CaledoniaCaledonia Welcome to a World of Wonder! ne day in early May I went to Dundreggan, just symbol for our whole fundraising drive. after we heard that our formal offer had been Seeing the butterfly in real life again then, at the very Oaccepted, and that we therefore had a binding moment of entering the forest on Dundreggan for the first contract for the purchase of the estate. It felt like an time since our purchase was confirmed, I knew it was no auspicious day, and I was eager to see the birchwood with coincidence. It seemed to me that the peacock was the fresh green leaves of spring, and to experience the re- welcoming me, and Trees for Life, to the forest we will emergence of life on the land, after the long dormancy of care for and regenerate. It was as though the butterfly was winter. saying, 'see, I did help you purchase I spent some time talking with the estate!'. What a welcome to Allan Common, who lives in the Two weeks later, I was out on Dundreggan - the Keeper's Cottage and works on the Dundreggan again, this time with peacock butterfly I saw Estate, and then walked up the track Mandeigh, our marketing manager, in early May! towards the birchwood behind the whose idea it had been to feature the buildings, heading for some peacock butterfly so prominently on primroses I could see blooming in our brochure. By then, spring was profusion at the edge of the trees. It more advanced, and it felt like we was a bright sunny day, the air was were discovering a whole world of warm and the sounds of birds and the beauty. Many of the junipers were Peacock butterfly on gentle breeze filled the air. Taking in covered with a spectacular orange the cover of our the beauty of the primroses, I sat rust fungus; Allan Common took us to Dundreggan brochure down to have my lunch in the sun at an aspen stand, where we saw a great the threshold of the woodland. spotted woodpecker emerge from its After a few minutes my nest hole in one of the trees; and attention was caught by movement at Mandeigh caught sight the periphery of my vision. As I turned to get a closer of a slow worm in the grass. A look, I saw a butterfly land on one of the primroses. hillside near Dundreggan Lodge Carefully moving closer, I saw that it was a peacock was covered with primroses, and butterfly, and my heart and spirits soared as the another week later the peacocks significance of this sank in. I had seen a peacock butterfly were still feeding on them. I couldn't on Dundreggan once late last summer, and as a result we help but smile as they fluttered around, had included a photograph of one on the special and their presence seemed to say to me, fundraising brochure we produced for the estate. In fact, 'Welcome to the world of wonder that is the butterfly featured in apparent giant size on the cover Dundreggan' - a welcome that we extend photograph, and again on the donation form inside, next to you in the centre pages of this newsletter. to the words 'Yes, I want to help Trees for Life purchase the Dundreggan Estate!' Through this, it became the Alan Watson Featherstone In this Summer 06 issue: Juniper propagation success . Dundreggan Biodiversity Otter folklore . The History of Dundreggan . Predation . Black slug species profile In the Pressure Cooker! By Adam Powell here is lots on at Trees for Life at the moment. It's exposed hillside facing the prospect of carrying a shoulder summer and, in keeping with the pace of life in bag of damp, heavy fertiliser. You would have returned Tnature, it is a hot and hectic season for us with the repeatedly to refill it, setting out time and again to dose promise of a huge potential increase in woodland another batch of little trees. There was no visible result. restoration in the Scottish Highlands via our taking Raising a weary head from the ground at lunch time your ownership of the 4,000 hectare (10,000 acre) Dundreggan eyes would scan the site which looked exactly as before; no Estate in Glen Moriston. satisfying pile of old fencing removed, no native trees Struggling to fit yet another item into a busy schedule, liberated from the oppression of suffocating Sitka spruce, Spotted flycatcher, I recently came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. no swathes of newly planted trees to feel proud of. juvenile and adult I had to get someone Take heart all you brave and dedicated volunteers! started on a woodland Just look at the result of all your hard work. Sometimes one survey at Dundreggan has to wait to experience job satisfaction but it has certainly and I really had to get on with arrived now in this situation. Using fertiliser is not our writing this article. Pulling a preferred option but rock phosphate is relatively low-key memory from the distant past with no heavy duty chemicals. The slow growth and die- I realised that I did not need a back in the trees over a period of years on this poor and computer and keyboard but exposed site, particularly the birch, had to be addressed. could actually use pen and paper to The rock phosphate has certainly improved the situation make a start on this task and that could be and even the trees at the highest most exposed point of the accomplished anywhere. Excellent! I would show site are now looking healthy. In more sheltered spots, Nicholas the maps and notes for the survey, discuss aspen, birch, pine and rowan have become well methodology and leave him to it. Meanwhile I would find established, some having grown over two metres tall! So a nice spot to plonk myself down and put pen to paper. “By well done and thank you all who took part in this difficult the way,” said Nicholas, “Jill (our tree nursery manager) task: all your hard work has paid off and the Balnacarn would like you to check out how the willow seed is project is now looking great. developing on the trees here, and wants to know if it would Some of the birches be worth her while popping over to collect some.” planted on Balnacarn Right, I thought, I will just nip down to the river and are now 2 metres tall. check out the willows before settling down to write the PHOTO BY ADAM POWELL. article. An hour and a half later, after watching the dazzling dance of damselflies, the smart elegance of the black caps and white collars of reed buntings, dogging the erratic flight courses of a green-veined white butterfly, silver 'y' and common wave moths, noting the presence of early purple orchid, meadowsweet and angelica in the damp Green-veined white grassland of the flood plain, I got back eager to note down butterfly on meadowsweet my observations before they left my head … oh, and there's a spotted flycatcher sitting on that roof and surely those are sand martins flashing past their cousins, the house martins! Who can sit down with eyes glued to a page with all this going on? After a quick lunch I went with the flow and trekked across the woodland margin picking up further observations which would add 39 species to the ever expanding biodiversity record for Dundreggan. Rock on! Woodland ground flora One of the most difficult, and at the time In the dappled sunshine of Millbuies Forest, a Forestry thankless, tasks that we have undertaken with Commission Scots pine plantation on the Black Isle near groups of volunteers was the spreading of rock Inverness, there are a number of deer-fenced plots which phosphate fertiliser around young trees on the were established in 1987 to trial woodland ground flora Balnacarn Estate in Glen Moriston. If you were one of reintroduction. This was of interest to us as we have the lucky (?) few to experience this ordeal I am sure initiated just such a project in recovering woodland in Glen you will remember it! After a bumpy ride in a Land Affric. More often than not in new woodland, whether Rover and a steep walk you would have stood on an planted or naturally regenerating, many of the ground flora 2 Caledonia Wild! • Summer 2006 species have disappeared in feels it is an excellent plan and I recently made a site visit Natural woodland the absence of the cool, with him to investigate the possible extent of the project ground flora in the damp shade of the tree and practical fence lines. There is very limited commercial Caledonian Forest - canopy. Some hang on in value in the plantations and there are places, particularly on creeping ladies tresses orchids amongst the shade provided by tall the edges, where trees have done very poorly. John went a blaeberries at Coille heather or rocks or in the little further than I had suggested in taking some of the Ruigh in Glen Affric. shadowed confines of river plantation area into the proposed scheme on the basis of gorges but competition landscape design and practicalities. Due to the planned from advancing moorland introduction of a new Forestry Commission grant scheme species, in concert with for new woodlands, no money will be available for some increased light, will see off time to come. However, we both felt that this is too good an the majority of species.