Scottish Wildlife Trust

Aberdeen Members Group

Newsletter - Spring 2009

At the last AGM, two long-standing members resigned from the committee. Both have been involved with the Members Centre for over 20 years. There are many reasons to say “thank you” to both of them.

Esther Woodward has held various posts on committee culminating in Chairperson. Whatever post Esther was in, she put in a huge amount of effort. Esther would think nothing of travelling to Edinburgh or Inverness for Regional Committee Meetings. Esther certainly kept the name of the SWT Aberdeenshire known to H/Q. At weekends she would help on work parties on local reserves, she would be organising botanical surveys of various sites. Her expertise in Planning and Forestry has allowed the Members Centre to comment knowledgably on several applications and the Members Centre has gained a credible reputation. There have been times when the committee and Members Centre have been in the doldrums. At one point it looked as if the Members Centre might cease to exist. Esther kept her enthusiasm for the Members Centre and rallied everyone to keep the Committee and Members Centre going. Esther might be retiring from committee but she will still be involved with SWT.

Oonagh Watt is well known at the indoor meetings for helping provide the tea and cakes after the talk. This is only a small part of the work she has done for the Branch. Oonagh has been Membership Secretary for many years so she has had the onerous task of organising the delivering and posting of the local newsletter. With about 800 members, this has been no mean feat. Oonagh has used her botanical knowledge by helping out with various surveys done by the Members Centre in the past. As Oonagh doesn’t drive, this meant often a bus journey and then a walk in to where she was going. It is good to know Oonagh will still be at the indoor meetings as she is  carrying on helping out with the teas.

So we are not really saying goodbye to either of them, they are now both able to enjoy SWT as ordinary members! This is a small appreciation of what they have both done for the branch. We wish them well.

Having taken on the chairmanship of Aberdeen Member Centre a few months ago I thought it would be opportune to introduce myself to you, the SWT members, and tell you a little about my background and something about my aspirations.

I’ve lived in Scotland for 41 years now, and with my two sons having been born and raised in Aberdeenshire, I regard myself very much as a local. Certainly, I absolutely love living in the North East of Scotland. I am a professional biologist being a graduate in Zoology from Dundee University and carrying out research into the effects of acidification on Scottish lochs at Stirling before getting a job with one of the old river purification boards in Elgin in 1976.

I’ve served my time as a marine and freshwater ecologist in the Grampian area and now have a great job in the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as Head of Ecology. My main responsibility is the ecological assessment of rivers and lochs throughout Scotland to ensure we keep them in good quality. Nowadays, I spend a fair amount of time helping to develop policy and new assessment methods for the protection and improvement of the ecological health of our freshwaters. To do this effectively I work at Scottish, UK and EU level, in fact, I chair a group of expert ecologists representing all the EU member states and working for the European Commission to ensure we are all doing it right! So my love of Scotland’s nature is both my hobby and my job.

My other great passion centres around walking and climbing hills and mountains. This interest sprang from a deep appreciation of Scotland’s landscape and has led me to many beautiful places in this country, being a complete Munroist, and abroad, climbing mountains in the Alps, Himalayas, Africa, Alaska and Mexico.

So that’s a little on who I am; what about where I would like to go with the SWT Member Centre? I have had some really great and enthusiastic predecessors as chairman who will be hard to emulate. I have some major advantages: there is a very high level of enthusiasm and experience on the Member Centre committee and other willing volunteers for key jobs like editing the newsletter; screening development applications and organising maintenance of our reserves. Many of our members are expert field taxonomists and always willing to lead group walks and share their knowledge. We have an extremely strong and growing membership, about 1800 signed up at the latest count.

Our primary effort must be to maintain our local reserves in good condition and to encourage volunteers to help do this alongside the reserve managers and coordinators. We need to continue to provide walks and talks that enthuse and educate about wildlife. But in addition, I believe that the current emphasis by the Scottish Government on stakeholder participation for setting priorities for sustainable development provides SWT with some opportunities at the local level. I would like to see us getting more involved in helping to set priorities for the restoration of habitats in the wider countryside, and for lochs, rivers and wetlands. There are plenty of avenues opening up for this and I’ll say more about that in another article. Meanwhile please do get in touch with me on any issue to do with the SWT Member Centre and share ideas on what services we should be providing or on what we should be doing to improve the environment for wildlife.

Red Moss of Netherley
Myself and our Fundraising Manager – Steven Gardner, had a very useful meeting just before Christmas with representatives of Jacobs – the company who are managing the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route Offset Funding Project. Our proposed project has been recommended to receive nearly £16,000 of funding from this. After meeting with SNH’s Wetland Advisor, this money (if received) will be spent on installing more dams, and cutting birch, gorse and heather from the site. The damming work already completed by Mike Stevens and his volunteers was praised by the SNH Advisor We wait the final outcome with fingers crossed! We will also be shortly digging out the ditch at the side of our main access to the site, and fencing alongside the ditch, to stop our neighbours cattle from poaching the access route.

Gight Wood
Several projects on this reserve including bracken control, path upgrading and boundary fence repairs have recently been put forward for funding from the new Scottish Regional Development Project. This is a national pot of money and we await the outcome of our proposal. Mike has continued to carry out path maintenance and we recently had to bring in contractors to remove a large tree which had blown over in the wind, but got caught up in its neighbour near the entrance to the reserve. Mike and his team of volunteers have also continued to remove the small stand of larch / lodge pole pine within the reserve. Volunteers from Grampian squirrel group have been surveying the reserve and surrounding land for red squirrels.

Longhaven Cliffs
More funding! Possible funders have been identified to fund a project to upgrade the footpath on the reserve. This may have to be carried out in several phases over a few years. The proposal is to upgrade the footpath and possibly convert one of the old buildings on site into a shelter, where some reserve interpretation could be placed. (this is an old project resurrected) I have a meeting with our fundraiser and Aberdeenshire Council coming up shortly. New signs have been erected at the three access points with funding kindly supplied by Apache – the company our Council Member, Owen Vaughan is employed by. Once again Mike has been carrying out footpath and fencing repairs on site. A new aquachannel across the quarry road entrance constructed by BEAR Scotland appears to have solved the problem of water running onto the main road (a problem, SWT were accused of creating, and strenuously denied by myself)

Coulnacraig Meadows
Mike has carried out his annual strimming and removal of cut material from the reserve. A new management plan for this site is in my 2009 work programme, so I may be contacting a few of you for some background information shortly!
All in all work on Aberdeenshire reserves is continuing apace, but if we are successful in our funding bids there should be significant improvements to the reserves in the coming years.

It is often said that we sometimes don’t appreciate what’s in our own back yard and this is certainly true of Scotland’s wildlife. Some city dwellers believe that to experience richness in biodiversity necessitates visits to the rural hinterland. However built up areas can hold a surprisingly rich flora and fauna. Aberdonians are certainly fortunate as within the city boundaries there is a wide range of habitats extending from various coastal habitats to the moorland to be found on Elrick and Brimmond Hills.

A particularly rewarding walk is through Seaton Park, along the banks of the Don, over the Brig o’ Balgownie and down to the estuary. Much of the route lies within the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve. The riparian woodland has an interesting range of species including Alder, Ash, Beech, Elm, Sycamore and Willow. The woodland on the steep sided banks of the river is largely undisturbed and with patience Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, various species of tit and Great-spotted Woodpeckers may be observed. I have also been told of several sightings of Kingfishers from the Brig o’ Balgownie but have yet to see them myself.

Seals may be seen frequently either swimming in the river or pulled up on the south bank of the island between the Brig o’ Balgownie and the bridge carrying the Ellon road. I am uncertain as to the species, the City Council’s “North Sea Trail” leaflet referring to Common seals whereas the SNH website only mentions Grey seals being present.

The estuary, although modest in size, is a good place for birdwatching at any time of the year. However in winter, sightings of a number of uncommon migrants have been made. Some of the more unusual winter sightings referred to in the N. E. Scotland Bird Reports include Curlew Sandpiper, Temminck’s Stint, Little-ringed Plover, Yellow Wagtail, Lesser Whitethroat, Black Redstart and Grasshopper Warbler. More commonly however you can expect to see Teal, Widgeon, Redshank, Dunlin, Knot, Turnstones and Ringed Plover.

A few years ago my wife and I witnessed an unusual sight from the Brig o’ Balgownie. A pair of Mute Swans and cygnets swimming below us were accompanied by a solitary Whooper that through injury had been unable to migrate in springtime. We then spotted an otter approaching along the riverbank which caused great alarm to the adult Mute Swans. However as the Mute Swans marshalled their offspring to safety the Whooper Swan launched a spirited attack on the otter which took to the water. The Whooper continued to harry the otter down river for some considerable distance.

Earlier this year we were returning from the Don estuary to the Brig o’ Balgownie by the path on the south side of the river when we spotted a pair of Roe Deer on the river bank 5 metres below us. They were aware of our presence but were clearly reluctant to interrupt their courtship ritual – the buck chasing the doe around two clumps of trees in a figure of eight pattern. This we observed for 10 minutes before they headed downriver and out of view.

So if you are new to the area or unfamiliar with this LNR I cannot recommend a visit too highly. And remember check out the species of seal present, who knows, perhaps both species visit the area.

Aberdeen Science and Technology Park at Balgownie is partly situated on an old estate with mature woodland. And is an excellent site for getting fresh air and exercise during your lunch break. The Park is divided into three campuses. Campus One consists mainly of mown grass areas and is of limited wildlife interest. Campus Three overlooks the steep slope down to the River Don and has more varied habitats. I work on Campus Two which is the smallest and wholly surrounded by woodland of varying quality.

A wooded valley with a stream at the bottom divides Campuses One and Two. Beech is the predominant species of tree. Unfortunately the ground flora is very degraded as the area is used by dog walkers and vandals. Salmonberry has invaded the stream banks. Pink Purslane is probably the most interesting plant present.

You see most of the common birds you would expect, with Sparrowhawks being seen frequently and up to four Buzzards visible overhead at the same time. The tall beech trees are used as sounding boards by Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and in April their drumming can be heard above the noise of various machine tools. A pair of Mallard prospected a bush with a hollow centre as a nest site right outside our unit last spring.

Oystercatchers don’t nest on the site as all the roofs are sloping but a pair regularly bring their well grown offspring to our car park where they lie about until able to fly, feeding on worms from the grassy verges. Magpies are the most obvious and noisy bird on site, with up to 19 in a tree at one time. I often see Magpies peering in through our one-way glass windows.

Grey Squirrels are plentiful and entertaining as they run through the branches or along fences. One tried to bury an empty half coconut in the flowerbed right outside the machine shop. The entrance path to our building is lined with yew bushes, which have a distinctly odd shape. This is due to them being heavily grazed by Roe Deer in hard weather, metres from the building and in full view of the buildings human occupants. During better weather the deer lie up about 50m from my workbench.

So although my working life is full of the usual trials and tribulations working on the Science Park has its advantages for someone interested in natural history.

Every newsletter delivered by hand saves the branch the cost of a stamp. There are already a band of volunteers who deliver a bundle of newsletters in their area, whether a few streets in the city or a village in the shire. But we could do with wider coverage. So, if there is anyone out there who would like an evening or two’s exercise twice a year please contact Gavin Forrest.

Members are welcome to attend volunteer days held on the first Saturday of each month. Please contact Mike Stevens before the Thursday of the preceding week. Limited places are available for pick up from the Aberdeen area. Actual tasks to be carried out will be dependent on priorities at the time.

Rab Potter is also keen to hear from members who can help by undertaking surveys on a regular basis during the summer months. This could be butterfly transects; bird; fauna; and flora surveys. You can help us whilst pursuing your own particular interests.

Turning off the main road we gently bump down the muddy track, through a quagmire dip with a mini stream coming up to halt just shy of the first gate. The volunteer riding shotgun carefully steps out, selecting and picking spots to place his feet to reach and open the gate. The “dip” is actually part of a former railway track, sparking memories of old stories about an electric tram route from Cruden Bay station to a hotel at the golf course. But where does this section end, a quarry?¹ Days gone by! With prior permission granted from the farmer and gate now secured behind, Mike advances slowly down the field so as not to disturb the sheep unduly – they check us out in case we’re bringing food, but satisfied we are not the farmer they strut off warily. As we pull up at the second gate, we espy more elegantly hoofed neighbours - small family groups of roe deer… three here, four more there. They’ve already clocked us and are heading for cover; some move slowly but purposefully, others hurry hurry for cover. Only nine today. The most we have seen at one time has been 16 – quite a number for what seems a small area, particularly with no woods for cover. A curlew sounds nearby, that beautiful melodious spring song – cur-lew, cur-lew. We don’t see him until he runs a few steps in the grassy field, his camouflage working well. What wondrous beaks they have! Although looking totally misshapen, he can scythe deeply into silt and mud to feed with a simple arcing nod of the head, outreaching his straight-billed cousins, such as the noisy flight of three oystyercatchers piping past, who have more of a hammer-like prodding action to catch their grubs.

What a lovely morning. There’s little wind today, with a warm egg yolk sun greeting us through a hazy sky. The grasses are a mixture of faded yellows and browns with new greens beginning. Stock fences and drystane dykes give way to scrub gorse, woodrush, heather and sporadic rocky outcrops. Further on the skyline either disappears to where we know are the sea-cliffs or melts into a milky haze with the sun such that even with shielding our eyes it is difficult to differentiate between land, sea and sky.

Further down we park up and unload the tools from the back of the van. No trailer today, as we should finish the site completely, if all goes to plan! We pass equipment over the fence onto the disrepaired drystane dyke – more of a consumption dyke really, given its width and general size. At the other side is a boggy ditch to cross – care and nimble footwork required getting down and stretching over to avoid the deeper boot swamping parts which have claimed victims on previous crossings. Our troglodyte dweller the wren chatters loudly from somewhere on the wall, then shows himself by flitting across the ditch and back, nodding his hello, then rendering a confusing half chip chip alarm mixed with trilling territorial song, seemingly satisfied we’re simply passers by. Having fed the tools across the ditch, we saunter over this narrow field bottom, across another gate, now 20m from our work site - the “Longhaven Steps”. Here many a volunteer day has been spent repairing them, in most weathers from part frozen ground, to squidgy with rain, to anorak billowing winds to glorious sun-kissed days. This part of the cliff top walk descends fairly steeply down a gully then back up the other side to gain the tops again. The ascending north side has been repaired some years past. This southern section initially comprised a series of twenty wooden steps to help break the descent of the slope, with a ladder of a dozen steps down a final steep part to the gulley bottom, the whole length being protected by a railing of wood or rope. The path had become slippery, steps rotten and overgrown and the railing too rickety.

“Twenty two…. twenty three… twenty four” I heard Mike count. So, a total of 24 new steps put in. Today’s tasks are to finish the railings, site tidying and filling the pit with all the old wood. As Mike took some photos for the records, I thought back to the start of the “Longhaven Steps” project. Initially we didn’t think it would take many man days to replace the original 20 steps and 30m of handrail – how wrong we were! Our average day had been two new steps built, depending on squad size and the usual “technical problems” – weather and ground. We also had the constraint that at the end of each work day the path had to be left safe and walkable, even with warning signs, so a new step or rail section could only start if we could finish it that day. Removing an old step was the easiest part as the old timber stays had rotted. Then the technical issues began. Like many mountain tracks, as the path progresses diagonally down the steep slope there is only so much path width available, 60 – 90cm in places, without recourse to complex revetting. So, descending one’s left hand can often touch the uphill side whilst on the right the handrail protects from cartwheeling down the slope. The new steps could not simply be remade in the same places as the old ones as the stobs (up to half a length of fence post) had to be driven into new ground for a firm hold – firm to hold the wooden back plate of the step keeping the earth in place. So began the “fun” of creating the new steps. Probing the ground with the pinch bar showed where new stobs could go, or not if solid rock was found. Once the stobs were hammered in with the mell, wooden back plates measured, sawn and nailed on, rocks had to be found for a solid step foundation. Soil alone would subside and wash away. The initial searching and ferrying stones was time consuming, and as they were to be found down in the gully, tiring and hazardous to carry up the ladder and slippy path. The first couple of steps were topped with soil and tamped down with the tamping bar, but these quickly became muddy and slippery.

One accepted modern way for topping paths is to bring in special quarried grits – time, money and lots of weary arm-stretching barrowing! But alas, providence was on our side. In order to supply soil for packing the new steps an exploratory pit was dug on the grassy cliff top. The turves were cut into chunky blocks and stacked for later replacement. At this level only a few centimetres of gravelly type blackish soil was scrapingly available before a pinkish rock hard base was met. This loosened with mighty blows of a pick-axe to gradually yield a path builder’s dream! – an array of gravel grades from crystal sugar sized shards upwards to jagged hens’ eggs, rising through a crushed jaffa orange range to cuboid cantaloupe and squashed pumpkin specimens. Thus began the job of one volunteer per visit to harvest this meal of stones to provide the layers needed for the step builders: loosen the sugarloaf rock then roughly grade by spade and hand into separate piles of gravel, small, medium and large stones. Old fertiliser bags, discarded or windblown and caught in the fences, were re-used by us to partly fill and ferry the required grade down to the steps. These bags were later supplemented with an old plastic bucket, and yes, Dear Lisa, it did have a hole, but functioned well for stones.
We also had to resurface parts of the sloping path with stones and gravel where it had become muddy as a result of our heavy trafficking, giving a better grip to footwear for us and coastline walkers.

On one occasion when I was on “pit duty” smashing the pick into the “coal face” I narrowly missed a smooth newt. How long she’d been there and where she’d appeared from I’ll never know. That was in February and she was still baggy and thin through dormancy. Quite torpid with the cold I easily picked her up, cradled her in both hands and transferred her to a safer area with grasses and a stony cleft; my human assumption being she might want to hide there. A week later we found another poikilotherm beneath some timbers left beside the pit. This brown beauty was 7cm long. He was definitely a toad, noted by his copper irises.

Over the weeks the pit gradually increased in size. Any new turves removed were added to the Antonine wall on the north aspect of the pit. It was found that the granite layer ceased a half metre down before black earthy material appeared again. We were thus, apparently, open cast mining a seam of rotten granite. As we excavated, it was thought we came across small air gaps between some stones. Not being limestone, this seemed unlikely beneath ground. However, at another pit visit this was confirmed when a hand sized crevice appeared beneath some bigger rocks. It then became clear to us we were excavating in old workings! Past quarrymen had fought and worked the granite where we were standing; over the years layers of chips and stones must have compacted up then the site abandoned and nature took over. Lichens, mosses, grasses gradually grew and perished producing the layer of topsoil. It was a strange feeling realising that workmen of previous generations had toiled on exactly this spot, harvesting stone for similar building purposes to our own. The pit and the pendulum of time!

¹Research shows that in 1897 the GNSR (Great North of Scotland Railway) opened a line from Ellon to Boddam serving the sparse fishing and farming area, including a brickworks at Cruden Bay and a spur to the quarries at Longhaven. The line closed to passengers in 1932, to goods in 1945 and was dismantled in 1950.

The trip was organised by Bird Holidays of Leeds and we flew Virgin to Orlando in the centre of Florida.

Our first motel was at Kissimee in the heart of Disneyland. Nothing for miles but motels, hotels, diners and restaurants. Despite the urban environment, on arrival at night a great horned owl peered down at us from a post opposite our rooms. It was making use of the floodlights for hunting. The first bird of the trip!

However urban, the area around Orlando is full of lakes. I looked at a map of the local area and counted 43. The next day we visited two of the larger lakes, Lake Toho, West and East. Countless thousands of American coots! How to write this and not make it look like a birdlist? Pied billed grebe, anhinga, 4 species herons, 2 of egrets, wood stork, 2 of ibis, 6 of ducks, 10 of hawks and vultures, wild turkey, etc, etc, where does one stop? Perhaps I should just deal with the personal highlights. The first of only two views for me of Painted Bunting, bird of the trip for me, exquisite! I also liked the northern cardinal, bright red throughout with a black chin and pointed crest. Hopped about in the bushes eating berries, like our sparrow although a touch bigger. Must mention the sandhill cranes, they were everywhere in fields and gardens, so stately.

The next day we went to Merritt Island just north of Cape Canaveral. Saw our first alligators here. If you looked hard throughout the trip, they were everywhere. Lots of duck and waders and we managed after a struggle to see Florida’s only endemic, the Florida scrub jay. There is a certain mosquito at Merritt, I think it’s called a salt pond mosquito. It is a whopper and beware, it bites through your clothes. Could do without those. A single Eurasian wigeon was swimming with the locals. Another surprise here was a Ross’s goose together with three snow geese. Ross’s goose is a rare vagrant to Florida and many American birders had gathered to “tick” it in.

We continued birding around the area on day 5 and the highlight for me was a whooping crane. Wonderful bird, why don’t we have cranes? Most of the day’s birding was looking for all the LBJs which abounded. We stopped along the way whilst journeying to Fort Myers on the west coast. Ruddy duck and white winged dove were additions to the ever-growing list. Our first view of manatees. One view is really enough! At Fort Myers we spent the first morning on Bunchy Beach. American oystercatcher, long-billed curlew, Wilson’s plover and piping plover were just some of the new ones amongst the 18 species of waders present. In the afternoon, we crossed to Sanibel Island to the J N Darling Nature Reserve. Gulls and terns were present in great numbers on the beach. They were so tame! You could walk through them and they just flowed around your legs. Some of the shell collectors just kicked them aside!
Corkscrew Swamp was the next reserve we visited. The Americans do some smart reserves with great facilities. How can they give you free coffee while it costs £2 a cup in the UK? Birding mainly from boardwalks above the swamp. Our first black-crowned night heron popped up here. Later we watched burrowing owls in some suberbs. Time to get going down the road to Homesteads in the Everglades proper. We set off to Mahogany Hammock where short-tailed hawk was the first addition to our list of 10 raptors to date. We would call their “hammocks”, “hummocks”. The whole place is set so low that a couple of feet of height produces trees and other vegetation islands which tower above the sword grass plains. The UK word “copse” sums them up pretty well. Most birding now is boardwalk. There is a single vast mahogany tree in the hammock hence the name. We all hooted away for a while and produced two barred owls which had come to see what all the din was about. We visited other hammocks but produced only two new birds, the lesser nighthawk and ruby-throated humming bird. We did so well in the early days.

The following day we went south down to the Florida Keys and visited some of them. American golden plover and American redstart were added to the list. Some of the beaches here looked great but were of white clay that you rapidly sank in. The biggest Portugese men-of-war I have seen littered the beaches here with air sacs up to nine inches in diameter. I would not rush back. Right across the Everglades today to the west at Flamingo. The town was destroyed by a hurricane and the shells of the buildings are left like a memorial, with the grass carefully tended round about. A bit spooky! Lots of birds but few new ones, some of the smaller kind. There are enormous American crocodiles here quite up to their Nile cousins in bulk. Nothing left now but the long drive to Orlando and the plane home, but the leader managed to squeeze in another reserve, Green Cey on the way which produced sora rail and northern rough-winged swallow.

Lots of words here but little about the other wildlife. Beautiful butterflies, terrapins, turtles, raccoons, deer, feral pigs, dolphins, rabbits, snakes (including rattler), lizards, crabs, bugs, caterpillars (one “bit” a chap’s arm – nasty), and tortoises. What did I think of Florida? Half is built on and the rest is mainly swamp. Visually there is little to stir the soul. But the wildlife, that is a different matter. Wonderful, and with the warm conditions to go with it. We saw 170 species of birds, many close up and confiding. Take your bins and go!