Winter work for summer pleasure

Thornhill primary came down to the Moss today to help us with the wildflower meadow by the car park. For the last few years they have helped us with the raking of the grass and then the planting of the wildlfowers as we work to make what was a plain bit of grass inot a fabulous wildlfower meadow. It was grey and miserable with rain from steady drizzle to bucketting down (good weather for planting, not so good for teachers) but they worked really hard and finished off the grass removal and got all of the flowers planted. It is muddy work (see the pictures) and not much to show for it immediately but come June and July the fruits of their work will be there for all to see. Last year the meadow looked good but with another batch of plants next summer its going to be spectacular. Thank you Thornhill primary.

Avoiding Harry Potter

We had a great day on Sunday cutting birch and making brooms. The bog gods shone on us with a glorious day of clear light, bright sun and blue sky though it were a bit nippy when we were setting up. A steady flow of people, many new to Flanders dropped in to help with the cutting of the birch but the real attraction was Ian who helped the birch cutters turn their cuttings into a broom. Ian who had come from Historic Scotland for the day to help us is a self taught broom maker. Before the event he gave us a list of equipment that he would need which included the thigh bone of a goose. Luckily before any of the geese that live on the smallholding near my home disappeared he clarified this that a piece of bamboo would also do - it is used to help with the binding of the broom. He was busy virtually all day making brooms, having only a few minutes to eat lunch. As people left Flanders most of the brooms clutched in eager hands were to be used for more traditional Halloween witch purposes with only one person going down the Harry Potter route.

Birchsticks and Broommakers

This Sunday there is chance to get out onto the moss to help us with our birch cutting and make something out of what you cut. From 1030am to 4pm we will be down at the visitor car park ready to show people how to get out onto the Moss and cut down some of the small birch. You can cut for as long as you like and as much as you like but when you have a bundle there will be chance to turn it into a Witches broom, just in time for Halloween . The forecast doesn't look too bad, (better than today which was awful) but wrap up warm and wear wellies as after all it is a bog. You can drop in at any time between 1030am and 4pm so if you fancy a bit of exercise, a breath of fresh air and want to entertain the kids (and tire them out) then come on down.
Hope to see you there.

Bog autumn

Not much to say, just thought I would put out some pictures of the fabulous colours at Flanders at the moment.

Back on hen harrier watch

Well it is that time of year again, time to take part in the national hen harrier winter roost monitoring scheme as at Flanders we are lucky enough to have these fabulous birds wintering on the Moss....sometimes. This survey is done by picking a suitable vantage point to watch over Flanders from half an hour before sunset to half an hour afterwards and count any hen harriers coming onto the site to roost. Previously we used do this on the set Sunday coordinated nationally, once a month but with more demands on our time we have had to stop this Sunday evening activity and do it as close to the set day as part of our normal working week.
So yesterday evening Stephen and I found ourselves on top of the tower hunched in a bitterly cold wind straining our eyes across the Moss to catch a view of a hen harriers. The male birds stand out well being bright white and light grey with black tips to their wings but the female and young birds (called ringtails) are a mottled brown colour like a buzzard and it is only a bright white rump that makes them stand out against the tweedy bog landscape. But trying to spot a white rump a few inches square from a kilometre away is not easier. While we waited for a hen harrier to appear small parties of pinkies and Canada geese kept us entertained. A group of fieldfares freshly arrived from Iceland flittered across the Moss making no sound that would attract a predator looked for a suitable roosting spot in the birches. And the ubiquitous carrion crows kicked up a fuss along the woodland edge beyond the tower, probably just baiting the local buzzard doing a bit of late hunting. A late evening dog walker appeared on the boardwalk head down, iPod on concentrating on doing the circuit. But still no hen harrier. And then it was too dark to see even a a hen harrier landed on the tower so it was back to the car to put the heater on full blast and head for home.
This morning I was out onto the northern edge of the Moss at 0900 with a contractor and one of the first birds I saw was a ringtail being mobbed by some crows. Half an hour later and a gleaming male bird flounced across the Moss surface heading west. So there are actually hen harriers out there but Flanders is such a big site and they do move there roost sites about that maybe the next count we might have to abandon the tower and use a new viewpoint. With this in mind I think of my collegue John Halliday over in Argyll who can do his hen harrier counts from his vehicle, heater on, thermos flask to hand and I am reminded of just how difficult the logistics of doing anything on Flanders is.

Mysterious visitor and molluscan seed dispersal

A quick visit to the Moss early on Tuesday morning and a surprise in the viewing tower. There on one of the landings half way up the stairs was a mess. Most people would say bird poo and move on. But it looked not just any old bird poo but an interesting bird poo. Two big white splashes and a round firm blob (see bottom photo). Something had been spending time in the tower, probably roosting over night. My first though was barn owl as I have seen big white splashes like this left by them before. The firm blob was a pellet of hard to digest bits that birds of prey regurgitate after a day of eating. But a close look at the contents of the pellet, just pick them up and crumble like an oxo cube, and I found it was made up mainly of fur and shiny blue, black bits of beetle. Now barn owl do eat furry things but not often beetles so the next thought is a kestrel as they do eat beetles alot. But we won't really now what is using the tower as a night time roosting spot until we get a good look at it but it is still a nice thought that the wildlife are finding it useful.
While whizzing round the path I could see that the colours are changing on a daily basis and the the birches had been letting loose their seeds. Birch seeds are small with big wings so that they can travel a long way. This is why birch trees are so good at colonising new areas. These seeds are usually spread around by the wind but I noticed another method of seed dispersal. There steadily making its way across the path was one of the great big black slugs that patrol the Moss. My daughter always used to call them dog poo slugs due to the fact that they were often found in close proximity to the aforementioned substance, plus the big ones are nearly that size. Anyway there stuck to this slugs back was a birch seed being gently carried off to another part of the moss to maybe be another birch tree. I wonder how it will get on....and the slug.

A Fowl Forecast

It is the end of the month and therefore checking the rain gauge time. I headed out with a foul forecast of incessant rain and wind in my ears, little knowing that it was also a fowl forecast. As I dropped down from Thornhill there were geese everywhere. They must have been pouring in over the last few days, a couple of flocks on stubble fields on the left and then on the south of the track to the Moss there were loads. I stopped to check them over and count them as sometimes an unusual goose can turn up in flocks like a barnacle or bean goose and sometimes you can pick out birds with neck markers put on by researchers to help find out migration movements. A quick scan revealed 30 greylags, 300 Canada geese and also 175 lesser black-backed gulls passing through on the way to Spain, and I was just starting to count the pinkies when a car came down the track and put them up, so at a guess maybe 500 of them. No neck rings or funny birds. Onto my list of things to do and the first stop the rain gauge. It was still dry but a dark grey wall was heading slowly my way. Back to the car park and then the rain came, good bog rain but uncomfortable as well. I chatted with some English visitors who had had a quick walk round and were heading back to their holiday cottage for another coffee and to re plan their day. Then I headed out onto the Moss to measure up and area for scrub cutting. Quickly everything became wet and I just had to keep my head down and splash my way round. All the time flock after flock of pinkies came over, either the same group had done 10 circuits of the Carse or there were 5000 pink feet in the stubble fields in and around Flanders. And not only had the geese come in, I flushed 8 snipe and 1 jack snipe who also use the Moss as a useful stopping off place as they head south as well. Back to the truck after 2 hours in the downpour and the rain had got through all water proofs (surely misnamed) and everything underneath was distinctly uncomfortable. I called it a day and headed back to the office after picking up a richly deserved Berits and Brown coffee (best coffee around). Oh and I know all you rain gauge buffs are asking what was the rain fall reading ? - 154 mm - a proper months rain at last and judging by the amount of rain that fell today the bloomin' thing is probably full again already!