Hello all. I'm currently on a work placement at Creag Meagaidh NNR as part of my ecology course.
Took a drive up through some familiar places. Still snow on the mountains. Braw.
The Aberarder Farmhouse which is where I'm currently staying. Lovely place. There are currently 10 resident volunteers including myself. Most are french, a few Scots, one is English and another German.
On the Sunday afternoon when I arrived I was given an impromptu tour of the place by another resident student. These are the hills behind the House.
DAY 1
On Monday the managers arrived and the work began. I was assigned a stock fencing task. I've done stock fencing before, but not with a view like that!
The day ended with a surprise event. A highland calf was born but unfortunatley it was not being fed by its mother, so we took it inside and took care of it through the night.
Exciting stuff. I can say now that it's pretty much on its way.
DAY 2
Took a trip up with two new volunteers to collect some logs from an Fsc site a few miles from Arberarder.
We saw an osprey flying parallel to us loch-side as we drove back to the house. Good stuff.
We then cut the logs to size using this contraption, a wood-mizer.
DAY 3
Day 3 was... eventful. Ended up with a head injury and a trip to the local GP. But enough about that...
Nothing would stop me doing the day's planned activity: tree transecting. We completed 2 transects, one in Glen Feshie and the other in Invereshie. For both transects we used a line and GPS to navigate to waymarks along the transects. We recorded the height of trees and the density of surrounding scrubby vegetation such as heathers. We also checked for any potential deer damage or pellet groups, but didn't find much.
Invereshie:
A waymark indicating the next point of the transect.
Lovely old Scots Pines.
For most of the second transect I used the gps/line system. Lovely to navigate the hills, especially since the weather was much better than previous days.
DAY 4 & 5
Thursday and Friday weren't as eventful. I used a roller machine to flatten out tire tracks on the paths around the house and then continued cutting on the sawmill. I also used the sawmill today for a few hours as well.
One of the main management practices here is deer stalking. Indeed, most of the management has background in deer stalking and it's the main focus. This is to reduce grazing pressure and to allow for tree regen. I think they also sell venison to local buyers and so forth.
So yes, very interesting first week! Hope you enjoyed reading.
I think this weekend I'll head into the hills and see Coire Ardair.
If any of you have volunteered for the NNR and stayed at Arberarder before, let me know how you got on.
Cheers.
Took a drive up through some familiar places. Still snow on the mountains. Braw.
The Aberarder Farmhouse which is where I'm currently staying. Lovely place. There are currently 10 resident volunteers including myself. Most are french, a few Scots, one is English and another German.
On the Sunday afternoon when I arrived I was given an impromptu tour of the place by another resident student. These are the hills behind the House.
DAY 1
On Monday the managers arrived and the work began. I was assigned a stock fencing task. I've done stock fencing before, but not with a view like that!
The day ended with a surprise event. A highland calf was born but unfortunatley it was not being fed by its mother, so we took it inside and took care of it through the night.
Exciting stuff. I can say now that it's pretty much on its way.
DAY 2
Took a trip up with two new volunteers to collect some logs from an Fsc site a few miles from Arberarder.
We saw an osprey flying parallel to us loch-side as we drove back to the house. Good stuff.
We then cut the logs to size using this contraption, a wood-mizer.
DAY 3
Day 3 was... eventful. Ended up with a head injury and a trip to the local GP. But enough about that...
Nothing would stop me doing the day's planned activity: tree transecting. We completed 2 transects, one in Glen Feshie and the other in Invereshie. For both transects we used a line and GPS to navigate to waymarks along the transects. We recorded the height of trees and the density of surrounding scrubby vegetation such as heathers. We also checked for any potential deer damage or pellet groups, but didn't find much.
Invereshie:
A waymark indicating the next point of the transect.
Lovely old Scots Pines.
For most of the second transect I used the gps/line system. Lovely to navigate the hills, especially since the weather was much better than previous days.
DAY 4 & 5
Thursday and Friday weren't as eventful. I used a roller machine to flatten out tire tracks on the paths around the house and then continued cutting on the sawmill. I also used the sawmill today for a few hours as well.
One of the main management practices here is deer stalking. Indeed, most of the management has background in deer stalking and it's the main focus. This is to reduce grazing pressure and to allow for tree regen. I think they also sell venison to local buyers and so forth.
So yes, very interesting first week! Hope you enjoyed reading.
I think this weekend I'll head into the hills and see Coire Ardair.
If any of you have volunteered for the NNR and stayed at Arberarder before, let me know how you got on.
Cheers.
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