Outdoors

out & about

Kilmacolm Horticultural Society

The Virtual Flower Show, undertaken by the Kilmacolm Horticultural Society when the traditional Annual Show needed cancellation, provided a delightful alternative. 43 members provided a huge range of photographs including the traditions of the usual Flower Show plus some views of their gardens in bloom. The website continues to entertain visitors, please go to www. kilmacolmhorticultural.com and click on ‘Virtual Show’. Until the restrictions are eased to enable us to meet together in larger groups once more, until the public halls are open for meetings once more, we are unable to hold our popular Lectures, Plant sales, Coffee morning etc. But normal activities Bridge of Weir Horticultural will be resumed a.s.a.p. Enjoy the changing colours of Society autumn into winter, prepare your During benign October weather, gardeners were able to catch bulbs for spring blooms, take care up with end-of-season chores. Autumn tints were splendid with of each other. surprising flourishes from Springtime shrubs, such as Azaleas and Rhododendrons. Christmas Cacti owners were remarking that some were budding nicely and likely to flower for Christmas or earlier! Bulbs should be planted by the end of November. If not..... check the recommended depth for each bulb, not just the ‘rule of thumb’ of 2.5 times the depth. Add horticultural grit to the bottom of the hole, or Vermiculite or Perlite. This helps drainage so keeps the bulb healthy. The last bulbs to plant are normally tulips. Sometimes delays occur but bulbs will catch up or fall into dormancy depending on conditions. For best results, place one type of bulb in a pot and when they flower, arrange these for effect. ‘Lasagne’ type planters may be fashionable but are disappointing. Different bulbs pop up at different times and often the display is sparse because bulbs are over or yet to come. Remember bare-rooted shrubs etc., ordered earlier, will be appearing and need to go in promptly. Give these a good drink, keep moist in a bucket in a cool shed and plant when the ground is frost-free. Prepare a hole wide enough to spread the roots freely over the soil, add compost and mound slightly in the middle to encourage roots to grow downwards, then sprinkle the roots with organic Micorhizzal powder and position on the mound. If roots are too long, this is the time to trim them and will do no harm. These are the plant’s anchor roots. The fibrous ones are those which suck up nourishment. Firm the soil to support the plant. If the tree has a trunk, include a stake to prevent root rock. This should be angled at 45 degrees and point into the prevailing wind. Tie the stake to the tree lower down the trunk but not too tightly. Movement should be limited near the roots but allowing flexibility for the trunk to sway. A little tugging on the roots encourages them to get working! Find us on Facebook and read our new e-letter with members’ contributions.

Kilbarchan & District Beekeepers Association

It’s the month when beekeepers can settle down and put their feet up by the fire and take a break from hive care. Well not exactly. December is not suitable for opening the hives for inspections or the bees could be chilled with disastrous consequences. Inside they are in their winter cluster, maintaining the temperature by contracting and relaxing their flight muscles. However, for the beekeeper there is still some work to be done, from the occasional visit to the apiary to make sure that all is well, to cleaning and checking equipment. During the autumn there have been plenty of on- line lectures and meetings to keep beekeepers informed and connected including monthly meetings arranged by the KBDA. Kilbarchan Beekeepers continue to enjoy their winter meetings online during restrictions with discussions, talks and advice. If you are interested in beekeeping for yourself please contact our secretary via helenajbee@gmail. com who will provide more details about our association and how to join. We have a Facebook page which is reserved for members and beekeeping friends, but you can follow us on Twitter @ KilbarchanBees

A Winter’s Tale

Brighter Bridge of Weir’s summer plants lasted quite well this year but, alas, all things come to an end. We have to arrange a suitable time for getting the summer plants out and the winter ones in. It’s not an easy job; each part has to be done quickly, so we have to pick a time when most of us are available, traffic is light and the weather’s not too bad. At the time of writing, phase one (summer plants out) has been completed and by the time you read this, the winter plants should be in and settled down. Meantime, keep the heid everyone, and stay safe.

Flocking to RSPB Lochwinnoch

If you wandering around our reserve, local woodlands or nearby farmland fields in January you may notice some days it seems very quiet with little in the way of birdlife around, other days it seems as if there are loads of small birds, all chirping away and hoping about on the ground or flitting from branch to branch, tree to tree, searching for food. The fact is that on the quieter days there are no less birds around, they are just less spaced out. Many small birds will form mixed flocks in winter and can gather in large numbers at times. So why when food is generally less abundant would birds choose to flock together in groups? There are several advantages to this. Firstly, with less vegetation growing to provide safe cover and hide small birds they become more conspicuous to predators such as a sparrowhawk. Lots of birds together means more eyes keeping watch and each individual has less of a chance of becoming a meal themselves. Another key advantage is body heat. Being so small many birds would find it difficult to survive on their own but by huddling together and sharing warmth, harsh winter nights become less of a challenge. Birds need to constantly be on the lookout for energy rich food at this time of year that would provide them with the fuel they need to produce enough body heat to stop them from freezing. By providing seeds high in natural oils such as sunflower seeds, or fat rich suet cakes you can attract a wide range of birds to your garden with little effort. If you do decide to put some food out, or you always have done, why not take part in the world’s largest piece of citizen science in the world and take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch between 29th and 31st January by spending an hour of your choosing recording the birds that you see? You can even download a handy guide and recording sheet by visiting www.rspb.org/birdwatch Events Restrictions permitting, we will be having a snowman treasure hunt on the reserve for children throughout January. Simply pop into the visitor centre before going on the trails and ask for your Snowman identification chart. We will have various wooden snowman, and snowwomen, hidden around our woodland trail for you to find and identify. Cost: £1.50 per child plus usual entry fees for non-members (£3 adults/£1.50 children) Photo: Jenny Tweedie (rspb-images.com)

PCPC Nature Competition

The Club has a long history of producing quality natural history images and last week’s Bowie competition, judged by Robert Quigg of Kilmaurs Camera Club produced some memorable photographs amongst the winners. For this competition, members are required to submit images in pairs: one botanical and the other zoological. First placed in the advanced section was long time club member and dedicated nature photographer Mike Cruise with his images, “Water Aven” and “Curious Red Squirrel”. The club’s new president, Ken Dow, was placed second with his “Poppies” and “Chalkhill Blues Mating”. Continuing on the theme of presidents, Duncan McEwan who has held the post for numerous times in his decades long membership of the club was placed third with his “Scots Pine, Male Inflorescence” and “Camouflaged Oak Beauty Moth”. Carol Gracie secured a deserving win with her top placed set in the non-advanced section with her images “cottongrass” and “Bee Covered in Pollen”.

See all the images at .paisleycolour.com

Down below the cottage, in the bay, on a nice calm day, you often see otters hunting. There is a burn to the side of the cottage and into the loch and often the otters will come up the burn to wash off the salt from their fur and hunt for brown trout in the pools. If I head down the garden path and sit on the rocks I can watch the otters hunting in the bay.

Pine marten

The Ardnamurchan area was one of the last strongholds for pine martens, after loss of habitat and being heavily persecuted by gamekeepers on sporting estates. The first pine marten I ever saw was around 33 years ago and then it was a very rare sight. These days I see them every time I visit my cottage and the UK population now is estimated at about 3,700. Pine martens can have 2 or 3 kits each year. They are normally born in spring but I usually see them exploring round my cottage around mid to end July. They are not everyone’s favourite animal due to their predilection for ducks, chickens, etc. However where they have been introduced to other parts of the country the red squirrels are starting to make a comeback due to pine martens predating on the larger non- native grey squirrels who feed a lot on the ground. So there are plus and minus points for the animal, i.e. We are getting our native red squirrels back but if they get access to chicken coops they will kill all the birds.

My Wild Retreat

by Neil Bletcher

I live in Bridge of Weir, am an IT/photocopier engineer and have an interest in photography, especially wildlife. My wife and I spent the last 35 years holidaying in the same remote cottage in Ardnamurchan then when the owners decided to sell up 8 years ago we bought it ourselves and use it as our own holiday home. The Ardnamurchan area is known as one of the last wild places in the UK and is steeped in Viking history, with archaeologists finding boat burials and other Viking artefacts on the peninsula. There are a lot of natural bays which were used as landing points for the Norsemen and Celts. The landscape is volcanic, with a single track road where you can drive straight through the middle of the crater of an extinct volcano. The area also bears the last remnants of the ancient Atlantic oakwood. On to my favourite subject, wildlife. Some of the wildlife I enjoy to photograph are pine martens, red squirrels, badgers, otters and seals. This is only a very small percentage of the wildlife resident in the area, I could spend all day talking or writing about it. I could talk about Scottish wildcats, dolphins, porpoises, orcas, minke whales, basking sharks and a whole load more bird life and animals that visit this remote area. Hopefully this has given a small insight to this lovely wilderness.

Red Squirrel

I often get red squirrels coming into the garden but there are no greys in Ardnamurchan due to the habitat and pine martens. The Reds love the garden feeders and eventually they will get used to you sitting 10 to 15 feet away from them outside. Fantastic tufted eared animals – I just wish we had them down our way, Bridge of Weir and surrounding areas.