Chris Wernham's Blog...

The testing Trossachs!

 

Just back in the office after getting up at 4am this morning to get my second Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) visit done before work. What a fabulous way to start the day but this activity has not been without its tests over the years. Let me explain why . . .

 When I came back to Stirling to live in 2002 after 6 years in Norfolk, I couldn’t wait to get out into the hills to watch birds again. As the new head of BTO in Scotland, I also wanted to do my bit to survey birds as a volunteer. My delight at moving back north meant I got carried away when Neil, my local RR, asked if I would do some fieldwork for the Breeding Bird Survey each summer, and I agreed instantly to take on an upland square and insisted on having one that he would find hard to persuade other volunteers to cover . . . ten years later (and ten years older) I sometimes wonder about my sanity.

My BBS square - or rather two squares, as I have also taken on the option to cover two adjacent upland squares because this helps to increase the number of bird sightings available for analysis - is just east of Callander in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, and in the ‘foothills’ of the Munros Ben Vorlich and Stuc’a Chroin. On a crisp clear day in early May it is the most idyllic place to be, with blackcock bubbling and ‘sneezing’ at a local lek, the odd Red Kite drifting over as I walk in to the survey square and frost covering the ground. If only days like those were regular and
predictable. I have to scan the weather and be ready to rush out at 4:30am in early May, and even then I am often greeted by pea soup cloud over the top of my square - which is at 620m - when I arrive in Callander (or worse, it comes down when I have already struggled to climb the steep slope that I rashly selected as one of my transects!). During that climb, I have to stop regularly and wait for the sound of my heart thumping to stop before I can hear and record the Meadow Pipits, Wheatears, Whinchats and Skylarks that are regulars on that section, as well as to wipe away the sweat and cover of midges that I have accumulated. The transect has some nice vegetation: a wet flush with reed buntings and, further up, good natural grassland, increasingly with a variety of plants like Cloudberry now that sheep and deer numbers are lower. On the (frequent) damp days, I have large black slugs for company on the way up – often rivalling me with their speed! I also see frequent voles and the occasional common lizard (on rare sunny days) and when I was there in May this year I saw a spectacular emergence of tipulids (or crane flies) – the favoured food of many upland waders and passerines.

If I reach the top of that section without the mist coming down, the views are inspiring: the Ochil Hills and carselands around Stirling to the south and the Highlands proper to the north. It’s a magnificent and peaceful place to have breakfast (which I generally eat with some desperation by that time) and then I head down a steep ridge along my second transect. Luckily it’s a distinctive hill, so even if the mist is down navigation isn’t too much of an issue and the Skylarks are always keen to pop up out of the grass right in front of me and sing. That’s not to say navigation is fool-proof though – one May in very thick fog that appeared from nowhere I headed down the usual ridge only to find I was in a completely unexpected glen and surrounded by a herd of overly friendly and testosterone-charged stags.  Surprising how quickly I found I could retrace my steps back up to 620m and try again!

When I leave the grassy ridge on the way down, I cross a steep slope covered in bracken, which by the second visit makes for a slippery descent. But it’s also a good area with birds, being close to the edge of a conifer plantation and with a burn a third of the way along the transect. There’s usually a family of Whinchats and many Meadow Pipits in the area by mid June, and today there was also a
selection of finches (Redpolls, Siskins, Chaffinches) and a small group of Mistle Thrushes feeding, as well as Twite drinking by the burn. Thankfully climate change (perhaps!) has reduced river flows here in recent years, as wading across the freezing cold water of the burn used to be another testing activity on the May visit. Now I just have to be careful of the sheep with lambs that congregate along the burn and threaten to jump if I approach, although there are fewer of these than when I started the survey. I am also grateful to the new farmer who manages the area and lives in the house at the bottom of the walk-in track for deciding not to rear beef cows anymore and for putting in a well-signed footpath through his yard. The previous farmer kept cattle in the farmyard until well into May and had no footpath around it, so when I arrived bleary eyed at 5:30am I had to first jump over a gate and cross a confined pen of large cattle up to my knees in dung. The Pied Wagtails seemed to like the arrangement but I don’t miss it at all. Now on my way up and on my return I am just greeted by the many House Martins that breed in the farm barn and the alarm calls of Curlew, Oystercatchers and Common Sandpipers in the farm surroundings.
So the ten summers of surveying my BBS square(s) have allowed me to experience and learn about all the wildlife of my bit of the Scottish uplands, increased my confidence in bird ID and walking alone in the hills, helped me to retain my sanity and escape a bit from the stresses of the office , and hopefully helped me to keep fit. In fact, I was so scared of having to tell Neil that I would have to give up my upland square that I have lost two and a half stone in the last year to ensure that  I can continue the surveying for a bit longer without having a heart attack at the summit of my transect. Neil, I hope you appreciate the sacrifice of chocolate I have made for the good of BBS!

Finally, it is good to know that other members of the BTO Scotland team are also keen to do some surveying in their own time. Recently I was delighted that Mark Hulme, a Research Ecologist from BTO Thetford, transferred to our team in Stirling. And I was even more delighted to discover that Neil had ‘encouraged’ Mark to take on a BBS square that is even more remote and inaccessible than mine (it takes him two and a half hours just to get to the square)! No doubt he will also appreciate the benefits (and probably also the tests) that I have mentioned, and you may hear about his exploits too!

Chris Wernham

26 June 2012 

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