A wildlife-rich drive to Tarbert from Amhuinnsuidhe yesterday morning: a juvenile sea eagle flying very low over the road at Cliasmol being mobbed by a pair of gulls; a red deer stag at Tolmachan; and two buzzards, at Buna and Ardhasaig! A buzzard is quite regularly seen perched on top of the chimney of the old Whaling Station at Buna.
Posts Tagged ‘Red Deer’
5th January: Red Deer
We’ve been seeing plenty of Red Deer stags hanging around at various points along the Hushinish road over the last few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled!
Roaring and Rutting at Cravadale Guided Walk
Tues 29th October 10am-2.30pm
Roaring and Rutting at Cravadale
Meet: Start of track on right just to the east of Amhuinnsuidhe castle (NB 052 077), Distance: 6 miles
Level: Grade B
A chance to experience the incredible spectacle of the red deer rut, each stag fighting to defend its harem of hinds. The walk will take you into Glen Cravadale, a spectacular glen that has been shaped by the scouring action of glaciers.
Roaring and Rutting at Langadale Guided Walk
Sat 26th October 10am-2pm
Roaring and Rutting at Langadale
Meet: at Bogha Glas car park (NB 185 115), Distance: 6 miles
Level: Grade B
A walk to Glen Langadale to experience the roars of red deer echoing around the Glen. This is a chance to learn about the life of our largest land mammal and the management of the North Harris deer herd.
Roaring and Rutting at Ulladale Guided Walk
Thurs 17th October 10am-3pm
Roaring and Rutting at Ulladale
Meet: Start of track on right just to the east of Amhuinnsuidhe Castle (NB 052 077), Distance: 6 miles
Level: Grade B
A chance to experience the incredible spectacle of the red deer rut, each stag fighting to defend its harem of hinds. The walk will take you into Glen Ulladale where the silhouette of Sron Ulladale, Britain’s largest overhanging cliff, dominates the skyline
North Harris stalking training
The Shooting Show comes to North Harris to put the North Harris Stalking Club through its paces. Filming took place on a cold, wet and windy morning whilst members of the club went through their DSC1 training course.
We have since received a number of calls from people interested in coming to Harris for Stalking. Enquiries are being directed to the Land Manager of the North Harris Trust.
Roaring, rutting, hares and seed collecting!
Yesterday was the first of this year’s “Roaring and Rutting” walks. Mark (NHT Land Manager) and I took a group of six walkers out to Glen Cravadale to see the rut; we were relieved to find the glen full of roaring stags as we came over the bealach at the top of Glen Liosaid. I have two more rutting walks to come; one to Glen Ulladail and the other to Glen Langadale.
The rut is where the males compete amongst themselves for ownership of groups of females, and defend established harems against rival males, for breeding with the oestrus females. The roaring that can be heard in the glens is the stags sizing each other up. This can lead to direct confrontations between two stags. This behavior is triggered primarily by the shortening day length, and will often last right through October.
Also this week I have been gathering in the markers we put out for the “Five Peaks Challenge” over the Mountain Festival. Yesterday I left Mark to take the walking group back down the glen, and set off up Tiorga Mor to collect the marker on the summit. On the top I caught a glimpse of a Mountain Hare – the Hare are currently moulting; this one was almost entirely white/grey. Whilst this change of coat may be beneficial on the hills of the mainland, out on Harris the limited snowfall means that they are incredibly easy to spot through most of the winter – something I’m sure the Golden Eagles are very happy about!
Last week I was out for a couple of afternoons collecting Downy Birch seed and Rowan berries. These I plan to propagate over the winter as the first stock for the planned NHT tree nursery. This involved clambering around in gulleys and on crags – the only places you find remnant native woodland on Harris are areas inaccessible to grazing. The presence of Aspen in most of these sites indicates that woodland has been there for thousands of years (as far back as the last ice-age); due to the climate in this country, Aspen can no longer reproduce by seed, instead it perpetuates itself by regenerating from root suckers. Whenever you see an Aspen, you’re actually looking at an organism that could be up to 12,000 years old!