One of the richest areas for wildlife in the Highlands, considering its size, is the Black Isle which means it is on the doorstep to large numbers of people.    As an indication of its diversity there are six sites listed in “The top 52 bird watching sites in the Highlands “ published by the RSPB in 2006.   The origin of the name “Black Isle” has always been open to debate with a number of theories.  At one extreme is the reputation for witchcraft whilst the other is that snow does not often fall there.    Many of the sites on the Black Isle have been publicised  and the RSPB booklet lists Munlochy  Bay, recently mentioned in these Country Notes, Avoch, Chanonary Point. Rosemarkie Beach, Fairy Glen and Udale Bay.

One of the most popular of these is Udale Bay where there is a public hide open at all times of the year.   As with other sites on the Black Isle, in the bay there can be some spectacular sightings of wildfowl including geese, particularly pink-footed geese,  and ducks.   Flighting between tides can involved hundreds of birds in the air at once.  One spin off of these assemblages of birds lies with perhaps the most dramatic of the birds of prey in the Highlands, the peregrine falcon. There is growing evidence that these bird forsake their summer breeding  territories and resort to the coast for the winter months.  There they prey not only on the smaller ducks but also the waders such as redshank and even curlew.  If you see wildfowl or waders suddenly take off for some reason it may be the peregrine is around.  

The Black Isle is also well renowned for its birds of prey with the commonest being the buzzard and red kite.  At one time this area had the greatest concentration of buzzards in Scotland although these days with its increase in numbers elsewhere this may not be the case.  The red kites, despite the secondary poisoning from rats, is still readily seen both in the breeding season and winter.  This is not surprising as two of their release points for the re-introduced birds were on the Black Isle.    Smaller birds should not be forgotten and a spring or early summer trip to the RSPB reserve at Fairy Glen near Rosemarkie is a must.   Breeding birds include dippers, grey wagtails, great spotted woodpeckers, spotted flycatchers, siskins and goldcrests.

There are plenty of other attractions in the area and some are rather more secretive than the birds.  One lies in the mysterious looking series of  kettle holes lying on the edge of the western end of the Black Isle.  These are  large ponds formed by the action of ice during the last ice age.  It is in these water bodies that the very rare great crested newt is found.  These are the largest of the British newts with the female up to 19 centimetres long.  They are strictly protected even from disturbing or handling them.  Their origin has always been a talking point as some say they are native to the Highlands whilst other say they were deliberately or accidentally introduced.   They share the kettle holes with the palmate newts that are much commoner throughout the Highlands.   The other species of newt, the smooth newt which is the commoner of the three newts over some part of Britain has a strange distribution in the Highlands.  For many  years there was some doubt as to whether it even occurred in the Highland but now records suggest this may have to be revised.

One of the many places in and around Inverness to see a wide variety of wildlife lies on the south shore of the Black Isle.   Munlochy Bay has long been known as a popular viewpoint and attraction for birdwatchers.  It was recently in the news when a new information panel was erected on the side of the hide.  It was sponsored by the Moray Firth Partnership and the Black Isle and Mid Ross Wildfowlers’ Club.   This excellent panel highlights other aspects of the area including two saltwater mills in 1815 that were grinding grain.   These worked by a mound and a sluice. The force of the tide opened the folding gate of the great sluice when coming in.  The weight of the body of the water shut them on its return.  A small volume of water was let off onto the outer wheel which was larger that on most other mills.  It then ground for sixteen hours of the twenty four, eight hours on each tide.    Other aspects are highlighted by the new panel including the Bay quarry, the caves and the Black Isle Railway where the line, on the way to Fortrose, passed thorough the current car park.

However, it is the wildfowl, namely ducks and geese, against a superb backcloth of the surrounding countryside and the distant hills to the south that mainly attracts people these days.   Such is the attraction that the Bay is listed in “The top 52 bird watching sites in the Highlands” in the third edition that includes two new sites and many revisions.  It was produced by the RSPB with this edition printed in 2006.   Part of the attraction for the birds is the tidal nature of the Bay as when this retreats it opens up vast areas of mudflats rich in food not only for wildfowl but also for waders.   Ducks include wigeon, sometimes with flocks of over 1,000 birds, teal, mallard and shelduck.  The geese include large numbers of greylag and pink-footed geese.  The concentrations of waders is impressive especially when the tide is making or ebbing and the bird are on the move.

Herons are always present and this is partly because there is a heronry nearby.  The Bay is also a good place to carry out a sky watch.  The sea watch approach is a regular feature along such coasts involving simply looking out to sea for birds that are moving through either migrating or flighting between roost and feeding areas.  Sky watch is the same principle but simply looking up, especially for birds of prey.  At Munlochy Bay this often produces red kites as they breed on the Black Isle and it was one of the original release points for the re-introduced young  birds.   Buzzards are commonly seen and there is always the chance of seeing the rare sea eagle.   Munlochy Bay is one of the important local places for  birdwatchers although to appreciate some birds, such as  waders, a telescope is well worth using.
The large numbers of birds, particularly the wildfowl, are the main attraction of the Bay but there are some interesting mammals to be seen.  Otters are frequent although disturbance means they are generally only seen at dawn and dusk and some of them may be strictly nocturnal.  The best time to see them is when the water is calm as their ripples whilst swimming  are a give away.  Roe deer are frequent in the wooded areas and can be seen at dawn and dusk when they come out to feed.  The wild goats on Munlochy Cliff have been there for a long time although their origin is unknown.  The tribes are relatively pure although  in the past one  or two domestic goats have been released with them.

Salmon have been very much in the news recently for a number of reasons but mainly because of the concern over their numbers and the threats to them.  A good example was the BBC’s recent Autumnwatch  that went through the full life history of salmon and the dangers facing them at various stages.   Simon King gave a very balanced view of the current situation with the invaluable help of  Marine Scotland Science who used to be, I am informed, the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory at Pitlochry.  The photography was superb and, as usual, the favourites for the viewers must have been the salmon leaping the falls.  There are a number of places in the Highlands where this can be seen at the right time of the year.  One that is  less well known than the others is the area on the River Beauly at the Power Station near Beauly.  One very well known one is the Rogie Falls just north of Garve and equally famous are the Falls of Shin near Lairg in Sutherland. 

There has been a great deal of discussion over the catch and release system where anglers have caught salmon on rod and line and then returned them to the water.  There is plenty of evidence that these salmon survive although there are some doubters when certain methods are used to catch them.   Meanwhile the controversy over the affect of fish-farms still rages on  with various claims made, some of which do not seem to be  proven one way or another.  The “King of Fish”  has long attracted writers and poets and one recent monograph is aptly named.   It is “The Sea and Back: The Heroic Life of the Atlantic Salmon” by Richard Shelton and published by Atlantic Books.

There is no more contentious issue over the conservation of salmon than the role of predators and this was raised under the programme Autumwatch.   Such predation is easy to see in the City of Inverness on the River Ness.   Grey seals often hunt the salmon there and can often be seen throwing large fish up into the air as if playing with them.  Last week a party of five goosanders were there taking albeit small fish and seemingly very successful.  The photograph shows one of the birds coping very well with the choppy water and fishing upstream from the Castle and completely ignoring the people passing only a few yards away on the south side of the river.  Their beaks are ideal for catching slippery fish as the insides of their beaks have finely serrated cutting edges.  These are amongst the sawbills of the duck world and the only other breeding sawbill in Britain is the red-breasted merganser.   Otters also frequent the River Ness although they are relatively secretive and seldom seen.

Elsewhere in the Highlands the scale of predation is much higher from the huge rookeries of grey seals to the cormorants that seem to be increasing inland.  Very few species seem to have escaped the wrath of the anglers who claim significant and serious losses of not only salmon but also sea trout. Their opponents say that despite much research by various government bodies scientific proof of serious predation  is still lacking.  They compare such losses with that meted out by man in various forms, including netting, and perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between.  Whatever the truth the fact remains that the Atlantic salmon is in crisis and for whatever cause the ongoing action must be seen to be sufficient or who knows what the future holds in store?