Hoovering a Munro

As part of my training with the North Pennines AONB Partnership I can participate in a number of courses to further my continuing professional development. So first up was an Invertebrate Surveying Course with the Field Studies Council at Kindrogan in Scotland. Kindrogan is an old manor house hidden away in mixed woodland on the banks of the River Ardle. Over the course of four days my fellow course participants and I would get to utilise several survey techniques to look for mini-beasts in several different habitats in and around the venue. We would also get the opportunity to have a go at identifying the collected insects and arachnids down to family level and species level in some cases. Our tutor was Jeff Clarke an experienced ecologist who runs his own consultancy/environmental education/wildlife watching business. Jeff also had numerous anecdotes about his work as a countryside ranger from which we learnt valuable lessons such as avoiding surveying alone at night and if you are wearing a hi-vis jacket people tend not to ask questions about what your doing.

Some of the techniques we used were familiar to me, such as sweep netting and moth trapping. However Jeff had some novel techniques for sampling tricky habitats. For example high tree branches can be sampled by tossing an angling weight attached to a rope over said branches and then tugging down vigorously on the ropes to dislodge the attached insects onto a sheet below.  The pièce de résistance of sampling methods was the suction sampling method which used a converted leaf blower to suck invertebrates from vegetation into a collecting net located at the nozzle. While this may seem like overkill for invertebrate sampling it has numerous benefits over sweep netting. Firstly it sampled the vegetation, in the words of a famous shampoo advert, “from root to tip”; sweep netting tends to under sample invertebrates dwelling near ground level or in thick vegetation. Secondly suction sampling doesn’t damage the sampled invertebrates unlike sweep netting. Thirdly suction sampling can be used in vegetation where it is impossible to use a sweep net e.g. brambles or other thorny plants which can shred nets. Finally unless you are using two handed method sweep netting can result in a repetitive strain injury like tennis elbow, not so for suction sampling.

One obvious drawback of suction sampling is that it is more awkward to lug the leaf blower around the place than a net, which is what we did on the second day of the course when we carried it up Glas Maol, a Munro and ski resort. We attracted plenty of funny looks from walkers and clearly knackered adventure racers as we hiked up the track from the car park to the summit. The effort was worth it and we were rewarded with views of the distant Cairngorm Mountains and sightings of Ptarmigan, Mountain Hare, Golden Plover and Dotterel. I got a go at using the converted leaf blower too which probably ranks as my most unusual experience on a mountain. The arachnid specialists on the course also managed to unearth a Pseudoscorpion on the summit, a small predator that lacks the tail of its more famous namesake and has instead venomous claws.

The centre itself also had wildlife in abundance. Red Squirrel's were commonly seen darting across the lawn in between the trees and numerous garden birds such as Blue Tits and Coal Tits could be seen at the bird feeders. The centre staff also placed peanuts and peanut butter out on a log pile on the outskirts of the centre which attracted nocturnal visitors like Fallow Deer, Pine Martens and a hybrid Scottish Wildcat. One evening Jeff placed a motion triggered night vision camera at the log pile which produced delightful shots of the three species feeding there at various times of the night. We also got to see the moggy in the flesh from the comfort of the centres minibus hide, which Jeff described as being 50% Wildcat and 50% peanut. A purer strain of Wildcat is known to inhabit the wooded hill above the centre but seldom ventures close to human habitation.

All good things come to an end and the course was over before I knew it. I am left with plenty of fond memories of my Scottish experience (but no photos as my camera is possibly lying in the substratum of the Lincolnshire Fens) and new skills to draw upon in my future career.



Scottish Wildcat and Kitten -Peter Trimming