Tag: aigas

Pine Martens

So, wild mammals again; we had a local canal walk last Sunday. On our way out, we skirted the compound where Amey are based for their repairs to the Woodside viaducts. There was a chap in full camo holding a large cigar in his left hand and a lead in his right. When the creature at the end of the lead emerged from the long grass, it turned out to be a Polecat. A Dundas Hill billy !

If you read the Red Squirrels post, you should know that the Aigas offer also included Pine Martens. Backwoodsman had never set eyes on one of these creatures before our May trip and was keen to get some pictures. We were offered an after-dinner private trip to the Quarry Hide with one of the wardens, and took up the opportunity with great enthusiasm. Bait was placed, lights were turned on and we took our places in the comfortable hide and waited in stillness and silence. The light fell, various creatures rustled in the grass but of Pine Martens, there were none. After a couple of hours, the vigil was called off and everyone exhaled. When the lights went back on in the hide, we were able to read about the role bib patterns play in identifying individual animals, and the cunning way in which images had been obtained.

The Pinewood Hide had delivered some excellent views of Red Squirrels and we visited it again a couple of days later with the intention of improving Backwoodsman’s stock of Woodpecker images. We baited up and as we scanned the edge of the woodland, something that could only have been a Pine Marten bounded away from the hide and into the bracken in front of us. The mammal book says that the species is “Mainly nocturnal but in summer may forage after dawn and before sunset.” We had not hoped to see one in the bright light of a May lunchtime, and yet…

A small head appeared atop the wall against the dark background of the woodland, viewed the food offer, assessed the level of threat we posed back in the hide, and made its way in for the peanuts.

The animal looked quite relaxed – the camera was clicking away all the time but the Marten neither flinched at the sound, nor looked towards it. The teeth were bared from time to time but it looked more like a reflex associated with chewing or swallowing than a threat.

Once however, the animal seemed to look past our hide and strike a more aggressive posture – could another animal have looked in at this point?

Crisis over and it was time for a look around the area before the trip back to the wall and an exit into the darkness beyond.

We were stunned by what we had just experienced. The images are time-stamped so we know that the Marten had spent twenty-four minutes in our company.

It might be thought vainglorious to say that this set of images was unlikely to be improved upon unless the opportunity arose to photograph two Pine Martens, or an adult and some little ones. However, when offered another after-dinner guided hide visit, we took it up. Our host, Sir John Lister-Kaye, had used one of his short after-dinner speeches to express his displeasure at the selfish actions of a photographer on one of these night-time hide visits, so Backwoodsman was committed to available light and single frame shooting only when we sat waiting in the Campbell Hide. Suddenly, a Pine Marten was with us, crunching peanuts and licking jam from the adventure playground.

So job done, Pine Martens spotted and documented, and what a wonderful opportunity.

Backwoodsman found this in a Natural England blog:

“The pine marten was once widespread and common across Britain but is now rare and recovering. Pine martens are generalist omnivores, eating a wide range of different food species. They predominantly prey on small mammals such as field voles, and this usually consists of up to 50% of their diet.  Their diet preference is determined by what is locally most abundant. Predators are a crucial part of a functioning ecosystem. A diverse predator community is expected to naturally limit populations of abundant prey populations. However, pine martens by themselves generally live at low density; a population of one per km2 is considered a high density, and a pair of martens generally need at least 200 ha of suitable woodland.”

So, areas; 200 hectares is 2 km2, which is quite a small area. The Aigas Estate covers 600 acres according to a source (another bewildering unit: an acre is one chain by one furlong, the likes of Mr Rees-Mogg love units like this because no-one can work out how much land his lot actually own!), so that’s 2.4 km2 in sensible units. Five Pine Martens on the property seems quite crowded, but perhaps multiple territories overlap on the Aigas Estate, with individuals making feeding raids and then retreating to somewhere a bit more spacious.

There is a Pine Marten recovery plan which seeks to reintroduce viable populations of these animals into England and Wales without affecting the recovering population in Scotland.

An interesting point from the document: “Recent studies in Ireland…suggested that pine martens may have a negative impact on grey squirrels, with a benefit to red squirrels where they are present and as a result, many organisations and partnerships in Britain are particularly interested in pine marten reintroduction projects for grey squirrel control. However, these are often locally designed initiatives, motivated by local conservation targets, without consideration of how they fit within the wider context of pine marten conservation and of other, similar projects. Reintroductions can offer a powerful conservation tool but when they are motivated and planned at a local scale this may hamper their ability to contribute to the long-term recovery of a species at the larger scale. This is particularly important for species such as the pine marten, which occupy large (ca. 2-30 km2 per individual) home ranges and which, therefore, require suitable landscapes, rather than sites, [Backwoodsman’s italics] in which to establish sufficient territories for a viable population.”

The Aigas Estate has a small but established population of Beavers and breeds Wildcats to support reintroduction projects. Backwoodsman is less excited about these species, or by the others which various rewilding agendas seek to reintroduce, particularly Lynx and Wolves. Some of you may remember the illegal release of Lynx in the Cairngorms earlier this year?

One of the Aigas rangers was enthusing about Lynx: “do you see the reintroduction of Lynx as being an unambiguously good thing?” Backwoodsman asked her. Her answer referred to a “landscape of fear”, in which deer would smell large predators as they forage, and move on smartly without overgrazing, allowing trees to grow back. Deer fencing is no good because Grouse fly into it and maim themselves, so the deer get to roam unchallenged, proliferating far beyond sustainable population densities and grazing everything to extinction. Presumably Wolves would also provide a landscape of fear. They certainly would if they develop a taste for walkers on the West Highland Way. Backwoodsman wonders if pheromone spraying at strategic locations might not be a potential control strategy, as the semiochemicals used by Lynx, for example, seem to be quite well characterised.

According to the BBC story, Lynx became extinct from Britain five hundred to one thousand years ago. Backwoodsman wonders if conserving what we have now should be top priority, rather than reaching back into a past in which people lived and farmed very differently. The rewilding movement is having none of that:     

“Nature knows best when it comes to survival and self-governance.

We can give it a helping hand by creating the right conditions – by removing dykes and dams to free up rivers, by reducing active management of wildlife populations, by allowing natural forest regeneration, and by reintroducing species that have disappeared as a result of man’s actions. Then we should step back and let nature manage itself.”

There are four action points in the second paragraph; the first three seem rooted in a practical approach but the fourth is completely unqualified and almost appears an end in itself. Rewilding Britain is the local branch and one of the rewilders celebrated on its website (Dorette Engi) was actually present at Aigas during our visit.

“If Dorette Engi hadn’t read Isabella Tree’s Wilding, which recounts ​‘the return of nature to a British farm’, Dayshul Brake [a rewilding cluster] might never have come into being.

With retirement looming, the briskly outspoken psychoanalytic child psychotherapist who grew up in Switzerland, was keen to put her strong Buddhist principles into practice for the planet. Inspired by Wilding, ​“I thought, perhaps a bit presumptively, ​‘OK, I’m going to do that’.” Her presumptuousness extended to booking herself on a rewilding course for landowners at Tree’s Knepp Estate. Presumptuous because, as yet, Dorette didn’t own a single acre. That changed in 2019 when she and her daughter, Eti Meacock, fresh from a permaculture course, and architect son Anthony, bought Broadridge Farm, having scoured the county for suitable sites. ​“It just felt ideal… It hadn’t been over-fertilised and ​‘pesticided’… And it had water. We wanted water”.

Dorette again: “Wilding is experimental. That’s what I like about it. I love the idea of creating a space, and seeing what it needs. Moving forward without following a strict guideline. I really wanted to play.” And “I’m doing a lot by not farming here”, explains Dorette. ​“The water stays on the land [helping prevent] floods.”

In the area around the Beaver lodge at Aigas, many small trees had been felled, their stumps showing that unmistakable sharpened pencil finish left by Beavers. Quite a bit of chicken wire had been deployed to protect the remaining trees. Backwoodsman overheard a conversation Dorette was holding with another guest. When challenged with the view that the Beavers tended to make quite a mess, Dorette came back with “Well, nature is messy.”

Backwoodsman would contend that nature abounds with symmetries, precision and refinement of adaptation of purpose, in which species of many different types interlock to the benefit of all – if you look at nature and see a mess, maybe you missed the patterns? Perhaps that is a low blow. Nevertheless, where we position ourselves on the continuum from rewilding (anarchic, individual, possibly small scale) to planned large-scale conservation (slow-moving, bureaucratic) will be critical, as governments look hard at big infrastructure projects and planning laws.  Public opinion may start to turn against well intentioned conservation efforts, driven away by projects which have slightly slipped their moorings, like the HS2 bat shed.

And of course, big capital is on the way in. Backwoodsman came across this item about wild goats recently.

“A campaign has been launched to protect an ancient herd of wild goats on a moor in the south of Scotland amid an outcry about a cull.The goats roam across Langholm Moor including 11,000 acres (4,450 ha) recently purchased by rewilding company Oxygen Conservation.”

Goats eat trees so their numbers have to fall (it’s the same argument as in deer versus landscape of fear).

Oxygen Conservation say:

“We are growing natural capital at scale

Natural capital is the parts of nature such as forests, water, soils, and oceans that provide benefits to us, from providing food, water, and energy, to removing carbon from the atmosphere, and creating opportunities for recreation. Sadly, despite the importance of natural capital to every part of our society, it is facing a long term and catastrophic decline. Governments have tried and failed to halt this decline, and we believe that it is time for the private sector to start making a positive impact.”

The Langholme Moor site would be a 9 km x 5 km parcel, which must have cost money. Backwoodsman doesn’t have the right sort of vocabulary to understand how purchases on this scale are funded but logically, carbon credits have to be sold to generate, or justify the advancement of, capital, and make a profit for the next round of acquisitions. And of course, there are eco-activities which can generate income – for example, the website shows a group of chumps in wetsuits about to jump into somewhere chilly. No doubt their employer paid handsomely to help them navigate their leadership skills journey going forward.

On April 1st 2025, The Wilderness Society put up a post called “Wolf pack released in the Scottish Highlands”, which was quite funny. There are quite a few green lairds in Scotland now and they’d probably like to play too (pace Dorette). Is this a good future for conservation – rich men, big fences behind which lurk species which were around centuries ago and are now gone? With less favoured species (but possibly quite interesting ones) being tidied away? Backwoodsman feels that the whole rewilding agenda needs much more scrutiny than it is getting just now.

Nevertheless, we were hugely impressed by the Pine Martens and will look forward to seeing them making their way into the West End of Glasgow (ho ho). Though two of our friends did spot one just up the road near Milngavie quite recently. Watch this space!

Red Squirrels

Backwoodsman had the huge good fortune to be taken to the Aigas Field Centre recently. The trip was a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary present, and what a good one it turned out to be. We took the train from Glasgow Queen Street to Inverness and were collected at the station for the ride towards Beauly and into Strathglass where House of Aigas sits. The area supports a very large HEP Scheme (Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme) with power stations at Aigas and Kilmorack, a significant amount of local infrastructure and a contentious history, which makes for a most amusing read in this Wikipedia entry.

SSE proposes to build new lines in the area including a big one running from Spittal in Aberdeenshire, to Beauly. New substations will also be required, with one of these planned near Beauly. We started seeing protest banners as we hit the A831 heading in the Cannich direction. Backwoodsman was forearmed having watched the BBC Panorama programme “Rewiring Britain: The Race to Go Green” in which “Justin Rowlatt meets the people taking sides in the battle over rewiring Britain”. It was an interesting watch, what with Rowlatt skipping in and out of helicopters like an excited puppy.

Backwoodsman will return to the vexed question of “Rewiring Britain” later on but before that, here is what we went for. The Aigas Estate is managed for wildlife and many Red Squirrels live on the property. While these rodents abound in Scotland, they are usually far too quick for Backwoodsman’s camera but not this time. The Pinewood Hide at Aigas offered the opportunity to lay traps; a bin in the corner of the hide contained shelled peanuts and whole hazelnuts. The latter could be shelled and served (fast food) or presented whole in their shells. A squirrel would take longer to scoff a nut in its shell, and might do some cute stuff with its little hands while it ate. Backwoodsman is an angler and spends a lot of time thinking about multiple lines and how to feed them to attract fish in different ways (usually unsuccessfully), so off we went with some peanuts here and hazelnuts there and there. A Vole was clearly watching this caper – they are very fast but like eating. Even wild animals are not daft – they know where the food is going to go in and they watch those lines. Perhaps you would argue that these animals are becoming, or have become, semi-domesticated?

A poster in the hide identified this tiny rodent as a Field Vole. Backwoodsman’s copy of the book Britain’s Mammals (p. 72 of the updated 2021 edition) suggests that Field Voles and Bank voles can be distinguished by tail length and degree of hirsuteness of their ears. In this image, the tail is half the length of the body, spot on for a Field Vole, but in all these images, the ears seem quite prominent and really not hidden in the fur. Backwoodsman will defer to the local expertise.

So here is a gratuitously cute image.

Anyway, then the squirrels came. We saw several animals, mostly very pretty but there was a somewhat thuggish looking animal and we watched it destroy a flimsy bird feeder, just like the Grey Squirrels do at home. If you are struggling with this issue, fit a Squirrel Buster feeder, they work so well.

Anyway, the Red Squirrels ran through quite a lot of  repertoire and delighted us. There are a few Squirrel Nutkin poses in this set of images!

Backwoodsman confesses that he is not entirely immune to the charms of Grey Squirrels – they have a way about them. There is a place in Kelvingrove Park where students from East Asia go to feed Grey Squirrels and take photographs; the squirrels attending this site know how to put a best paw forward. The whole narrative of invasive species versus native species is a slippery one, but it is disagreeable to think of Red Squirrels being driven entirely from large swathes of territory and infected with viral disease. Fortunately, Reds are being looked after and may be said to be on the march (or possibly bound); one even turned up in Bishopbriggs, just a few miles from where we stay, last summer.

So “Rewiring Britain”…”Do you have to??” bellows Backwoodsman’s limited readership. Well, some quite interesting things came up in the programme and Backwoodsman has looked into some of them. Opponents of the Beauly pylon line were very keen on buried cables and Backwoodsman wondered about the merits of overhead versus underground. Much of the following content seems consistent with Emma Pinchbeck’s comments on the issue:

“Although underground cables may be less prone to faults, they take longer to repair on average than overhead lines, since repair involves locating the fault, excavating the cable, completing the repair and reinstating the cover. The difference in repair times increases with the voltage such that, at 132 kV and above, overhead lines are out of service for a far shorter time than underground cables. At times of low demand, underground cables are also prone to brief overvoltages and system instability which may constrain the operating flexibility of the transmission system.”

And:

“At higher voltages, the disadvantages of underground cables in terms of higher capital cost, greater down time due to faults, the potential for greater environmental damage and loss of useful land have precluded their widespread use. High voltage underground cables tend to be reserved for circumstances where overhead lines are impracticable, such as in dense urban areas or sea crossings. In exceptional circumstances, where it has not been possible to avoid routeing lines through areas of designated landscape value, there have been occasions when lengths of underground cable have been installed to preserve the visual amenity. “

And:

“Care is taken to minimise damage to farmland, which with underground cables could be significant and take a long time to recover, with possible disruption to drainage and water courses. When in service, both overhead lines and underground cables which cross agricultural land impose constraints on farming operations.”

Punters just don’t want pylons and neither do their MPs – this from John Lamont, Conservative MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.

“Our countryside could be scarred, which would damage tourism, leave businesses out of pocket, and risk the environment. Agricultural land could suffer, which could affect farms and reduce the amount of produce made here in the Borders. I believe there is another solution – instead of so many overhead wires, underground cabling should be considered.”

There’s a few votes in that from the chaps in purple corduroy trousers and waxed jackets. Is a cable buried in your farmland, which you might plough up at any time, so much better than one in the sky, which you can drive underneath safely? Backwoodsman has no view.

Pylons are not attractive but it would seem to be necessary to have some to maintain the National Grid. Will it come down to a judgement based on aesthetic concerns? If so, we might be in for some trouble: just check out the dwelling and outfit of the lady leading the anti-pylon campaign on Deeside in the Panorama programme (05:05 onwards). The Rivers Glass and Farrar are both lined with pylons and HEP stations currently. Neither are exactly virgin lanscapes so does it matter if some taller pylons go in here too for the greater good? One of the young Aigas wardens made a good point while we were out in his van; the construction of the new infrastructure will push volumes of heavy traffic down small roads which are not really made for this purpose. This will clearly be problematic and it is hoped that every effort will be made to mitigate the impacts.

There are ways of looking at energy development which seek to benefit the communities which host the infrastructure. Becky Ford in the Spring/Summer issue of ReSource, the house journal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and representing Community Energy Scotland, writes that the need for communities and industries to work together for collective good “…allows for care for people and place – not as assets or resources to exploit but as intrinsically valuable ecosystems which can sustain life for all.”

The Suffolk objectors were very focussed on offshore infrastructure as well as buried cables and keen to cite efforts in the Low Countries. It is possible that they were talking about Belgium’s energy island (and video), a huge offshore infrastructure build which will collate cables and outputs from a major array of wind turbines. “As the world’s first artificial energy island, the Princess Elisabeth Island is our flagship project. Located off the Belgian coast in the North Sea, the island will serve as an electricity hub that will bundle together the cables leading to wind farms in Belgium’s second offshore wind zone, helping to bring the electricity they generate back to shore. It will also act as an intermediate landing point for interconnectors that link Belgium to other European countries.”

Belgium is still doing overhead cables though, despite what the SEAS people said. For example: “Lamifil supplied 260 km of AAAC UHC (Ultra-High Conductivity) overhead conductors for a vital and unique backbone upgrade of Belgium’s national grid. Belgium’s national grid operator Elia is continuously developing its high-voltage grid system or ‘backbone’ to support the energy transition and increase interconnectivity within the European grid network.” Other Low Countries are at it too.

The UK hasn’t been too great at major infrastructure projects over the last couple of decades; three characters will convey the scale of the problem – HS2. We’ve been busy getting on with the important stuff of delivering austerity and securing our Brexit freedoms. Backwoodsman has the merest suspicion about how all the objectors in the Panorama programme might have voted on the inglorious day. He does not see them as supporters of the current policy of the Labour Party under any leadership and wonders how they feel about any approach to Net Zero on any timescale?

There is so much to understand about the energy industry but it does seem clear that our demand for electricity will only rise, unfortunately, particularly as more and more data centres are built and electric cars plugged in. It would seem better to avoid building the data centres, find ways of moving people around that don’t require the proliferation of EVs and generally attempt to moderate our use of energy resource, but that isn’t how things are done now. Renewable energy resource will be generated far away from the main points of consumption and it will need to be connected into the grid. Growth  is all, even if it’s growth of dumb sht we really don’t need. Or possibly even want, given an either/or/choice, like, shall I have pylons in my back yard, or shall I not lease that new electric SUV? Ideally, I get the new tank and someone else gets the infrastructure. Result! Backwoodsman opts for a live-in Red Squirrel, thank you.

PS Backwoodsman has just been asked “Do you mean that petrol cars are better than electric cars?”. No, just that fewer cars, whatever their fuel, should be our goal, especially for us city folk.