An unusual winter owl roost has been discovered on the National Trust for Scotland’s Kintail property in the Highlands. Short-eared Owls have been day roosting together amongst thick heather in an area of young native woodland. One of four native owl species found in Scotland, Short-eared Owls are amongst our most under-recorded birds owing to their nocturnal and nomadic habits, and remote moorland habitat. The Kintail roost was discovered by visiting Norwegian students who reported their sighting to their group leader, who just happened to be Kenny Graham of the RSPB. Every evening after sunset the owls have performed dazzling…

Conservation charity, the National Trust for Scotland has launched a fundraising appeal to repair damage at historic properties caused by this winter’s severe weather. The Trust, which cares for some of Scotland’s most loved castles and houses, is counting the cost of broken gutters, burst pipes and damaged trees and shrubs following last year’s record snowfalls and low temperatures. December was the coldest in 100 years, with plummeting temperatures, heavy snow, gale force winds and ice. Properties from all over Scotland felt the impact of the Big Freeze and the scale of the damage at some places is only now…

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has welcomed new legislation that came into force today to protect seals. Measures brought in under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 outlaw unregulated shooting of seals, establish a new licensing system to manage shooting and introduce a number of seal conservation areas around Scotland. Marine Scotland will be responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the new measures. John Baxter, SNH’s principal adviser on seals, said: “Given the serious and worrying decline in the numbers of common, or harbour, seals, these new measures are particularly important. They are a considerable improvement on provisions contained in previous…