hind legs is also a feature. Of the four, possibly five, deer in the Highlands, only the native red deer and roe deer are native. The fallow deer were almost certainly brought in by the Normans and whether the tiny muntjac is present is still open to some doubt. Sika deer are native to the islands of Japan and Taiwan and the nearby mainland of Eastern Asia. In 1860, they were introduced to two areas in Britain - one of which was Powerscourt in Ireland. One theory, remarkable if true, is that the majority of sika at present in Britain, including the Highlands, are descendants from the one stag and three hinds of the original introduction to Powerscourt. In the Highlands, the deer have been introduced for sport, simply released or have escaped from deer parks. The most significant release took place at Rosehall Park in Sutherland during World War II. There were about 150 sika in the park and rumour has it that they were simply released when all the fences were pulled down and by 1970 they had spread to Inverpolly just north of Ullapool. Escapes from Garve north of Inverness enabled them to colonise the Kinlochewe area in Wester Ross by the 1980s but an introduction to Rosehaugh on the Black Isle seemed to have been heavily culled and they died out. Much more successful was the introduction of eight sika deer to the Aldourie Castle area at the head of Loch Ness and they are now found south all along the Great Glen. Another introduction, for sport, took place at Glenmazeran in Strathdearn just south of Inverness in 1900. They had problems surviving the cold winters but are now spreading to other nearby areas. As with many other introductions of animals, sika deer have caused problems and, in this case, with forestry interests and their relationship with red deer. Where sika deer occur in large numbers, they can cause damage through browsing on shoots and also de-barking in hard winters. They also have the habit, apparently peculiar to sika deer, of gouging deep score marks on the lower bark of tree trunks. The gouges are made by the stag's antlers and generally occur in the mating season to mark territory and perhaps to warn off other stags or entice hinds. The main problem with sika deer is that they readily hybridise with red deer and this is now so widespread that some people warn that, in the future, there could be no pure bred red deer anywhere on the mainland. As for seeing sika deer in the Highlands there is the problem that where they are culled they are almost strictly nocturnal and only leave the cover of woodland at dusk and are back under cover at dawn. They also have the habit of frequenting dense woodland and they will often just stand and stare, motionless, and they camouflage so well they are difficult to see. The penetrating whistle of the stags can be alarming to people who have not heard it before especially if it is close and in dense cover so that the stag cannot actually be see, only heard.

Ray Colliers Country Notes - Birds of Prey

Birds Of Prey
9th October 2006

Birds of prey are very much to the fore these days what with the success of the red kite re-introduction programme. This was started on the Black Isle near Inverness but has now spread to various parts of Britain and many people just accept the fact that they see red kites with their wonderful flight. However, there is the counter balance in that there are accusations that hen harriers, sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons should have their numbers "controlled" because of the damage they are doing respectively to red grouse, song birds and racing pigeons. There will always be a debate over legally controlling birds of prey and it is difficult to see the way forward, although it has been done in the past. In wartime the numbers of peregrines were reduced because they were killing homing pigeons that were being used to carry vital messages. There are still a few people who take the law into their own hands and perhaps the most persecuted of all the birds of prey are the hen harriers that are shot and have their eggs and chicks crushed underfoot. While it appears that only a very small number of people are doing this, the harrier numbers are low enough for any persecution at any level to have a marked adverse affect. The illegal taking of any eggs is still an ongoing problem and despite the improvement in the legal systems a few years ago it still continues unabated. The greater use of custodial sentences is to be welcomed although in many cases lack of proof is often the problem. Many visitors to the Highlands want to see wildlife that epitomises the "wildness" of the countryside such as red deer stags, salmon, otters and , high on the list, golden eagles. Many buzzards are mis-identified as golden eagles - so much so that they are fondly termed the "tourist eagles" - and their habit of sitting on telegraph poles is convenient. There is a saying that if you see a buzzard then, in the right circumstances, you could identify it as either a buzzard or golden eagle but if you see a golden eagle you would not mistake it for anything else. Fortunately, buzzards are common throughout most of the Highlands and one of the highest densities of them in Britain is on the Black Isle where they can occasionally be seen feeding off a road kill, particularly rabbits. Another bird of prey that has been re-introduced is the magnificent sea eagle. The first re-introduction programme was based on the Isle of Rum, which is well documented by John Love in his book "The Return of the Sea Eagle" published in 1983. A booklet published this year is also by John Love and entitled simply "Sea Eagles" and published by Scottish Natural Heritage. The second re-introduction programme was on a mainland estate near Kinlochewe in Ross-shire. Despite the problems of egg collectors, shooting and poisoning the sea eagles are holding their own and the best place to see them these days is on the Isle of Mull and other places along the western seaboard. Birds of prey make it exciting to be in the Highlands at any time of the year. During the winter birds such as the peregrine and merlin hunt along the coastal strips where there are waders and small duck for the peregrine and small birds for the merlin. You can be watching waders and ducks feeding quietly along the foreshore and suddenly there is panic with birds flying everywhere and it will be a peregrine hunting. Its flight, called a stoop, where the bird hurls itself headlong downward to take it prey is one of the thrills of nature.

Ray Collier Highland Country Diary - Wild Goats

Wild Goats
7th October 2006

Among the most important areas for wildlife in the Highlands, and for that matter the Islands, are those between high and low water in the firths, estuaries and the coastline in general, places we often take for granted. These are complex areas and few plants and animals can cope with the rapid changes in the saltiness, temperature and turbidity of the water during the tidal cycles, but those that can often occur in vast numbers and , in turn, large numbers of birds such as waders and ducks. This is why it has been worthwhile putting up public hides in such places as Udale Bay on the Black Isle, Findhorn bay, the Longman in Inverness and the latest at Nigg Bay on the north east corner of the Cromarty Firth. At any time of the year, but particularly in the winter months, there are many birds to be seen, from oystercatchers to mallard and greylag geese to whooper swans. Some birds, such as the curlew, feed on the large mudflats formed by the silt brought down by the rivers, or carried in by the tide. Others such as the ringed plovers spend more time on the shoreline, often turning seaweed over to look for food. The sandy shores, known as soft shores, are frequented by the likes of sanderling and dunlin which use their beaks to probe into the fresh areas of sand or mud as the waves wash them. On the rocky shores, called hard shores, there may be rock pools where birds such as the oystercatcher can search for shellfish. Rock pools are very complex and can be like miniature jungles as predators and prey battle to survive. Small fish, starfish, winkles, crabs and sea anemones create a wide range of colour that is attractive and fascinating. The best time to look at rock pools is at really low water at low tides as more pools are exposed and the lower they are the more wildlife is likely to be readily found. Looking at low deep rock pools is the answer. Redshank and turnstone, along with the gulls, haunt the rocky coastline after rich pickings and the turnstones in particular are easy to see as they are one of the more confiding of the waders. The one thing common to these areas, whether soft or hard, is seaweed, which may be in small quantities or in huge piles where it has built up over consecutive tides. This can be rich in food for waders, gulls and ducks, but in some places, rather surprisingly, it attracts mammals. Perhaps the most famous is one of the registered rare breeds, the North Ronaldsay sheep, whose ancestors may well have been the first sheep brought to Britain by the early settlers. On this northernmost island of Orkney they have the special ability to live, almost entirely, on a diet of seaweed. Highland cattle will also feed on seaweed, albeit to a much lesser extent, although this habit is not confined to domestic stock. Wild goats from a tribe living at Munlochy Cliff on the Black Isle have been seen feeding on seaweed and a tribe, mainly black, feed on the huge piles of seaweed on the north shore of Loch Linnhe. The red deer on the Isle of Rum are famous for both hinds and stags feeding on seaweed and in parts of the island, red deer, Highland cattle and wild goats have been observed on one small beach all at the seaweed, mainly one of the brown kelps, and especially in the winter and early spring.

Ray Collier Highland Country Diary - Wild Cats

Wild Cats
25th September 2006

About 30 years ago a well-known naturalist in the Highlands stated that it should never be a problem over identifying a wildcat from a gone wild domestic type. Apart from its size, the larger wildcat had a clubbed tail ringed in black, whilst a domestic cat always had a tapering tail. Unfortunately, this is no longer true as there has been so much hybridisation between wildcats and domestic cats, that there is even some doubt whether there are any true wildcats to be found anymore. Some true-to-type looking wildcats have been found to have traces of domestic cat and a pure white cat found not far from Inverness had traces of wildcat. It may well be that 30 years ago there were far fewer domestic cats gone feral or that the wildcat was much commoner, so there was no need to hybridise or it may well be that the methods of identifying the hybrids were just not there. Whilst this may be a problem in itself, there is another one that is increasingly worrying and that is the number of birds and animals being taken by domestic cats, whether they are still domestic or have gone feral and living "in the wild". There are some extraordinary figures quoted for the number of cats that apparently now outnumber dogs at seven and a half million, although it does not say whether this is a figure for domestic cats and/or feral cats. Whatever they are, each year estimates indicate that they account for 60 million songbirds and 300 million small animals such as mice and voles. Some cats are not guilty such as those that never go outside or those, and there are some, that never seem to bother with small birds or animals, but they are few and far between. For the domestic cat that goes outside for part of the day or night, it is sometimes difficult to see why they kill such birds and animals and bring them in because they are well fed. The feral cat is an entirely different matter as it has to kill to survive and in general it will take large prey including three quarter grown pheasants. Some cats seem to have a preference for certain birds such as one in the Highlands that brought in corncrake chicks when they were a lot commoner. More recently a large family of well grown red-legged partridge chicks was reduced one by one with a domestic cat bringing them into the house until the two remaining birds thought enough was enough and flew further down the strath. There have been various debates on solving this wildlife problem and some of the ideas would work for domestic cats. Licences have been suggested and a widespread neutering programme. Another suggestion is that each cat that goes outside should have a collar fitted with not one but two bells. Apparently a creeping cat can move so slowly a single bell does not make a sound but two will. Then there is the new style collar that has a silicon chip so that when the cat is about to leap, the chip emits an electronic squeal and cause a small red light to flash. These have been tested and they seem to work with birds but not so well with animals. So it seems there is an answer as far as domestic cat are concerned, certainly in relation to the number of birds they kill but what can we do about the feral cats that are increasing every year in many parts of the Highlands? The photograph was taken of a cat on sand dunes on the coast but is it a domestic cat, a feral cat or a wildcat?