Autumn colours

 Autumn's well under way now and back as early as the 26th August the bracken (left) was turning at Corrimony.

This year has generally been fairly wet this far north and not, it seems, a good year for the development of some fruits. I've been checking fallen Hazel cobs recently and haven't found a kernel more developed than the one below which was 5mm across instead of about 13mm.

The Bird Cherry (bottom) on the other hand, is fully grown but these tiny seeds (3mm) are not going to help squirrels who would normally be enjoying the autumn Hazel crop.

I haven't seen any Rowan berries either, this year, other than one bush in a Glen Urquhart forest car park. I don't know what they're like in the wider area but people tell me there is a lot of fruit down south, which of course, has been a lot sunnier.

While on the subject of autumn colours, you may have noticed the change of colour scheme for these pages. I'd tired of funereal black and decided to brighten up the presentation. I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with the way it looks so far, so there may be more changes to come.

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.

Squirrel feeding signs - Norway Spruce

In the area I'm currently surveying, all the Red Squirrels I'm finding are feeding on Norway Spruce cones; which means they are heavily concentrated in these forest blocks. Old and new feeding is frequent and easy to find so I thought it would be a good opportunity to show some of the signs to look for.

First of all you need to identify trees with good cone crops and then you can start looking beneath them to see if squirrels are present. If you find a tree with cone remains scattered loosely around its base, together with a similar scattering of torn off scales as illustrated on the left,

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.