british mammals

April Whirlwind

| Rebecca Gibson

I’ve been a busy, quite tired bee recently! April has gone by in a flash and no matter how long I spend at my desk, the length of my to-do list never seems to change. This month I’ve been hard at work on a few different projects which I can’t wait to share. Fortunately I still managed to squeeze in some much-needed nature time, so here are some of my recent highlights.

I was thrilled to have a second article accepted by Oceanographic magazine. In July last year I visited Troup Head near Aberdeen, which is home to a vast colony of gannets. Soon afterwards I met Tim Marshall, who first visited the site in 1988. Back then there were just four gannet nests – by 2013 numbers had reached 2885 occupied nests! I was so excited about seeing these gorgeous seabirds up close that I wrote a story about them, which is now published on Oceanographic’s website alongside my photos.

There’s been a running joke for a while that I have awful luck when it comes to seeing roe deer. For many people, in Scotland at least, roe deer seem to be ten a penny. They’re one of my favourite animals but for some reason my sightings are very rare – I’ve actually seen more crested tits than roe deer! As for photos they’ve been disastrous, either dark and noisy or almost indistinguishable behind a thousand branches.

So managing to photograph not just one buck but two simultaneously was an exceptional bit of luck for me. I’d been strolling along the river when the first buck appeared on the far side. Moments later a second buck joined him. It was intriguing how one still had all his antler velvet and the other had none. With the river between us they seemed comfortable grazing out in the open, giving me the clearest daytime views I’ve ever had of this gorgeous animal.

I shared my frankly miraculous encounter with a hare in my last post. That same morning, I also had a run-in with a very handsome male pheasant. I’ve heard pheasants call hundreds of times – that screeching grate echoes through open fields everywhere. But it was only the other day that I discovered what a pheasant does while it calls.

This male was foraging right next to my car window. Every so often he’d stand up straight and lift his head to release that banshee scream, scaring me half to death each time. After calling he would flap his wings, almost like he’d startled himself too. As I hadn’t taken the time to notice pheasants calling before, I hadn’t realised what an excellent opportunity to train my reflexes it was. I had great fun photographing these glamorous poses. Say what you like about pheasants but they’re suave looking birds!

I’ve saved the best wild encounter until last. In fact, I’d say it’s one of my most exciting bird encounters ever, and it happened only 200 metres from my front door. As I was having dinner I got an alert from a fellow photographer telling me there was a Slavonian grebe in the harbour!

Pasta forgotten, I raced down and lo and behold there it was. A harbour was the last place I thought I’d tick off my first Slavonian grebe. About the size of a moorhen, these birds are extremely rare in the UK. They can be seen on a few Scottish lochs but spend most of the year at sea. I felt incredibly lucky to have seen one at all, let alone a stone’s throw from home.

Keep an eye out for my next post, where I’ll be sharing photos from my first trip out of Moray this year. The day featured a trio of herons, a serenading grey wagtail and a mallard making a splash!

Pine marten on the doorstep!

| Rebecca Gibson

During a recent trip to Assynt on the west coast of Scotland to photograph the red deer rut, I was thrilled to see a pine marten right outside the window on the very first night.

My partner and I noticed that its left eye looked misty so the following night we set up a trail camera, which recorded not only “Misty” with its one shining eye but also another pine marten with two shining eyes! This probably explained why both animals scent marked on the corner of the tray we’d put out for them. Having two different pine martens mere feet away from us was incredible! Even though it looked like Misty was blind in one eye, he or she seemed to have no trouble leaping up onto the log and checking out all the food. Here’s a combined video of my footage from the window and the trail camera out on the decking.

The Rut

| Rebecca Gibson

For years it’s been a dream of mine to watch Scottish red deer in the autumn so last week my boyfriend Steve and I journeyed to the west coast to find some. We saw deer every day but they were often on the peaks of the hills and too far away for photos. Even if the sights weren’t great, the sounds were fantastic. At night in the chalet I’d pause during dinner after hearing a faint mooing sound from outside. It wasn’t cows but the bellowing of breeding stags on the hill across the loch, working hard to protect their own harems of hinds or attempting to steal someone else’s. They bellowed long into the early hours and several times I woke up disorientated, wondering if I had dreamt it.

A distant hind on the crest of the hill.

On the last full day of the trip after yet more distant silhouettes on the horizon we turned around and started driving back to the house, just about ready to accept defeat. In an almost cliched “nick of time” moment Steve suddenly spotted a stag with his harem in a field not far from the road. Naturally there was nowhere to pull over so we ditched the car in a layby, walked back up the road and crawled the last few metres on our bellies to avoid scaring the deer.

A stag bellows in front of his harem of hinds

After several minutes of crawling I discovered that my hands were covered in roughly a dozen ticks, all tiny and luckily unattached. However, the ticks, mud and poo were all worth it for the views. The stag in the field below was in full rut mode, bellowing every minute or so and chasing the hinds around. None succumbed to his advances but he persevered, even jumping the hilariously named “deer proof fence” with ease. As well as the larger stag, there were also several younger stags feeding on the hill at eye level with us. They stared us down every time we shifted position but seemed content to carry on as normal and let us watch.

After several days of hearing deer without seeing many, getting to spend a couple of hours being completely surrounded by them was the perfect way to end our trip. Deer are one of those Marmite animals for some people, but I think they’re exceptionally special and I relish every encounter I have with them.

Red Squirrel Week

| Rebecca Gibson

It’s National Red Squirrel Week!

I didn’t see my first red squirrel until I was eighteen, but since then I’ve been extremely lucky with sightings of these gorgeous mammals and they’ve been a firm favourite of mine ever since. I often see them while walking my dog through the forest and the first giveaway signs that I’ve found one are the sounds of rapid scrabbling overhead and the occasional thud of a pinecone as it hits the floor. At this time of year, red squirrels are hard at work finding food to see them through the winter. Instead of large caches, squirrels are scatter-hoarders, which means they store each item separately. Unlike grey squirrels, red squirrels can’t easily digest acorns and instead feed on hazelnuts and seeds from many different trees including pine, larch and spruce. Their diet also consists of fungi, fruits and even birds’ eggs if they get the opportunity.   

This week, I was very pleased to see two of my red squirrel images featured in BBC Wildlife magazine’s new Red Squirrel Guide, written by ‘Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels’. Both photos were taken in Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, where I’ve had some very close encounters with these animals! While I’ve seen plenty of adults, my next challenge is to spot some red squirrel babies, which are called kits.

Before the introduction of grey squirrels into Britain, there were millions of red squirrels. Nowadays there are thought to be around 120,000 left in Scotland, which is 75% of the UK population. As part of National Red Squirrel Week, ‘Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels’ are encouraging people all over Scotland to take part in the Great Scottish Squirrel Survey from the 21st to 27th September. All you have to do is go for a walk in the woods and if you see either a red or grey squirrel then submit your sighting on the website. Even after the Squirrel Survey has finished, you can still submit sightings throughout the year.

It won’t be long before the red squirrels near me start growing their ear tufts, which I can’t wait to see!