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…

To celebrate Burns Night (25 January), Scottish conservation charity Trees for Life and Edinburgh-based budget tour company HAGGiS Adventures today announced an exciting new partnership that will allow thousands of people from all over the world to get involved in the restoration of the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands. During 2011, the UN’s International Year of Forests, the new scheme will involve more than 80 HAGGiS Adventures tour buses stopping to plant a tree at Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston near Loch Ness, Inverness-shire. This will involve more than 3,000 people from all over the world. With…

A petition backed by more than 3,500 people to demand action to protect wild land will be presented to the Scottish Parliament today (Tuesday 25 January 2011). The John Muir Trust, the UK’s leading wild land charity, is submitting the petition to the Scottish Parliament as part of its Wild Land Campaign, which aims to secure greater protection for the UK’s best areas of wild land. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to improve protection for the best areas of wild land by introducing a new national environmental designation. Stuart Brooks, chief executive of the John Muir Trust said:…

Studies of red deer on Rum have revealed that the deer are starting to rut earlier in the year because of climate change. Scientists from Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities examined the records of deer behaviour collected on the island of Rum over the last 38 years. The studies show that the annual rut, when males compete for a harem of females to mate with, now starts two weeks earlier on average. The researchers have said this could be because of warmer springs and summers. The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, was funded by the Natural Environment Research…

2011 is the European Year of Volunteering and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is suggesting people should kick off the year with a resolution to help wildlife in Scotland. A recent SNH report found that only 23% of organisations involved with wildlife surveys felt they had enough volunteers to meet their needs and 60% found geographic coverage a problem. Wildlife recording has a long and important history in the UK for science and conservation, and has always been led by volunteers. Amateur collectors had a key role in developing natural history collections in the 19th and early 20th century and were…