Cottage Holidays throughout Scotland

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?

The chaffinch is, arguably, the commonest and most widespread breeding  bird in Scotland and this is apparent with the numbers and distribution  of them in and around  Inverness.    If  birds are fed in the garden then the chaffinch will take almost any food as it freely takes  mixed seed, peanuts, sunflower hearts and nyjer. Another aspect of garden feeding is that some birds are not there all the year round.   Some react to the abundance of “wild” food and  siskins may go off for part or all of the winter seeking natural cone seeds.   Not so the chaffinch as it always seems to be there, often outnumbering  even the blue, great and coal tits.    There is the other side of the story as with so many chaffinches it is often the choice prey of sparrowhawks.  This is particularly the case with the  male sparrowhawk as it is 25% smaller than the female.  The male will concentrate on birds  such as chaffinches, yellowhammers and great tits whilst the female will go for blackbirds and starlings.  Large females have even been known to take wood pigeons and birds of similar size.

So what do we know about the chaffinch,  why are they so successful, are they all as resident as they seem and have they  any threats?   The numbers seem extraordinary as in Scotland there has been estimates of 1.5 million pairs which is matched by few other birds although there are reputed to be the same number of wrens.   Ringing has shown that the chaffinches breeding in gardens and the surrounding countryside around Inverness  are fairly resident.  Most movements are within 10 kilometres of their nest site and movements of  over 100 kilometres are very unusual.   There are a few exceptions especially when bad weather, such as snow and ice, force the birds  to move downhill to lower slopes and more  shelter.  As soon as the weather  improves they quickly move back to their former haunts.

From now on, until the spring, all may not be as its seems as the resident chaffinches are often joined by visitors from afar.  We may be used to geese and swans coming down from countries such as Iceland and the traditional immigration of thrushes such as redwings and  fieldfares  is also known and expected  as a welcome winter addition to our birds.    It may come as a  surprise to learn that chaffinches also come to the Highlands from Scandinavia so that there is the chance that some of the  birds in our gardens in the winter may not, after all, be as local as we think.   There is an interesting aspect of such movements.  If you see a flock of birds in the winter and there are far more females than males, the birds are likely to have come from Scandinavia.  Apparently in these northern breeding sites the majority of males do not move.  This was known by Linnaeus who gave the birds its Latin name of “coelebs” as the males did not move and were classed as “celibate”.

So what makes the chaffinch so successful?  It has not always been the case as in the wider picture birds in England and other southern parts they decreased drastically as toxic seed dressings took their toll.  Another factor may have been the widespread destruction of  hedges and  woodland being felled.    Scotland escaped most of this and the numbers stayed high.   Part of the success is the birds ability to adapt to such a wide variety of habitats and food.   One of the spin offs of the birds numbers and popularity is that  it has, probably, more Scots names than    any other bird with over forty listed  plus three Gaelic names.