Macdui

This Monday I took a walk from the Cairngorm car park out to Macdui by the shortest route via the ridge between Lurcher`s and Cairn Lochan and straight on.

For the time of year the snow coverage was pretty thin-hard,icy neve in places but mostly crampons would have been a hindrance. There have been a few brightish high pressure days with this Monday being the end of them.

Just as predicted on the MWIS site there was indeed cloud around the tops of the southern Cairngorms.

Not much wildlife at all-a solitary snow bunting(looking for crumbs?) at the head of Coire Domhain and this ptarmigan camouflaging itself nicely on a snow patch in Coire Cas.

New Year

Moira and I were fortunate enough to have a week skiing over in Austria.



There was plenty of snow at Finkenberg and on the slopes of the Zillertal. The area is understandably popular and we had a particularly fine day on the glacier above Hintertux.



Some nearby resorts had so much snow that travel became very difficult.

Birds -mostly ptarmigans!

Here are a few pictures of these easy to photograph birds.

This one is a male in Spring above Newtonmore.

Here`s a summer snap of a hen and chick on Bynack Mor.

And this one would be well camouflaged but for the absence of snow. This picture is from about 3500` on Carn Mor Dearg.

An even easier bird to photograph was this
snowbunting looking for a crumb at the top of Ben Nevis.

More like winter

I was up Creag Beag this morning and the path was very wet. There was a bit more brightness, though, and plenty of reflected light both from the skiff of snow and from the floodwaters.



Yesterday was the day of public sector strikes and in some ways it seemed to demonstrate workers` feelings. When there were teachers` strikes some 20 or so years ago there was a reluctance to go out and lose a day`s pay. In the current situation I think that feeling is stronger. Folk are more committed to money, and I`ve already met one or two folk who say they would not strike again.
This evening there are “9 days to save the euro”- was that not said last month as well? The disorderly break up of the euro would be a “catastrophe” for Sterling as well. I`m still not sure what that means! But maybe it`s as well to be stocked up with pasta, rice and some lentils for protein.
It almost seems like the economic woes of the West are a consequence of not actually producing goods. Is it that capital been transferred East with little regard to the well being of the redundant populations of the West? Capital is free to travel and it will travel to where the greatest profits will be made. Perhaps people in the West are becoming weary of goods they don`t actually need and only want because of the powerful persuasive techniques of advertisers. Was this not a theme of JK Galbraith?
People with very little will be hungrier, to learn, to work, to consume. Soon be Christmas!

Wind
There was an article in the Sunday post yesterday citing noise from wind turbines as being a serious health hazard. I thought it rather odd as Moira and I have had a picnic in the Whitelees wind farm near East Kilbride and were able to hear the singing of nearby birds when sitting twenty yards or so from a turbine.
The “expert” quoted in the SP piece and indeed the main part of the case against the wind turbines was from Australia, though there was an additional piece giving the thoughts of a couple of UK victims.
I tried to find out the objective truth of the situation and the most reasonable internet pieces seemed to be saying noise, whilst once a problem, no longer was a health issue. But there are folk locally, in Tomatin? who, I think have argued that turbine noise is still a problem.(I`m not sure ,but there does not seem to be a ready acknowledgement on their Community Council`s websiteof Tomatin`s financial benefit from their nearby windfarm.)
This morning I was again up Creag Beag en route for the paper and going up the steep side facing away from the A9 it was still possible to hear the traffic about a mile away. At the top of the hill the only audible noise was that of the wind rushing past my ears. Down above West Terrace the wind rushing through the pines made a generally appreciated racket.
I`m not sure why folk take up such inflexible positions. Perhaps it is the fear of being seen weak and dithering or maybe narrow self interest plays a part. Genuine fear for detrimental effects on house prices, a conviction that what is most valuable about living in the Highlands is its sense of wilderness.
Anyway, there would have been plenty of generation from wind power this last couple of months unlike a cold spell last year where the frosts were keen and the air was often still.
This November has been mild. This was Ben Nevis a couple of weeks ago
and a view of the sun setting down Loch Linnhe from the Corran Ferry.
Perhaps, the future is in cheaply produced solar panels.I wish the developments of wave and tidal power well, but it seems at the moment that pretty big capital spending is needed for a very modest return.
And, the big problem as ever will be the problem of storage

Trying to get going
Out for a walk this morning up the hill thinking that most of the walkers encountered have dogs. People don`t seem to, in the main, to walk without needing to take doggie for a walk.
But this morning on the radio there was a little newspiece on the planning controversy in Boat of Garten. It seems the locals, frightened of the dying of the community, are supportive of Davall developers getting the go ahead for a housing scheme that would, apparently, increase the population of "Boat" by one third and on the way make more affordable housing. SNH, who I take it, advise “the Park” are agin it. A lady spokesman this morning suggested that more folk would mean an increase in dog walkers and therefore a greater threat to the capercaiilie.
This bird, along with squirrels, are the principal determinants for or agin development.
Kingussie`s Community Council, by contrast seem pretty well opposed to Davall`s east side developments. Interestingly, here, there is no great clamour for a reduction of walkers-plenty of them, it seems to me, having a dog. Lots of folk wouldn`t go for a walk if they didn`t have a dog. Businesses want more tourists. What can the tourists do? Well, there`s walking-with or without dog(s).

On the hill up from the funicular car park on to the excellent path up Cairngorm and there, about 100m above, in among the snow fences were 13 ptarmigan. A 5 hour stroll in behind Cairngorm
and across to the top of Coire Domhain and I only saw one more of these “camouflaged” birds prominent on the snow free slopes-November?!
Visibility was excellent. Muirburn,sparkling motors on the A9, Aviemore, and yes ,the two windfarms, Farr and Paul`s Hill, obvious but hardly detracting from the beautiful day. Would the Allt Duine set up be so bad? Certainly, there are plenty of folk stirred up about the loss of some of Scotland`s grandest sites.

Clegg Bite

Nick Clegg answered some questions at a meeting in Boat of Garten village hall. I was surprised that BBC Scotland`s Ian Macdonald considered his welcome to have been warm and that the "faithful" were assembled. Admittedly there was little outright hostility, but the mood of the hall, (about three quarters full),was, I thought, restrainedly glum. Sincere? maybe but my view of him would be as a politician who is smart, smooth and glib.Was he like Cameron at one time a PR man? What most struck me was his ability to portray the economic policy of the Coallition as not hugely different from what the country has experienced in recent times. There was no great cutback in public spending and this myth, he asserted, was being used by political opponents to improperly defame the Government`s pursuit of the impalatable, but necessary economic course. ("There is no alternative!"). He went as far as to state that Manchester Council`s recent announcement of unavoidable job losses was prompted by a desire to boost the Labour Party`s position in the run up to the Oldham bye-election. For me, his most revealing answer was to a questioner, concerned that overseas aid funding had been ring fenced. Clegg was extremely insistent that overseas aid was not altruism but was carried out only for good reasons of self interest. Whatever else one thinks of Liberalism, there had been a thread in at least, its Highland version, of real concern for one`s fellow man. Does the arrival of Clegg`s leadership and of our own MP`s importance in the delivery of Government policy signal the end of Liberalism in the Highlands?

Change in the weather

This is what it has been like for most of the las 6 weeks. But mild westerly weather has arrived to chase away the snow-at least at the lower levels.

And today the Tromie was in spate.

Beautiful Glasgow

After a very stormy Friday the second last day of the month of October saw glasgow at its finest.



Here`s another view of the university buildings.



And a snap taken on the phone of the great William Thompson.

Recent snaps

One or two pictures from the recent school holidays.Here`s Robert
a week before he sets out for South Georgia. The fellow sitting on the seat near Raitt`s Cave seems very small.























We had a pleasant stroll around the Northern Corries. Here`s Catriona near the edge.
















Very nice for us all to be out as a family on the hills-here`s to the next time!








Davie Stewart and I had a good day out on the bikes over to the Feshie.

Carn an Fhreiceadain

This is a good, quick walk form Kingussie for getting some badly needed exercise. I took the bike up as far as the bridge over to Pitmain Lodge and then walked over the hill in an anticlockwise direction. There`s a track all the way back round to the Lodge so there is no need to consider navigation. In parts it`s a road, not that you`ll hear many environmentalists condemn it, for it`s not a wind farm road. Rather, it allows the wealthy to shoot animals or birds. Notice, though,that it cuts through the peat. One letter I read recently implied that this kind of road building is more destructive than logging in Amazonia. Then again, it`s not for reaching wind turbines so it`s all right! I quite enjoyed trudging along it without thinking of where I was.



















Here`s the top of the very easily reached "Watcher`s Cairn"-a bit spoiled by the man made intrusion? No, not the plinth but the intrusive windfarm up at Farr! (just about dead centre of the picture).




















By about four o`clock this afternoon the shadows are starting to lengthen. The walk round only takes about 3 hours and there`s usually something to see- a couple of small flocks of fieldfares and one larger of about 25 with redwings as well; little coveys of grouse-I noticed at least three threes;a raven;a few hinds and a raptor I thought might be a hen harrier.

More or less strangers?

This raised ground just to the SW of Lynchat used to be the site of a heronry-backin the 70s. It`s still a very attractive spot with views over the marshes. The fallen tree is a larch and the shrub in the foreground is the elder,Sambucus racemosa. there`s signs here ,too,of lots of rabbits!


















#The alien larch and the native pine here seem to go together pretty well.

A while ago

Or to be more precise, from the Spring.


















These were all taken on a day over in Atholl, on Beinn a`Ghlo.

Aliens!

The photo shows the ongoing clearance of some of the forestry between Drumguish and the Feshie just before you reach Corarnstill. The foresters expressed doubts over the National Park`s policy to remove alien species from woodlands within the Park. The foreground shows the stump of one of the Lodgepole pines culled from the westerly edge of the wood. Behind this is the damage done to the Scots Pinesby last week`s high winds.The Lodgepoles had growndeveloping roots for their exposed situation.. The sheltered natives had not required such anchorage.Lodgepole removal had the effect shown. It seems it is not always sensible to get rid of aliens.

Moira and I had a little paddle recently up the Spey from Loch Insh. There`s quite a bit of Canadian Pondweed in the water on this stretch and the burr reed we had a look at didn`t seem to match anything native. Would the weed`s removal be possible? or cost effective? or necessary? or even desirable?

And then there are the sycamores-these seem to be a particularly unwelcome species for the environmental police. The Scottish parliament may park their posteriors on it,the new sycamore Sherlock Holmes fiddle sounded well enough but up here tree surgeons can make a substantial killing slaughtering them.

Adnittedly mink and rats removal seems uncontroversial but what about the treatment of birds. There used to be a lek for the black grouse on Kingussie Golf Course-it was up on the 6th fairway-I think. Now,though you can see fighting cock pheasants on the same ground and down the road towards Dalwhinnie it`s red legged partridge`s that the driver should try to spare by careful driving. Alien birds these last two but perhaps they must be protected from slaughter so that they can be,ehm!-slaughtered --for sport!.

Come to think of it, the destruction of our preserved native mosses, our sometimes it almost seems sacred, peat, cannot be contemplated . No alien industrial monsters -wind turbines-can be allowed to contribute to any loss of the very fabric of our hillsides. Roads must not disturb the so fragile habitat-except if the road is for sporting access to the hill. Naturally!

End of February

There`s again been a lot of snow in the last few days. Moira and I took a walk up Creag Beag. The last picture is, I think of the tracks of grouse, left proud of the surrounding snow. Unlike much of the snowfall of the recent past, this snow has arrived on a strong East wind.

Continuing Freeze

I went for a walk on the skis from the house,down by Sandy`s duck pond,across the railway line and across theA9 bridge before going down to the S bank of the Spey. The difficulty of progressing in the deep powdery snow,coupled with problems with a binding made me think of going home despite the fine ,bright cold day. It was a total delight ,though, to be able to go on to the Spey and escape the deep stuff. Here the snow was only a few inches deep and hopefullythe ice had a little more depth. Anyway, I was able to slide down to the Tromie before encountering the first real open water in a couple of miles! here are a flock of greylags at the -Tromie confluence

This is on the way backup river.

Home again, and a view, kind of, from the upstairs window.

Happy New Year!

Creag Dubh

Good to get out and about if only for a few hours.
C Dubh is always enjoyable, especially up by the waterfall

Here`s the view loking down the
Spey towards the Cairngorms.


The view looking W on the descent.

And looking down to the Lochan by the car park