Cottage Holidays throughout Scotland

2nd March 2009 – Loch Ness

Whether the Loch Ness monster exists or not is open to conjecture but the search for it has given an insight into the rich variety of fish in the loch. Cameras, nets, divers and echo soundings have all helped to reveal some of the secrets of the depths and the large number of types of fish to be found there. Some of the fish are native and one of these has an ancient lineage being survivors from the last ice age. Others have been introduced for a variety of reasons such as live baiting to catch other fish. Others have simply been introduced or escaped and others may have been brought in as eggs on birds legs such as waders and wildfowl.
With the salmon fishing season upon us do the anglers after this prize realise there are 16 other species of fish to be found in the loch? There is much debate over the origin and habits of the brown trout, ferox trout and sea trout. The brown trout lives only in freshwater whilst the sea trout spend some of their lives in the sea. The ferox trout is a trout that, having reached a certain size, turns to eating other fish and grows much larger. Some people try to make these into three different species but others say they are all the same species. What is confusing is that there are very many local names for the trout, probably more than all other freshwater fish put together.
The arctic charr is perhaps the most fascinating fish in the loch especially as it has long been thought of as “an Ice Age relict”. This implies that it may have lived generation after generation in a deep water body associated with the last Ice Age. A few lochs, generally deep, small ones have only arctic charr in them with no brown trout but generally the brown trout and arctic charr can inhabit the same water body. Sometimes the Arctic charr even surpasses the brown trout in numbers in some lochs. Another fascinating fish in Loch Ness is the eel and there has been some debate as to how big they grow there. The eel can grow to about six feet in length but there is no positive record of one that big in the loch. Deep underwater cameras have recorded huge eels going even deeper into the darkness. Divers have reported eels with manes and bodies thicker than a man’s leg but no direct evidence has been forthcoming. The four other native fish are the three spined stickleback, the sea lamprey, the river lamprey and the brook lamprey. The brook lamprey is the most abundant and widespread of the three lampreys in Scotland.
One of the biggest fish in the loch is the pike and there are many reports of seeing specimens 36 inches long. These carnivorous fish could have escaped from the old fish ponds managed for food on days when meat was banned. Pike have also been introduced into many lochs in the Highlands for sporting purposes. They are not native to the Highlands and the reason some of the other non native fish are in the loch is because they were used to catch the pike by live baiting. These include the minnow and perhaps also the dace and roach. Other species in the loch include the perch, carp and rudd although it is not clear how these could have ended up in the loch. Needless to say such a gathering of mixed species, often in large numbers, attracts a number of predators, birds, mammals and, of course, ourselves.

23rd February 2009 – Survival of the fittest – February 09

The wintry conditions of February this year caused major problems for people in a variety of ways. It is interesting to assess what effect it had on wildlife bearing in mind that in some areas there was over a foot of snow and night temperatures were down as low as minus 16 degrees Centigrade. The photograph shows the extent of the snow near Beinn Dearg just south of Ullapool. In the foreground is a loch with a conifer on the right and this is at around 650 feet. Beyond the loch is a burn and then further over is a river. Beyond is Forestry Commission plantations mainly of Sitka spruce, Scots pine and some lodgepole pine. Beyond and above are the snow covered hills and the 3,000 ft peaks are those of the Beinn Dearg massif which is Gaelic for red mountain.
At this time of the year on the hills the red deer, mountain hare and red grouse will survive mainly by clearing snow to get at food such as heather. In prolonged snow lying all three species may move to lower grounds. In such weather ptarmigan may join them although they still tend to stay high. Ptarmigan and red grouse are specially adapted to combat the cold and snow as they have feathers all over their legs and feet to keep them warmer. Predators such as peregrine falcon and golden eagle are a problem and the mountain hare and ptarmigan are both white in the winter for camouflage. With severe weather driving the red deer to lower ground they can do damage to trees by de-barking them, including conifers in the plantations.
The conifer plantations are one of the safest habitats in the area as often the snow does not form a layer below the canopy. There is some evidence to suggest that in the Highlands some brown hares spend most of the winter in woodland and do not go onto open fields until there is a first growth of grass. There is little food in the fields and no cover from predators. Badgers tend to stay in the woodland around their setts and roe deer are mainly woodland deer so stay in the comparative shelter. The absence of siskins in gardens at the moment suggest that they are finding seeds from pine cones and so do lesser redpolls. The foraging bands of mixed titmice can still find food in woodland. Woodcock in woodland can still find some open areas of ground to feed on worms.
Before the cold spell the loch in the foreground attracted around 20 mallard every evening at dusk when they flew in to feed either from the burn or the river. When the pond froze they first stayed in the burn but as stretches of that froze they moved to the river. Even after the low temperatures formed there were still parts of the river open but apparently not enough for the mallard and they flew to the coast. Even with only about half of the river open and free of ice the large male goosanders with their creamy flanks and dark head and neck still persisted in fishing. What was quite remarkable was that the dippers still stayed in their territories and on sunny days could even be heard singing their rippling warble. They sing from October to July and one of the reasons it is so attractive is that in the middle of winter it is so unexpected. It is all a question of the survival of the fittest.

16th February 2009 – Wildfowl

Among the attractions for birdwatchers in the Highlands are iconic birds such as golden eagle, sea eagle and peregrine falcon and part of the attraction is the “wild” countryside in which they can be found. In contrast there is a group of birds that is a Mecca for many bird enthusiasts and they are simply called “wildfowl”. Within the group there are geese, swans and ducks and the latter form the largest numbers of species. By looking at freshwater, such as lochs and rivers, and the coast, including firths and open sea, you could possibly see 21 species of duck at this time of the year.
Some people are attracted to particular groups of ducks such as the seaducks and these include long-tailed ducks, scoters and eiders. There are assemblages of these seaducks at various places in the Moray Firth and you can see them off Chanonry Point, Lossiemouth, Burghead, Loch Fleet and Whiteness Head. If the weather at sea is stormy then some birds seek the shelter of harbours such as the ones at Nairn and Burghead. Some of these sea ducks occur in flocks particularly eider ducks. Winter counts for Whiteness Head east of Inverness and off Eathie on the Black Isle often total 500 birds. These two sites also attract even larger numbers of long-tailed ducks with one count in recent years of 9,000 birds. There are also much smaller flocks sometimes with only a few pairs and this is the case at Udale Bay where a small number of eiders feed on the localised colonies of mussels at Newhall Point. There, when the tide is right, you can sit in your car and watch eiders feeding only twenty yards away.
Ducks are often specialised feeders such as the sea ducks feeding on mussels, crabs and shrimps and where these are plentiful they attract more birds. Such is the case with the relatively shallow water off the Burghead Point. You can sit there and watch common and velvet scoters, eiders, long tailed ducks and goldeneye. There can also be goosanders and mergansers with them and red throated and black throated divers. On freshwater lochs there can also be a good variety of ducks but it really depends on the vegetation in and on the margins of lochs. On Loch Duntelchaig for example there are large areas of water virtually devoid of vegetation wehere there are few ducks there. Loch Flemington on the other hand, a few miles east of Inverness, is well vegetated and shallow and at this time of the year you could see ten species of duck there. If you were lucky you might also see some of the Highlands rarities there such as smew and garganey.
Hides are a convenient way of watching ducks as the birds are not disturbed and they often feed quite close to the hides so that good views can be obtained. There are a number of hides on coastal sites mainly because there are often so many birds feeding or resting on the exposed mud and sand. There are hides at Udale Bay, Nigg Bay, Findhorn and the Longman in Inverness. We could do with some more inland hides such as the one at Loch Ruthven. This RSPB hide was refurbished a few years ago and most people go there in the summer to see the rare Slavonian grebes breeding. A winter visit can also be rewarding as, although there are relatively few ducks there apart from mallard and teal, each winter normally brings a smew, sometimes one of the fabulous looking male birds. For more information look in the popular guide “The top 52 birdwatching sites in the Highlands” especially the up-dated one published in 2006 by the RSPB.