Ray Collier Country Diary- Bogbean

9th June 2008 - Bogbean

Bogbean, despite its appearance, is a member of the gentian family of wild flowers and it has long been considered as one of the most attractive plants in the Highlands and beyond. It is a hairless plant, with upright stems and leaves raised above the water surface and the leaves have three large leaflets and bases which form a sheath around the stem. It is the branching spikes of up to 20 flowers that catch the eye and the five petals are fringed with white cottony hairs and the sepals are white with rose coloured margins. Part of the plants success is the ability not only to spread by the yellow brown buoyant seeds but also by the roots. The latter are thick and somewhat spongy and they arise from rhizomes that may be hanging in the water.
The 2002 Plant Atlas indicates it is common throughout the Highlands and both the Western and Northern Isles. It often forms a fringe between the emergent plants and open water in lochs, lochans, ponds and occasionally marshy areas. Naturalists, herbalists and poets have, over the centuries, paid homage to its beauty and it has always been very popular with gardeners as it is so easy to propagate. It is often sold in garden centres for outdoor ponds and boggy areas. The strong smell of the flowers, many people think this is its only fault as it is rather overpowering, attracts many insects, although it is mainly only bees and some butterflies that can reach the nectar, and lead to pollination. Because of the plant’s habit of growing out of the water with strong stems it is widely used by dragonflies and damselflies as they emerge from the water to cast their last skins before becoming adults. A close look at the stems will often reveal the final skins of these attractive insects.
Old folk lore suggests that the leaves could stop the diseases of sheep such as rot but this is unlikely as the leaves are notoriously bitter to the taste. Despite this the leaves were used at one time to flavour beer instead of using hops. The leaves were also dried and put into herbal cigarettes which were mostly made from the cured leaves of coltsfoot and the bogbean was supposed to have improved the flavour. The whole plant was also used to make a green dye. It was long considered as one of the most useful plants in medicine and when it was made into a tea it was supposed to cure a variety of ailments as with many of the old so called concoctions.
The name, bogbean, comes from the roughly broad bean like shape of the leaves which hardly does justice to the intricacy of the flowers. One local name for the plants is "goat beans" which is a fair description as goats are one of the few animals that will eat them. Other local names are buckbean and trefold whilst the Scots names are bog nut and marsh-trefoil. There are several Gaelic names but the commonest in the Highlands is Tri-bioleach, meaning three-lipped or three-leaved. Despite being widespread and attractive none of the Clans appear to have taken it as a plant badge. Bogbean grows on the edges of water bodies around Inverness and the photograph was taken at a small roadside pond on the road from Essich to Dunlichity. It is included in the lists of plants for which there is conservation concern partly because, down south, it has, in the past, been collected to transplant into gardens because it is so attractive.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Loch Bran

2nd June 2006 - Loch Bran

Loch Bran lies a mile west of the southern end of Loch Mhor south of Inverness and although it is renowned for its dragonflies it is also rich in other wildlife. This has been recognised by the pupils of the nearby Foyers Primary School who carried out a survey of the wildlife interest. The two interpretive panels that they compiled are at the parking area at the south end of the loch and give an insight into the wildlife interest. One panel shows photographs and drawings of bog asphodel, orchids, fungi, frogs, damselflies and dragonflies. The main photograph is a very attractive snowy scene showing trees in the background. The other panel is of "Loch Bran Life" which includes photographs and drawings of water lilies, horsetails, sundew, lungwort and dragonfly. This panel also has a list of "do" and "do not" in a form of country code which is enlightening. In the centre of the second panel is a message from the pupils that says "We have enjoyed looking at Loch Bran and would like to thank the Boleskine Environmental network, the Forestry Commission and the Highland Council Rangers".
At this time of the year only a few flowers are out but there was a good show of bogbean with the white flowers contrasting with the dark peaty water. The colour of the scene came mainly from the brightly coloured sphagnum mosses with the background of the bright green unfolding leaves of the birch woodland. White water lilies are a feature of the western part of the loch in the summer but they were only just growing with the leaves only two or three inches across. The woodland outwith the loch was a different matter as the combination of primroses, wood anemones and lesser celandines was really spectacular. There were a few damselflies fluttering low amongst the vegetation but they had all just emerged and had little colour and the wings were not transparent. A single female mallard swam across the flat calm, open water followed by a drake some distance behind. This seems typical of so many pairs of mallard this year as the early clutches of eggs seem to have been lost for some reason. On the eastern part of the loch a pair of little grebes were a surprise and judging by the trilling call it was a breeding pair. This is the smallest of the two breeding grebes in the Highlands, even smaller than the Slavonian grebe. They will winter inland if the weather is mild, otherwise they go to the firths, rivers and coasts. They have slowly been increasing in numbers, perhaps because of a run of mild winters. One threat to them is the introduced pike to some lochs where the pike are large enough to easily take an adult grebe. Other threats include drainage and oil pollution at sea.
Twenty-five acres of the eastern end of Loch Bran is open water where the brown trout fishing is excellent. The fish are particularly well marked with very prominent reddish-orange spots on the flanks. The loch has not been stocked but other native fish, in common with most lochs in the Highlands, are the three spined stickleback and the ubiquitous eel. There is a fine boat moored at the south end and can be hired from the Whitebridge Hotel. The brown trout rise all over the loch and, whilst the average weight is 10 oz, fish of over 3 lb in weight are taken. Fishing is fly only but it can be fished on Sundays. Loch Bran is well worth a visit at any time in the coming summer months.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Swallows

26th May 2008 - Swallows

Swallows are unmistakable if you can see their russet feathers on the throat and the long tail streamers. The upper parts are bluish black which shines iridescent in sunlight and this contrasts with the whitish underpants. If their tails are spread then the white spots on them are conspicuous. The main feature that separates the male from the female is the length of the tail as it is longer in the male. Juveniles have tails even shorter than the females and when, later in the summer, the first family parties sit on overhead lines the sex and age can clearly be seen by the length of the tail feathers. Swallows are graceful in flight and they are constantly swooping up and down and circling to and fro as if being aerobatic. These flights are to catch their main food, insects, and if the weather is poor then the insects are much lower and the birds sometimes take the insects almost at ground level. At this time of the year around Inverness the huge number of insects feeding on sycamore blossoms attract many swallows plus house martins and sand martins. Swallows drink by swooping low over the water and taking it up in their comparatively large beaks. Swallows rarely land on the ground apart from when they are gathering nest material including mud to build the nest and feathers and grasses to line it. The photograph of a swallow chick was taken at a nest in a barn near Inverness. Incubation starts when the last egg is laid so that the chicks all leave the nest at the same time.
A hundred years ago swallows were absent from parts of the mainland of the Highlands and absent from the Western and Northern Isles. Now they are widespread across the mainland and breeding on the Western and Northern Isles. Further south in Britain it is a different story as the birds are scarce or absent from some areas of the Home Counties and several rural towns, previously with dozens of pairs, now only have a handful. This has been put down to loss of livestock on local farms which attracted insects, pesticides and the loss of muddy puddles and ponds. Presumably, like the house martin, before there were so many buildings swallows nested on cliffs or the edge of caves. Derelict croft houses in the Highlands now make ideal nesting sites and they share them with jackdaws and starlings.
The latest Highland Bird Report classes them as a "common breeder" and mentions roosts of 1,000 plus swallows in a reed bed near Nairn. Such roosts perhaps gave rise to the idea at one time that swallows simply hibernated in mud or under water for the winter. Even Gilbert White believed this as he carefully watched the birds go into a large roost in reeds and disappear not to be seen again. The birds just took off at first light for their long flight to winter quarters in Africa. Contrary to popular belief the saying " one swallow doesn’t make a summer" is not confined to Britain as it has its counterpart in several European languages. In any case this is a misquoted version of Aristotle, a 4th century BC Greek philosopher, who said "Two swallows do not make a summer". Local names include chimney swallow and house swallow, Scots names are latower and swallie whilst the Gaelic name is Gobhlan-gaoithe meaning forked one of the woods. The numbers of swallows in the Highlands seem to depend on changes in their winter quarters in Africa.