Ray Collier Country Diary - Moths

24th December - Moths

Different moths have various ways of overcoming the winter months with its vagaries of weather. Some moths, such as the aptly named winter moth, the mottled umber and the spring usher, actually emerge during the winter months and most of these have a special adaptation in that the females either have no wings or the wings are so stunted they cannot be used for flight. The lack of wings may have evolved so that the females are not blown away by winter gales. There is also the advantage of not having to find the food plant for the caterpillars as the female is resting on the plant on which she hatched. Another theory is that being wingless they are at less risk from birds as they would be more noticeable in flight. The wingless females release insect hormones as soon as they hatch and this attracts the flying males from some distance.
Some moths such as the garden tiger spend the winter as caterpillars, sometimes in crevices and sometimes underground. The photograph of an attractive adult garden tiger was taken in a garden near Inverness. Other caterpillars like the large emerald over winter by securing themselves to a pad of silk attached to a twig. Some of the larger moths over winter as a chrysalis and spend the cold winter months underground. The recent run of milder winters may have helped many moths survive the cold but unfortunately the down side is that in milder weather the many types of parasites also thrive. One of the larger moths whose chrysalis stays underground for the winter months is very attractive and is a very unusual colour as an adult as it is predominantly pink. The elephant hawk moth has pink wings, body and antennae and this overall colour contrast strongly against its white legs. As if to enhance the colouration of the moth even further there are olive green markings on the body and wings and a black patch on both the hindwings. The males and female moths are similar and there is very little colour variation.
These attractive moths have an intriguing distribution in the Highlands as prior to 1990 there were very few records and those were well scattered. Then the Highland Biological Recording Group started moth recording and the results were quite remarkable. New records show the main distribution centres on Inverness, the Black Isle and Easter Ross right up to Lairg and to a lesser degree around Skye and Lochalsh. Either the moth has been overlooked in the past or it is rapidly extending its range for some unknown reason. The adult moths feed on nectar at night time and they have a long flight season from May to early August. They can occasionally be found at rest during the day but they fly from dusk onwards feeding on the wing like miniature humming birds on long nectar flowers such as honeysuckle. The spectacular looking large caterpillar is more often seen than the moth particularly when they are found wandering before they pupate. Unlike most moth caterpillars there are two colour forms. The usual one is brown grey but there is also a green form but both are able to protect themselves from would be predators by changing their shape which causes the false eyes on the head to expand and then it looks menacing although it is quite harmless. Around Inverness the moths and caterpillars can be found in a wide variety of places including rough grassland often with disturbed or burnt ground where rosebay willow herb occurs as this is the main food plant of the caterpillars.

Ray Collier Country Diary - Isle of Rum

Isle of Rum - 17th December 07

The "From Our Files" section of the Inverness Courier, a newspaper published in Inverness, often includes information about wildlife and the countryside and such was the case recently under the heading "50 YEARS AGO". There was a note from the Courier for 19.11.1957 that stated that the Island of Rhum, extending to 26,400 acres, had been bought by the Nature Conservancy for £23,000. It was one of a series of nine National Nature Reserves with five of them being in Scotland and two, the Islands of St.Kilda and Rhum, were in Inverness-shire. The Isle of Rhum had been a mystery up until the purchase as it was widely known as the "Forbidden Island" as access was by invitation only and keepers would accost anyone who tried to land. Even the name was spelt wrongly as its original name was Rum but George Bullough who inherited the island from his father, John Bullough, changed it in 1905. Rum had the connotation of alcohol so it became Rhum, and interestingly, it was not changed back until only a few years ago.
The potential of Rum was soon realised but in those early days few could have realised how important the island would become. An early report to Parliament some years before it became an NNR stated that Rum "….would make an outstanding station for research and experiment and, indeed, the most suitable island for this purpose in Scotland." Although some of the research has international acclaim such as the long term work on red deer there is another side. Countless groups of pupils and students from colleges, schools and universities have used Rum for studies with many staying at the back of the famous Kinloch Castle. The work on the red deer by Cambridge University is one of the longest running studies of a large mammal anywhere in the world. This has largely been carried out on a study area based on Kilmory on the north side of the island. Individual recognition of deer is the backbone to the research and this has been done by the use of ear tags and neck collars. The findings are now being applied to deer management throughout Scotland and beyond. The photograph is of a red deer stag "in velvet" and a hind in front.
Rum was the first choice to implement the re-introduction of the sea eagle in the 1970s and 80s. Young birds were brought in from Norway and were fed in large enclosures high above Glen Harris. The introductions gave rise to the present breeding population of sea eagles mainly based on the west coast including the Isle of Mull. Another famous breeding bird on the island is the Manx shearwater and their colonies are, unusually, high in the hills. Estimates vary but at around 70,000 pairs it is believed to be the largest colony in the world. Their presence gave rise to the name of one of the hills, Trollaval, named by the Norsemen. The Vikings had points along the coast they used for navigation and called these vals. When they landed on Rum they climbed up one of the hills and heard what they thought were trolls calling underground. What they heard was the wailing night time calls of the shearwaters so the name Trollaval came into use.
The island is now managed by Scottish Natural Heritage who believe that "Rum presents a unique opportunity to learn from the past, share the present and work towards an exciting future for this remarkable island".

Ray Collier Country Diary - Crows

Crows - 10th December 2007

There are two "races" of the crow in the Highlands, namely the hooded crow and the carrion crow. The hooded crow is easy to identify as it is the only medium sized bird in the Highlands with a pinkish grey body. The deep beak, legs and feet are black as are the wings and breast. The carrion crow is all black and in the right light the plumage has an attractive slightly bluish sheen. These too are easily distinguished but the problem lies in the fact that around Inverness both races readily hybridise and their offspring are fertile. In the hybrids the amount of pinkish grey feathers is highly variable and this causes problems in identification. In extreme forms, such as in the photograph, there may only be a few pinkish grey feathers and in this bird there are just a few, easily overlooked, on the back of the neck. Both crows were part of Celtic folklore and they were associated with goddesses who were supposedly around long after the arrival of Christianity. This ancient Celtic belief was founded on war goddesses that revelled among the bodies after battles and there is little doubt that crows would tackle corpses after people had fallen. One story goes that when King John was riding into Perth his assignation was foretold by a Highland woman. She had been told of this by a "Huthart" which was a hooded crow. This could well be where the other Scots name of "Huddy" came from.
The distribution of these crows in the Highlands is a reflection of their success that started when the gamekeepers went to the two World Wars and many of them did not come back. The birds are also very adaptable and can be seen feeding in a wide variety of places. They will scavenge on roadsides for animals and birds that are road casualties whilst in contrast they will fly up in the air with shellfish from the shore line and drop them onto rocks to split them open. A good place to see this is at Udale Bay, near Cromarty, on the Black Isle. They can be found on the high tops searching for ptarmigan eggs and deer carrion and will feed on salmon that die in rivers and lochs. If you want to see a crow then look no further that the banks of the River Ness or in any of the larger car parks of supermarkets and other large or even small stores. Around and in Inverness there has been a subtle change in recent years as they have become very regular visitors to gardens for the increase in food being put out for other birds. The birds can now rely on garden feeding all the year round and they take full advantage of the situation. They have become very persistent and will dominate all other garden birds.
Most of the crows seldom move more than a few miles from their breeding site but in the winter there is an influx of immigrants. In October and November some Scandinavian hooded crows reach the Highlands and then remain until early spring. A measure of the crows success is that the oldest bird lived over 19 years. Scots names for crows are corbie, midden crow and mussel crow. The Gaelic name is Starrag or Feannag. Crows produce emotive thoughts from such people as farmers and keepers and yet despite the "war" against them they continue to flourish and their future seems more than assured.

Ray Collier Country Diary - Highland drover Project

Highland Drover Project - 3rd December 2007

Recently I visited the Dingwall and Highlands Marts to see what progress was being made with the "Highland Drover Project" by the Highland Livestock Heritage Society. Part of the project will be a very large exhibition in a floor above the Mart sales area and it will cover all round the walls. This means it will be very comprehensive and from what I saw of the plans it will not only be of immense historical value to the Highlands but of international importance and significance. The international aspect is covered by displays about stockmen and the pedigree stock who went out from the Highlands and Islands to Canada and the Americas, New Zealand and Australia and contributed to the development of the livestock industry there. Other displays will include cattle dealing and droving history, the breeding of livestock, a photographic montage of all the breeds and many others. I gather that the exhibition will be completed after Christmas and I for one cannot wait to see the final result. As a background to this information very many documents and photographs have been accumulating under the watchful and very enthusiastic eye of Janey Clarke who has set up the society archive at the Mart.
Janey produces two newsletters for the Society each year plus a calendar and both these publications are already of historical interest as they include photographs of many scenes of droving, some old and some more recent. I have the Newsletter "Archive News No 3 June 2007" in front of me and there are old photographs such as droving cattle from Fairburn Estate through Glen Orrin in the late 1940s prior to the dam being built. Another photograph shows the ford on the River Beauly at Ferrybrae where tens of thousands of cattle from Muir of Ord cattle market crossed the river on their way south to the market at Falkirk during the 18th and 19th centuries. We tend to forget the role of the Highland Ponies in the world of droving but there are notes in the newsletter about John Cameron of Coriechoillie, the legendary drover, who kept a stud of Highland ponies in Lochaber some time previous to 1833. The ponies were of all colours including grey, yellow-cream and piebald. The newsletter also contains information about the fleam or bleeding knives that were used by drovers and crofters for bleeding animals. As for the calendar I have the one for this year and look forward to the one for 2008 which is now available at Dingwall Mart for £5 plus 65p for post and packing. One aspect of the research by the Society is the identifying and surveying of drove roads. Whilst many routes are shown in the map at the back of Haldane’s " The Drove Roads of Scotland" (1952) there are a large number that have gone unrecorded. It is worth remembering that these routes came from all parts of the Highlands and Western Isles.
Thanks must go to all the people who have contributed, whether in a small or large way, to the compilation of this important historical archive that is still evolving. If you can help with photographs, documents, letters or artefacts then please contact the Society. The display, when it is finished, will be a visual display for prosperity of the heritage of cattle management and droving. It is worth bearing in mind that none of this would have been possible without the very generous assistance of the Dingwall and Highlands Marts. The importance of the work of the Heritage Society cannot be over-emphasised and it is of cultural as well as historical value. If you want to support both the Society and the Drover Project then why not join at £10 for an annual subscription? The address is Highland Livestock Heritage Society, C/o Dingwall and Highland Marts, Bailechaul Road, Dingwall IV15 9TP.