Day 6 - Loch Garten RSPB Guided Walk
For today I had booked us onto a RSPB guided walk in the nearby RSPB nature reserve. It started at 9:30am so we had to get up and leave the lodge by 9am. The Osprey Centre which was the meeting point was about a 20 minute drive away.
There was 7 of us on the guided walk, and actually a few RSPB volunteers had actually joined to increase the numbers a bit. The tour guide was this lady called Alison who also did the guided walk we went on last September. She was incredibly knowledgable on the local ecology and wildlife. Plus the other RSPB volunteers were also chipped in with extra info. Most of the tour consisted of informing us about how the RSPB are managing the land to try and restore the original habitat. This is because years of forestry and farming activities have destroyed the interconnected species. It is therefore going to take years of careful caring for the land for it to correct itself.
A key tactic is to leave wood which has died to act as a base for other species to infiltrate and establish themselves. After quite a length introduction, we went on a short loop of the reserve.
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| Meeting point, aka car park |
There was 7 of us on the guided walk, and actually a few RSPB volunteers had actually joined to increase the numbers a bit. The tour guide was this lady called Alison who also did the guided walk we went on last September. She was incredibly knowledgable on the local ecology and wildlife. Plus the other RSPB volunteers were also chipped in with extra info. Most of the tour consisted of informing us about how the RSPB are managing the land to try and restore the original habitat. This is because years of forestry and farming activities have destroyed the interconnected species. It is therefore going to take years of careful caring for the land for it to correct itself.
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| Examining the biodiversity of deadwood |
A key tactic is to leave wood which has died to act as a base for other species to infiltrate and establish themselves. After quite a length introduction, we went on a short loop of the reserve.
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| Signage on entry to reserve |
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| Walking through the forest |
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| Juniper plant - green berries are immature, whilst black are mature. It takes 7 years for a plant to bear seeds. |
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| Wood ant, with litmus paper to demonstrate formic acid excreted in self defence |
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| Spotting sandpipers down by the shoreline |
We ended up finishing the walk at about 1:30pm! And we only covered 3miles/5km according to my Strava. We were starving, despite having some cake whilst walking around (I was prepared!). So we headed back to the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore. Unsurprisingly, the queue for the care was down the stairs, which gave us time to admire all the newspaper cuttings showing the awards the cafe has one. Obviously being number 1 on trip advisor doesn't come without some credentials! Some people didn't want to wait, although the queue was only about 5 couples long, but we knew it'd be worth it if we just were patient and waited. Actually, it only took about 15 minutes to get inside, and it was totally worth it.
After we got back, which was about 4pm by this stage. Kathryn cooked dinner and we caught up on some tv. That's pretty much it. More rain and clouds are forecast for tomorrow so not sure what we'll do yet!
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| Special of the day - potato bake |
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| Kathryn's halloumi pitta bread |
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| Inside Mountain cafe |
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| View from the table, still cloudy! |
After we got back, which was about 4pm by this stage. Kathryn cooked dinner and we caught up on some tv. That's pretty much it. More rain and clouds are forecast for tomorrow so not sure what we'll do yet!
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