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Abernyte Naturewatch November 2010
Signs of winter are upon us. The early risers of Abernyte (Stephen) reported a ground frost as early as 26th September (earlier than last year when we noted it on 6th October) and we will all have been noticing frosts as low as -2.5 degrees or lower for the past couple of weeks. Wind-screen de-frosting has become a morning’s task. The geese coming from Iceland in the form of pink-footed geese were here in good time, probably capitalising on suitable northerly winds. The first notes of geese being here were put up on “Naturewatch” on 8th September when Barry saw two skeins of pink-feet flying over on afternoon of 8th September, one skein of 30 and the other over 100. Both lots were very high and flying in a SW direction, maybe towards Loch Leven. It was at any rate great to have them back. After that more and more of them piled in, and now, if you’re stuck in the traffic on the way to work, you can watch them flying off the Tay just after dawn any day of the week. I was lucky to be able to visit Vane Farm last w/e (a great place for Christmas presents and cards) and saw even more of them coming into the loch in the evening. You can now do a walk around Loch Leven from Kinross to the visitor centre at Vane Farm, and there are a couple of places to stop for coffee on the way around. Apparently a bus can take you back to the start again if you want. Not only geese but Fieldfares have returned. Barry (October 20th) has seen several small flocks around this area, probably also some Redwings amongst them. Pink-foots weren’t the only geese around this year. Small flocks of Canadas were seen in Abernyte in June by John and Irene Barton. Did anyone see the large migratory flocks of Canadas this year. They were seen touching down on the Carse around 10th September last autumn?
“Red Squirrel goes to Abernyte School” was one message we found on “Naturewatch” thanks to Stephen. “On Saturday 28th August a small red squirrel ran down Jessie’s brae and straight under the school fence into the playground”. What it did or whether it stayed to play, or to learn it’s 2 times 2’s, is not recorded. Red squirrels are still being regularly reported around the area which is great news.
We were excited by hearing of repeated sightings of Barn Owls around the area. Commoner in Fife and down on the Carse, they have rarely been reported breeding in the braes. Several folk spotted them over the Spring, early summer and into August. Let’s try to encourage them to stay around. .
We have been running a moth trap to see what types of moths are around and were astounded by the variety. Some of the pictures of these have appeared on the Naturewatch site, from Hawkmoths to Swallowtails and Satellites. They all have very exotic names (apart from some of them like the “clouded drab” which doesn’t sound so exciting). The late summer was not as good for butterflies as last year, but Gordon still managed to count 24 Peacocks on their Buddleia on the 30th August. A couple of Commas and a few Red Admirals were also seen around Abernyte village, as well as Small Copper and Small Heath on the hill.
Please keep your Nature reports coming in. They’re a bit thin on the ground at the moment! Christmas is the time for going out walking and you may see something interesting that you want to tell everyone about. Braes of the Carse are focussing on Biodiversity issues, in this the International year of Biodiversity and are on the lookout for volunteers to help with this. Contact Braes of the Carse if you want to take part or have some ideas for enhancing or recording Biodiversity in our area.
Put your postings on the Community Forum Nature watch site (Abernyte.org) or send to news@abernyte.org or tell Barry & Cathy Caudwell about it so that we can put them on for you.
Cathy Caudwell