Guisachan east Red Squirrel survey area summary.

This panorama shows part of the forest to the east of Guisachan farm which I have been surveying for Red Squirrels this last year. Beyond the top of the image is mostly open hill.

If you click on the image it will open in a new browser window and you can pan through the detail.

The mature timber stands consist of Norway Spruce, Sitka Spruce, Larch, Scots Pine and some Douglas Fir.

Young stands are Sitka Spruce and Larch. Around the margins and on water courses and wet areas there are deciduous shrubs and trees such as Willows, Birch, Aspen, Hazel, Beech, Lime, Oak and some granny Pines. The under storey is a mix of grass, bracken and herbs with heath higher up.

Squirrels feed mostly in the Norway Spruce and Larch. Most feeding is in the canopy with some ground feeding in undisturbed areas and ground activity is generally limited to areas with thicker ground cover.

I would consider this area to have a robust population of Red Squirrels up to an elevation of around 200 meters. Beyond that they are less in evidence.  

Red Squirrel Mating Chase maybe?

Three days ago a Red Squirrel showed up at the current camera location which had a white tip to it's tail.

Nothing for three days other than Pine Marten, Badger and Fox at night, and then at about 1400 hrs today white tip was back and chasing about with a second Squirrel. This could well be a mating chase and if so, makes two females that I know have mated this spring and within 350 metres of each other.

Red squirrels in the area should do well this year due to good cone crops and a less harsh winter. Let's hope the spring and summer weather is not too wet.



Red Squirrel Chase from Ron Bury on Vimeo.

The Highland Red Squirrel Group

The Scottish Highlands is now the only large UK mainland area where our native squirrel can still be found living in large healthy populations, free from the threat of competition by the introduced American Grey Squirrel.

There are plans for so called refuge forest areas to be created in the Highland region, consisting chiefly of small seeded conifers which, it is hoped, will provide a Red Squirrel friendly environment of little interest to Grey Squirrels as they continue their inexorable march northwards.

Part of this effort is the ongoing Scottish squirrel survey, the purpose of which is to accurately determine the true extent of the Highlands squirrel population. In the Highland region this is the remit of the Highland Red Squirrel Group which is a charity relying on volunteer surveyors. This method of attempting this task has an inherent problem in that it relies on the unpaid effort of people who have jobs and families to support with relatively little spare time.

I am in the fortunate position of being both active, retired and a bit of an anorak about the plight of our small red friends. Consequently I am able to devote a relatively large amount of time and effort to the task but I am only one person and there's a lot of forest which has never been properly surveyed.

New Squirrel Survey area

I've established presence and distribution over the area I've been surveying this last year and I'm moving on to the next section of forest.

This is an area of about 360 Hectares consisting of a wide mix of tree species with plantations ranging in age from approximately 5 to 30 or 40 years with some clear fell and also old Scots Pine forest.

Elevation is generally between 200 and 300 metres and presents a fairly wide range of habitat from a squirrels point of view.

The images to the left show an area at about 250 metres which is fairly open with a heath understory
and old pine remnants of the original Caledonian forest.

Other parts are dense with a mix of mainly Birch and a lot of self seeded conifers such as Sitka Spruce. This density of undergrowth makes it difficult to find possible feeding signs on the ground and I'm going to employ a new technique for establishing squirrel presence which I will elaborate on at a later date, when I have some early results.