So January was gulls and winter birds surveys, February more winter bird surveys and some study-I am taking a course in Sustainable Deer Management at UHI because I wanted to understand the challenges and different points of view on the subject. March saw me back in the lab for a short contract and the rest of my time was spent birding, looking for field signs and a day trip to the Mull of Galloway. It was a cracking day weather-wise, bit early for full cohort of sea birds but we had seals, guillemots, razorbills, shags and cormorants and the occasional gannet (and raspberry ripple ice cream) so a good day! Apparently there is a family of foxes that live on 'the Rattle' so worth looking out for them if you visit (the RSBP visitor centre and lighthouse open this weekend I think).

I also camera trapped a short loop of burn that runs through my paddock. We have an occasional otter visitor who I have only caught sight of once in three years of field signs. He only comes through every couple of weeks or so and the only time I saw him was when he appeared crossing the road as I got out of my car. We were both surprised!

Also

Lots of badger activity in local woods but these are classic badger field signs:

I've had a number of bird species in the garden this winter that I've not seen here before. My house is moor-adjacent but we have a short (>20m) tree line consisting of a couple of willows, some failing fruit trees, some ornamental conifers, hawthorn, blackthorn and a Scots Pine. It provides a stepping (flying?) stone from one block of woodland to another but we are very exposed and almost permanently windy. The ornamental conifers provide shelter and nesting habitat for goldfinches, blue tits and chaffinches and blackbirds, the Scots pine was used by a pair of crows up until a few years ago (they come back and visit). This winter we've had long tailed tits, crossbills and greenfinches in the Scots Pine-greenfinches are so unusual here that I've not seen any for years. The pine was certainly doing the heavy lifting as it were, over the winter months.

The bird population in the garden is beginning its summer shift. We have a wren roost in the back garden in a large, overgrown hebe but the wrens don't nest on site, dispersing to the gorse scrub nearby or back to the woods, travelling along the ditches and scrub that line the road. The chaffinches are back and hopefully the goldfinches will be soon. Roundabout the meadow pipits, wagtails and skylarks have returned, ravens are nest building. The waders have returned but in very reduced numbers, 3 pairs of curlews, a few pairs of lapwings and no oystercatchers. Less than 10 years ago early mornings and late evenings would be full of curlew calls in early summer and oystercatchers were numerous and shouty.

Hopefully the wheatears will be back soon-my favourite summer visiting bandits and pipits never fail to cheer me up!

It was a pleasure working with the BTO in January, helping them complete their Winter Gulls Project by carrying out gull surveys around the Central Belt, Ayrshire and even Cumbria. I have a new-found respect for our gull species (although have always been a GBBG fan, you can't not be impressed by them) and I also got to see lots of waders, the odd seal and had the nicest offices for the month. Mental note to get out to the coast more often, its good for the soul.

I'll preface this post by saying I am a snapper, not a dedicated photographer, some of the birds are small and far away, others are just far away.

I was really fortunate to be able to attend the two week Peatland Restoration Design course recently. The course is designed by NatureScot and hosted and delivered by the SRUC. It's a great mix of theory and practical and gives excellent guidance on formulating peatland restoration design as well as the paperwork and legal requirements when applying for funding.

Cairnsmore Of Fleet

Our first field trip was to Cairnsmore of Fleet, a National Nature Reserve in Dumfries of Galloway. Peatland restoration there consists of peat dams and combination dams (peat dams with wooden support either side). Here we did some peat depth surveying and looked at potentially problematic areas and how we might attempt the forest to bog restoration on an area of clear felled forestry. One of those rare field days where the weather held off until we were leaving. We were also rewarded with a fly by from a hen harrier and hen harrier days are always good ones.

Kirkconnell Flow

Kirkconnell Flow is a lowland raised bog in Dumfries & Galloway. Extensive restoration has been carried out here with novel actions required to restore this rare bog habitat. Concentric bunds, designed to help prevent wave erosion and cell bunds to help contain water at the edges. Previous planting of this site led to peat pipes, which can channel large volumes of water away from the bog. Recovery signs are promising on this recently restored site (just over a year ago).

Peat works

A visit to an old peatworks had a lot of us fairly horrified. Many acres of bare peat with little vegetation establishing itself there. Bare peat gets very hot in summer and little will grow on it. Huge drains keep the site fairly dry and there's evidence of wind erosion. We had a discussion about a wish-list for restoration at this site and what an amazing trial site this could be!

Loch Garten

Loch Garten is a RSPB nature reserve in the Strathspey area of the Cairngorms National Park. The Scot's Pine woodland is old and plantation in origin. Restoration has been carried out to block drains and reduce water flow out of the woodland, which would have been taking peat with it. Restoration using peat dams was evident along old drainage ditches. In denser areas of younger trees ring barking is being used to help manage the woodland. This will result eventually in the death of the tree, but will release nutrients from the dying tree back into the ground, increase standing deadwood which is so important of biodiversity, and open up the woodland.

Lastly, we visited a site in the Grampians, a beautiful crisp day with incredible views! We were able to talk to contractors and observe wave dams and zipping-made more difficult with a bit of snow cover, as this must be removed before building peat structures. We then went on to see some wooden peat dams and hag reprofiling on some large erosion features.

An excellent course, many thanks to all who contributed and for those who took part for being good company! Special shout out to those keeping me sane when my satnav had a meltdown in Tomintoul..

Conference 2024: Day 3 programme | IUCN UK Peatland Programme

Thursday 19th September: topic deep dives (recorded for the Peatland Programme YouTube channel)

IUCN Peatland Programme

It was unfortunate that I could only attend one day of this conference but it was well worth the trip to an incredibly sunny Aviemore to attend Day 3. We were required to book a morning and afternoon workshop in advance, not an easy choice given a great program!

Bringing back nature: biodiversity monitoring for a greener future.

An introductory talk by Iain Diack of NE gave an overview of why we bother with peatland biodiversity, from it's intrinsic value to its necessity in peatland formation and resilience, which is so important right now. He also warned of shifting baselines, using Sphagnum austini as an example of (some of us) not knowing what we are missing when it comes to assessing peatland health. S austini being a major peat-forming moss in decline and now only found in Scotland in the UK.

This was followed by a comprehensive overview of biodiversity credits and how these might fit with the Peatland Code. It was interesting to hear about Operation Wallacea ( link below) and how this framework is being adapted for use with peatland restoration. A combination of taxonomic and structural metrics are used to calculate 1% increase in biodiversity = 1 biodiversity credit (somewhat oversimplified!).

The taxonomic metrics include birds, plants and invertebrates and emphasis was given on the need for data to be transparent and rigorous in order to ward off accusations of greenwashing. The Peatland Code are currently standardising UK specific indicators and have established an advisory group which are analysing pilot data and reviewing the metric.

Measuring & Issuing Biodiversity Credits | Operation Wallacea

Learn how biodiversity credits are measured and how we can use them to monitor and set conservation targets

Operation Wallacea

Following this, there were case studies presented from different projects from across the UK who had collected baseline data and monitored biodiversity since restoration. Good points were made about sampling considerations; factors such as weather (looking at you Summer of 2024!), livestock, sample storage and accessibility need careful consideration. The use of passive acoustic monitoring and passive invertebrate trapping and eDNA were described. There was repeated mention of the fact that ecologists are too expensive to have in the field, which as a nascent ecologist makes my heart sink a little bit. Whilst I embrace tech and believe that drones etc can make surveying more efficient (and indeed, safer in some instances, a different blog post perhaps) and that passive acoustic surveying is pretty cool, I don't think we can replace feet in the field just yet. So I was pleased to hear that one project at least, got the best results from a combination of people and tech. Its worth remembering that something like eDNA, whilst wonderful, is expensive at scale and that there are significant gaps in databases.

Digital devices do have the advantage in ease of auditing as well but I think that traditional survey notes could be utilised in a digital form-electronic lab books etc if not already (I've not seen anyone do this, but it might be happening). Of course GIS has been embraced in the field but doesn't seem to fit with more traditional bird surveys that easily-although if anyone has a spreadsheet with BTO codes they'd like to share, please contact me!

Discussions about monitoring were very useful, from how the biodiversity credit model accounts for uncontrollable factors (e.g. bird biodiversity on a small site that might be being affected by events next door) and the importance of not worrying too much about one bad year-the idea being that continued monitoring helps iron out any noise. Projects can also come with unintended successes-such as the unpredicted presence of water voles at one site. The restoration was so successful that it led to rapid spread of water vole territory across the site in a year-so much so that it then led to necessity of a water vole management plan, which subsequently delayed progress in restoring the rest of the site.

Are we on the right track? Linear developments on peatlands.

A concise overview of the type of tracks (anything that causes compression on peat is damaging, whether that happens by deer, people, machinery, quads, built tracks etc) was given, the emphasis being that there is no such thing as a temporary track. Peat seemingly never truly recovers from impaction and vegetation can take years to take hold again. The sheer abundance of such rural tracks has been estimated to be higher than our actual road network and often built tracks can lead to increased non-built tracks due to increased accessibility.

Tracks can affect habitat, water flow and can compartmentalise areas of peat with certain types of tracks displacing carbon but the more 'peat friendly' tracks having limitations both in the depth of peat they can be used, and in slope gradient (less than 5% fyi).

Much of the session focussed on windfarms. Its a fact that our prime wind areas correspond with uplands and therefore with many of our peatlands. Windfarms also need tracks and there are additional standards of tracks that turbine manufacturers require. The session was effectively (and humorously) chaired by David Large of the University of Nottingham and there was much interesting discussion of best practice and how best to encourage it. One suggestion was an experienced/competent 'peat ECoW', who would be in addition to an EnvCoW. Another was the use of both standard contractors and peatland restoration contractors to work together. This would have the added benefit of additional employment for those peatland contractors. I am not sure how widespread the use of independent EC0Ws is but it seems to me that this would be a good thing in renewables projects, demonstrating the energy sector's intent in transparency and commitment to best practice. One last interesting question was 'can a track ever be beneficial?' with an answer of can they be potentially used in the design as bunds.

It was a really interesting day and I will try an make sure I can attend the whole event in 2025. I start the SRUC Peatland Assessment & Restoration Course in October and am really looking forward to it!

I am no great videographer but I have seen some lovely birds this summer and have obtained snippets of footage. Of course, the scope is never set up when the osprey is about but you can never have too many twite and curlew videos.

Enjoyable few days birding in Aberdeenshire- brushing up on my warbler ID as well as a WeBS, woodland bird survey and some nest detecting. A few firsts for me too plus a couple of seals- as someone who doesn’t get to the sea very often I find seals quite exciting. You’ll notice a distinct lack of both bird and indeed, seal photos. Sorry.

After the woodland bird survey we set out to see if we could find some nesting stonechats. It seemed as though the nest thought to be there was no longer, and the birds had moved on so we spent a while watching a female yellowhammer collect nesting materials for her den inside a gorse thicket. Further along we did find a pair of stonechats (my first) but they were not showing any nest-building behaviour. Possibly the pair from the original territory.

The lovely scrubby habitat transformed into old, open woodland with some lovely oak and birch trees. Here we spotted a pair of tree pipits, displaying the same parachuting behaviour as their meadow counterparts that we had observed all morning. Another first for me!

Fabulous day at Culzean Castle learning about GCN identification and surveying. Beautiful weather too.

After a classroom session on newt ID, we went out to the education pond to complete a habitat suitability index (HSI) study and for a demonstration on netting. The HSI was very good on this pond, with good cover, water quality, excellent habitat surrounding it and with a good amount of macrophytes. GCN and palmate newts are known to breed in this pond so it was interesting to hear about the negative eDNA test for GCN.

Some palmate and GCN eggs were found and towards the end of the session, adult male and female palmate newts were found.

A further classroom session on legislation and bottle trap making was followed by a trip to the Fire pond. This pond was very different and scored on the low end of average on the HSI score. Pretty much no macrophyte growth but good pond connectivity.

We were able to try torching (finding a palmate newt) and then netting. Two immature GCN were found that had overwintered there. Bottle traps were placed around the pond and noted down- hopefully I can update on results soon.

A really good course by the FSC and ARC.

I am persevering with the trail cam and our local badgers although its quite a tricky spot and I am probably a bit too paranoid about my trail cam going missing! Lots of signs roundabout and I've produced a survey map below-obviously setts and identifying features have not been shown here.

I will try a different location in a couple of weeks but this was the best offering this week.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy aims to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and reverse it by 2045. Planning for nature is already built into the National Planning Framework, although ways of measuring improvements have not yet been introduced. As part of the Scottish Government's biodiversity commitment the use of a metric is being examined, with the English metric used as an example. This month NatureScot launched the consultation 'Biodiversity Metric for Scotland's Planning System' to support the biodiversity enhancements directive in the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). This consultation follows a review of the English Statutory Biodiversity Metric by the SRUC.

Potential issues in using the existing metric, are in the methodology of habitat classification and condition assessment. Although Phase 1 survey data can be translated into UKHab which the metric employs, there is no way of translating the NVC into it. Some botanists in Scotland think that Phase 1 is too simplistic for many Scottish habitats and that UKHab doesn't describe certain Scottish habitats well. UKHab is seemingly not widely used in Scotland, possibly due to lack of training. Adaptations are include the addition of pests and pathogens in habitat assessments and to adapt river condition assessments to make them more relevant to Scottish water courses.

England has a system (some still in the planning stage) of Local Nature Recovery Strategies which have no direct comparison in Scotland. The SRUC highlighted the need for flexibility, so that lower rated habitats that are still key to nature connectivity are not lost.

So these points, as well as some changes within the irreplaceable habitats section, are required to protect our complex and precious habitats in Scotland. Having a way to measure improvements would seem theoretically to be a good thing and the consultation ends on 10th May.

Both CIEEM and the Biological Recording Company held BNG conferences last month and it was very useful seeing how BNG had been implemented in a number of different projects . It's important to understand the overall picture and how a Scottish metric might work, so I have undertaken training in preparation.

The Field Studies Council are running an online course 'Biodiversity Net Gain for Reviewers'. The 4 week course takes you through various case studies by supplying you with survey and habitat condition data which you then input into the metric for the baseline for area habitats, hedgerow and watercourse sections. You then work through the proposed development changes, habitat creation and assess the outputs. The course takes you though each element of the metric and so you learn to interpret the user guide, trading summaries etc and trouble shoot errors. The course also comes with a large amount of resources such as real case studies. Seeing this from a reviewer's perspective has been a useful exercise and I recommend the course.

It's early days yet for this place and spring, although everything has greened up a little. The curlews and oyster catchers have arrived and the small birds are busy and vocal.

There's been an increase of badger activity too which is not unusual, although new latrine areas have appeared in novel and potentially unwise areas, one right next to a road but also one inside a woodland not far away. The sound on this video made it evident that there were more badgers behind the camera than in front unfortunately, and that it was teeming with rain.

I had slightly better luck this week after moving the camera. The roadside latrine area has no new signs of activity but the one inside the wood has been very busy and I've been able to identify three individuals. I am going to see if I can get a better overview of the area.

A busy couple of weeks training. First, two days of excellent training from Peatland Action at Eskdalemuir Community Hub in Dumfries and Galloway. Honestly one of the most useful courses I've been on (also free!) with excellent presentations about the different methodology, what has worked where and why (or why not) and some heartening success stories that demonstrate how successful these simple, but logistically challenging projects can be. Useful information on peat condition and Peatland Action applications. The Community Hub looked after us really well and is well worth a visit in itself with a lovely cafe and some great birdlife outside-not just the resident mallards but goldfinches, nuthatches, wrens, chaffinches, robins, house sparrows and long tailed tits all observed outside. I am looking forward to more peatland restoration training and hoping I manage to get a place on the LANTRA training later this year.

A few days later I headed up to Dunkeld for some ground water dependent terrestrial ecosystem training (or GWDTE-neither is that easy to say..). This was a CIEEM course and technical-learning about hydrology and I had to try and remember my undergraduate geology lectures. After an intense day in the classroom we headed out to a wet woodland nearby and the next day, headed out to Kinnesswood in Fife and walked up towards White Craigs to search out some GWDTEs. Unfortunately, this environment is badly degraded and overgrazed with gorse allowed to cover large swathes of the hillside. Some of this has been cut at no little effort and the cuttings left in the gullies that are possibly GWDTE which is unfortunate. A useful course although from a NVC point of view, would be a bit more useful further along in the season.

I am a freelance ecologist based in South Lanarkshire. This site will be a personal blog of what I am up to and if you are looking for any ecological help, please have a look at my About page for more information.