Back in November I wrote a piece for Walkhighlands about pine martens, in which I referred to a study that was underway at the time into their intriguing relationship with both red and grey squirrels. The results of that study were published last week and made headline news, so now seems a good time to revisit the subject. Many of you are doubtless familiar with our squirrels but I think it’s still worth going back to the very beginning of this fascinating story. The red squirrel The red squirrel is the only squirrel native to the British Isles, i.e. it…

Last week, as I was sat at home, I heard a loud but unfamiliar squawk outside followed by alarm calls from smaller birds. When I looked out the window I saw a starling on the ground, motionless under the tight grip of yellow talons. It was a sparrowhawk, the first I’d seen at home in two years… and I was ecstatic! They’re actually one of our more common birds of prey but for most of us they remain elusive on account of their stealthy hunting strategy. They are fast and manoeuvrable but, like a cheetah, their chase can’t be sustained…

A bit of rebranding works wonders for the underappreciated. Back in my bagging days the idea of spending more than an hour roaming a squelchy woodland would have been a complete anathema to me. Not that I didn’t appreciate woodland or forest at the time, mind. I always enjoyed passing through them but they were for just that – thoroughfares on my way to a Munro rather than being destinations in themselves. Times have clearly changed, because a couple of months ago I deliberately spent six soggy but wonderful hours exploring the exceedingly mossy interior of Ariundle National Nature Reserve,…

“Oh wow! A pine marten visits the cottage” I exclaimed, uber-excitedly, as I turned a page in the cottage guest book. “Really?” replied my sister, not looking up from her book and therefore sounding distinctly underwhelmed. I always made, and indeed still do make a habit of perusing the pages of guest books because it’s like getting secret insider information on the place you’re visiting. In this instance, Kinlochewe in Wester Ross. We were both up there on holiday from the English Midlands and I’d never seen a pine marten before, hence my excitement. “Yeah, it says here that a…

High up in a quiet corner of Glen Etive is a large boulder, and improbably anchored on top of that boulder is a rowan tree. It stands in a beautifully isolated but prominent position on a tongue of land between two burns and, as you climb higher onto Stob Dearg this oddity, bowed in deference towards the Buachaille, feels like a sentinel guarding the entrance to the upper coire. I have a list of favourite natural oddities in Scotland but this tree / boulder combo is up there with the best. I love it because it just looks plain weird…