We approach this broken gate on our woodland walk to the village with some care for it is in the field beyond it that we've seen roe deer. Today, however, a movement in one of the Scots pines to our left drew our attention to....
....two red squirrels. One hurriedly climbed the tree and disappeared into the foliage high above the ground but the other stopped to watch us.
These are members or descendants of a small group of reds which were introduced into these woods some three years ago. Historically, there have always been red squirrels in the area but they disappeared, possibly through the actions of gamekeepers on the local estates. At the same time another group was introduced a little further to the north of Golspie, and this, as far as I know, is the most northerly of all our red squirrel populations.
Golspie's squirrels are well to the north of any greys and, as far as I'm aware, not in contact with the next population of reds to the south of us, so they shouldn't catch the squirrel pox virus that was introduced when the greys were brought to this country from America. However, one of our neighbours has reported that she has seen sick squirrels in the woods and that these are suffering from a different and, as yet, unidentified disease.
Happily, all the squirrels we've seen - and we're seeing them increasingly frequently - have looked in good health, and we know that the two introduced populations have begun to spread, with some now being spotted on the east side of the A9.
We approach this broken gate on our woodland walk to the village with some care for it is in the field beyond it that we've seen roe deer. Today, however, a movement in one of the Scots pines to our left drew our attention to....
Super pictures Jon. How are the populations of Pine Martens in the Red Squirrel introduction areas, as they are paramount in the effort to purge the country of the vermin Greys?
ReplyDeleteThere are pine martens here but we've only seen one, fleetingly, once.
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