Red Squirrels

With a miserable morning first thing we didn't set out on our walk until after eleven, and as we headed up the hill towards Golspie Tower it was still spitting. George - that's George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford, who lives on the top of Beinn Bhraggie - was in and out of cloud, but across one of the fields of Golspie Tower farm that he created out of an historic clachan's land we were being watched....

....by a roe deer - just visible in the first picture. The deer was being remarkably bold as a high wall, a big field and a fence separated her from the woodland below Beinn Bhraggie and we were between her and the woodland of Golspie Glen, but we've notice deer before feeding in these fields, quite unconcerned by passing cars and only a little worried by rare pedestrians.

From Golspie Tower we returned via Golspie Glen, down cycle tracks and paths devoid of any fellow walkers. The purpose of this route was to look for red squirrels.

When we first came here we were told that there were no squirrels, grey or red, north of Loch Fleet, but someone we've met several times on our walks told us the other day that a breeding population was being released....

....around the skating pond in the Glen, so we went for a look.

I now know, from The Northern Times of 20th October, that, "Around 20 squirrels, taken from healthy populations elsewhere, will be released next month and in February to woods at Ben Bhraggie and Dunrobin."

That's excellent news, something else for us to look out for on our walks, but November does seem a strange month to be releasing them, with a whole long winter for them to survive.