Tufties
In February I ventured up to Scotland once again with the hope of capturing shots of Red Squirrels in their winter coats which includes a bushier tail and ear tufts. A “Tuftie” in the snow would be the ultimate prize!
After a good deal of researching and playing on google maps i planned in a few locations which included a private photography hide designed for these little rodents! The first point of call on our road trip was the RSPB reserve at Loch Leven, not too far from Edinburgh and the Queensferry crossing.
My second visit to this reserve, previously on a warm summers day, this time was completely different…There were no summer migrant birds, no dragonflies, no bees and butterflies etc but that was expected and not the reason we were here. We ventured into the woodland trail, noting some peanut feeders attached to some trees and kept our eyes peeled for a flash of red fur. It didn’t take too long before our first squirrel appeared! A few shots taken before setting off on the trail again and bumping into another red squirrel! This time I took the image at the top of the page - this turned out to be my favourite shot of the trip!
The next day a quick stop at a new RSPB reserve for us, Loch of Kinnordy near Kirriemuir. A small reserve close to our next stop so it would be rude not to have a look! A few birds to see on the loch and even evidence of Beavers around the reserve with damming and felled trees. There was a small opening within the woodland trail with bird feeders and straight away I noticed a red squirrel sat on a peanut feeder! Another joined too and they clambered over each other to get to the peanuts!
Next up was Penny Hedge, a wonderful photography hide near Blairgowrie which attracts plenty of woodland birds as well as red squirrels and at night the elusive Pine Marten. We arrived for 10am to start the day session with the squirrels before leaving for some dinner around 4pm, returning for 7pm to wait for Pine Martens!
The setup in front of the hide was amazing, some branches were placed with a gap between allowing the squirrels to jump from one to the other which was actually difficult to capture as they constantly teased us, sometimes not jumping, pausing before a jump as well as turning around and running back down the branch! We had a blast trying to get shots of them which were in and out all day. I will do a separate blog on Penny Hedge as it deserves its own write up, we loved the place!
From here the trip continued on to Cairngorm mountain, Fort William, Glencoe and Loch Lomond before heading back across the border into England. The weather turned before the end of the trip and while the planned landscape photography didn’t go to plan, I did end up getting some lovely misty shots that I wasn’t expecting which was a real bonus! For this blog however, that was the end of the tufties! Stunning little mammals which are now a rare sight in the British Isles due to the introduction of the Grey Squirrel from America.
The grey cousins are larger and out compete the reds for food and also carry the squirrel pox virus which is deadly to the reds but not the greys. The red squirrel is now confined to parts of Scotland and a couple of places in England. The Scottish population is thankfully showing signs of stabilising due to conservation efforts as well as the increasing population of Pine Martens (again with help from conservation efforts) which will predate the grey squirrels. I do hope the future of our native squirrel improves, it would be such a shame to lose them!