When we lived in the Munich area we saw many different sorts of birds of prey. They were mainly buzzards, sparrow hawks and kestrels but there were interesting summer and winter visitors. The first time I recognised a hen harrier was in January 1995 when out to a favourite raptor-watching area SE of Munich with my son.

He said "Dad, there is a gull over there", but from the low flight over the ground (which I knew had plenty of voles and mice as the buzzards and kestrels hunted them I did not think it was a gull. Also the bird had a long tail quite unlike a gull. I had a long lens with me so took the photo above - which sadly is not sharp - but you see the long grey wings with black wingtips, a white band at the base of the tail and a long grey tail.

I concluded that it was a male hen harrier but was surprised as Germany has very few breeding pairs. On getting home and reading a book on raptors I realised that it was probably a bird that was wintering from Sweden or Finland. Quite a few migrate southward to Germany for the winter. In subsequent winters we would see harriers from late October to about mid March.

The hen harrier has a wingspan similar to that of a common buzzard - just over a metre - but is more slimly built and has a much longer tail. The female (like that above) is a similar brown to a buzzard but has the white band at the base of the tail like the male.

While buzzards hunt from soaring or from a perch, hen harriers tend to fly low over the ground alternating between flapping and gliding. Occasionally they will strike something on the ground showing their long legs.

This weekend I found an old video recording (analog I'm afraid) from November 2005 showing a male then a female hen harrier hunting. I was with a friend and our boys were very excited to see the harriers!

Note that the male harrier strikes something on the ground at around 0:18 and 0:39. Unusually the male gains height and hovers 2:49-2:53 before rapidly dropping and resuming his hunt at ground level.

At 2:15 the male poos. Note that like buzzards and hawks, harriers squirt their poo while falcons let it drop!

Enjoy...

Well, the wind has been howling for the last two days and there have been a number of sleet showers. Nevertheless there are a few signs of Spring. Yesterday on a walk by local ponds we saw our first house martin. We also saw a little egret which while exotic a decade ago now seems firmly established in this country. Also in our garden pond the first king cup is in flower.

Just outside Golspie just off the A9 there is a short but interesting walk called "Big Burn". It is not very long - only taking 25 minutes to get to the top and the same back again - but it is multi-faceted and interesting. We did this walk first thing last Sunday when the weather was sunny.

You start out near the car park and the valley is wider. On either side of the park there was wild garlic sprouting. The woods are deciduous.

Passing under the railway bridge you get a feel for the scale of the gorge you are going into. The railway must be a good 40 metres above the river. The odd little stream tumbles down the slopes.

In this case there was a healthy crop of wild garlic growing. Further along the gorge widens and there are some large deciduous trees with spectacular lichen growths.

About halfway up the walk the gorge narrows considerably and is vertical on each side. It is darker and damp.

From this waterfall there is the feeling of being in a temperate rainforest with lots of mosses, ferns, etc.

The path leads further upstream to a viewing point at the foot of the larger waterfall.

We saw a grey wagtail near the stream at the foot of the fall but later saw a dipper perched on the log. The video below is not very good but at least records the event. A dipper is interesting because it dives into streams and walks along the bottom looking for food. We have seen dippers in very few places (Spitzingsee in the Bavarian Alps, Rum and along the River Awe near Taynuilt).

Retracing the path for about 200 metres you can then take a branch uphill to the top of the waterfall. Along the way you see fantastic looking wisps of lichen over 10 cm long.

There is only one place where I have seen longer wisps of lichen and that is Valepp in Oberbayern on the German-Austrian border. There there were growths at least a 30 cm long hanging from Birch trees.

A little further on there is a bridge over the stream from which you can see the top of the waterfall. A short walk but very varied indeed!
 

Some of the most spectacular lichen I have seen has been in the woods of Easter Ross or East Sutherland. I recall exploring a birch wood next to where my granny lived as a child and seeing amazing grey lichen.

At the weekend we did some walks by the sand dunes and conifer woods near Little Ferry, Sutherland. I was amazed to see so much lichen actually on the sand dunes mixed with heather and other vegetation.

The woods were more spectacular with the firs almost looking loaded down with lichen (not literally true I am sure!).

Close up was interesting too.

The lichen appeared as "bushes" coming out of the branch a few centimetres high.

When constrasted with the darkness of the conifer woods some trees had a ghost-like appearance.

I have always enjoyed looking at lichen. However, I have never bought a book on the subject and cannot even name one sort! What fascinates me is the microcosm of life you can see in a small space with varying textures and colours.

Four years ago we had a family trip to Scotland and visited the Isle of Handa in West Sutherland. We mainly went there for the amazing variety of seabirds e.g. tysties or black guillemots, great skuas, etc. However I was fascinated that so many rocks such as the one above, simply had microgardens of lichen growing on them.

Tree trunks are no different and can yield fascinating details such as these from a medium sized fruit tree.

Further up the tree there are at least three varieties of grey-green lichen - a bush-like one, a "leafy" one and a flat spreading one.

Although a lot of lichens are grey or grey-green I love the bright yellow ones such as this one. St Ives in Cornwall has grey buildings roofed with slate. They could look dull were it not for the contrast with the bright yellow lichens.

Closer to home, when we moved to our present town we thought that there was a lack in imagination by the inhabitants due to a uniform darkish brown roof colour. We wanted a warm red roof tile and chose our tiles accordingly - they were originally close to the colour at the very top of the lower tile ridge.

However eight years since our house was built, our roof has changed colour dramatically. It is now a dark brown with grey, white and yellow spodges. Again this is lichen - OK there is moss there too!

However, one of the best things about litchen is that it is a good indicator of clean air. It does not survive with pollution. Some of the best examples of lichen I have seen have been in places with great air e.g. the Oberbayern (Bavarian Alps), Cornwall and the Northern Highlands.

After taking the sleeper to Inverness, we had a long weekend that included travelling on the Black Isle, Tarbat Ness peninsular and East Sutherland areas.

In the US they talk of the "big skies" of Montana. Well, I have never been to Montana but I assume this refers to being able to see vast distances and have the sky framed by mountains. I have often thought this about the area around Inverness where low-lying agricultural land is framed by Highland peaks.

You get the "big sky" feeling coming in on the train or A9 towards Inverness from Carrbridge. Similarly if you drive over the Black Isle you will often get a fantastic clear view towards peaks in the distance but be impressed by the scale of things with firths, smaller hills and fields in between.

After Inverness we drove to Cromary and got good views towards the North and West. Cromarty is an interesting historic village. It also has a good view out to the North Sea between the Sutors.

BTW, if you ever go to Cromarty I can recommend the bakery. They make excellent oatcakes - which are far better than the mass-produced ones - including garlic and herb ones and good cakes.

In the next peninsular that stretches north of the Cromarty Firth to Tarbat Ness you also get great views inland.

This view west towards Ben Wyvis and beyond was taken at an elevation of about 50 metres but the height is just enough to give scale to the land between where we were and the mountains. We enjoyed the sound of skylarks in the area.

Outside Portmahomack there is a great view to the Northwest to Tain and the mountains beyond. Here the elevation where we stood was a mere 30 m but it is possible to see the big sands outside Tain. Unfortunately the scale of the view is hard to capture in a photo; they eye can comprehend far more than a camera!

Travelling further North the next peninsular is at Dornoch, bordered on the North side by Loch Fleet. When we were driving past Embo there were showers and sunshine producing occasional rainbows.

At low tide near Skelbo and opposite Little Ferry, Loch Fleet looks deceptively shallow but has strong currents. On the sandbank in the middle we counted 16 seals on a further bank maybe 30 more. In a previous year we saw an Osprey near here. Buzzards are plentiful presumably profiting from the numerous rabbits in the sand dunes.

I should have written this post on Sunday 24th February. However we had a house full of guests and I forgot about it. On 23rd we had our first frogspawn of the year. Frogs had been very active in the pond in the preceding weeks (or at least when the pond was not frozen over)and the females (I presume) were looking very bloated.

On the 24th we took our Dutch guests for a walk on the Hampshire downs and while the plants higher up are behind those of our town we were seing signs of Spring. Firstly when we got out of our van, we saw 4 buzzards skydancing (courtship display). Buzzards usually soar in an extremely laid back way. However in the mating season they are positively vigorous, flapping hard to gain height then doing V-shaped dives to impress prospective partners.

Later we saw 3 roe deer and a red kite. At the summit we saw a kite again soaring below us on the edge of the scarp slope. In the woods the lords and ladies had already shot up leaves while the wild garlic was not yet visible.

Reporting something seen on the M4 driving from Reading to Heathrow somehow goes against the spirit of an "outdoors" blog. Nevertheless this posting definitely does not belong on the other ones!

Since returning to the UK in 1998, I have been delighted to see an increasing number of red kites. In the early 1990s I saw some - on a visit from Bavaria - in the Chilterns and saw loads in the Stuttgart area and between Lyon and Grenoble. I have often seen them in the Hampshire downs and over the last two years between Basingstoke and Reading.

Today there was one over the M4 just west of the Maidenhead exit. Great the the reintroduction is working!