For years the Ring Ousel has been nesting in Coire Cas and in some of the other corries. This year they have returned to there old haunts around the crags below the middle station and around the middle station itself. The fledged young are certainly growing well and noticed a few youngsters yesterday.

While carring out some routine work at the Kassbohrer garage, I heard the Ousels as nomal, but what I did not expect was the male to be almost dive bombing me. It would fly straight towards me then fly away at the last minute. These birds are usually very nervous of people and will fly away rather than at you. After a while keeping out his road (out of his sight), I did notice the young male flying onto his dad’s perch on a tree in which he was quickly shoved off. Further investigations with Tom Moody, who works in the garage said that he had the same treatment from the bird and was pretty sure there was a nest nearby.

These birds have been known to nest in the steel beams of the Shieling buildling and in the trees within Coire Cas, but never in the years I have been here (and Tom for that matter which is many!), been ever buzzed by an Ousel.

The Wild Mountain Garden is really alive at the moment. Quite a few butterflies are being spotted in amongst tiny plants. We have been trying to photograph the plants as they flower and every few days there is something else coming out. There is a vast array of colour with the sunshine bringing heat to some of these really hardly plants that are suited to the cold high plateau.

We are still creating a good collection of photographs on our Flickr photo website which the link is below. All of these photos have been taken within the garden itself.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cairngormmountain/

It is well worth a visit while in the area and have a chat to our resident gardner, Slavka, who will answer any queries or questions you may have.

Some of the flowers which are out just now are – Red Campion, Heath Bedstraw, Speedwell, Starry & Mossy Saxifraga, Fox and cubs (otherwise known as Orange Hawkweed) Forget me nots, Heath Spotted Orchid and so on.

Even after all the cold, wet, windy and wintery weather, some of the Dotterel have managed to cling on and produce young chicks. The site of a Adult with 3 tiny chicks brought a smile to everybody’s face during the guided walk today (Friday) when we came across them. Although we had reports of a few nests being abandoned, not all have failed.

In Coire Cas, one female Ptarmigan has had 5 chicks which were observed by our group last week. Some were trying to fly away but were just getting the hang of it.

We have started work on path repairs on the Cairngorm Estate. The path leading from the Northern Corries Path up onto Lochain Lurchers Ridge. This work is being carried out by local pathwork contractors, Conserve Environmental Contractors. This work will be continuing throughout the summer months. There will be further days of flying materials in by helicopter. The path will remain open but may have some small diversions where the contractors are working. For more information, please contact the Ranger Base in the Base Station at the Car Park.

For many years, Pied Wagtails have been a regular visitor to the car park area and have usually nested around the buildings somewhere. This year is no exception with one pair having 5 chicks (Cassy, Coire, Mhearad, Laogh, Lachy) hatching & snuggled up in their tiny nest. These wagtails are renowned for having a great food supply at CairnGorm Mountain - they feed off all the dead bugs and flies that end up on the bumpers of the many cars and vans that travel up the ski road!

As I write this blog, there is fresh snow lying just above the base station and it has been snowing at the car park level briefly. Summer will arrive soon i’m sure. Check out the webcams at the Ptarmigan… the ground has a good covering.

Many people come up to the Cairngorms for study and research in all manner of subjects. One research project that is ongoing in the ski area which some of you have noticed is with small cages. These have been specifically placed in areas which either get a huge covering of snow or which are windswept and kept snow free during the winter. The study is to see if snow cover has a significant effect on growth rates of plants (hope that answers your question Helen).

In the last year or so, we have had people drilling for permafrost, the usual array of dissertations on climate change, skiing & tourism and on the effects of pollution - in the air and of the human kind !

The Cairngorm Ranger Service deals with nearly 1000 students every year with an age range from Primary school to Uni students.
If you would like more information, give us a shout at the Ranger Base.

Ruari

19th May 2009 and there is still snow forecast for the high tops. The snow patches are still great in size with some of the latest snow still visible. Check out the Ranger Service Flickr gallery for pictures of the plateau from last Wednesday’s Aviemore Walking Festival walk to Ben MacDui. It was a cracking day but still very cold in the wind.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cairngormrangerservice/

The Dotterel are back and have been seen in various places on the plateau. A report in our visitors’ book recorded around 20 + being seen. This is a good number and we hope they have a successful breeding year - perhaps a wee bit later due to the cold snowy weather on the tops. In 2004, the cold and wet weather led to the dotterel have an unsuccessful year for breeding in the Cairngorm plateau area. The Dotterel fly back from Africa every spring to breed and are internationally rare.

Welcome to the summer blog at Cairngorm. We hope to provide you with some information on the wildlife around Cairn Gorm, on bird and wildlife sightings, what’s flowering in the garden, snowpatch updates and anything unusual !

The Cairngorm Ranger Base gets hundreds of enquires about wildlife in the mountains over the year and many people are kind enough to leave us a note in our log book of sightings and observations so hopefully we can provide some good information for people that are interested in the area. If you are interested in adding to the log book please pop into the Ranger Base at Coire Cas during office hours.

14th May
We are still in the grips of winter on the high plateau with substantial snowfields over the Plateau / Ben Macdui & in the Northern Corries. Some of the snow patches will last well into the summer and even autumn or perhaps into next winter!
In Coire Cas, the Ring Ouzels have returned and are regularly spotted perching on ski tow towers, fence posts etc. The Ring Ouzels are often referred to as mountain blackbirds, the only difference to a common one being the white bib on their front.

The plants are still coming to life after being either buried in snow or blasted to bits by the winter storms. Deer grass (a sedge) is certainly leading the way in springing to life. Some of the blaeberry plants are starting to fruit - is this good news for the summer ahead? We will have to wait and see…

Ranger Ruari

Beautifull day on the hill today and the Head Wall is melting fast, any takers for a wee sweepstake of when the last snow will disappear from it.
Anyway apologies for not signing off sooner but believe it or not it has been pretty hectic here since the skiing finished. I am staying on this year in an operational role co-ordinating all the maintenance of the buildings and the skiing infrastructure, we are also doing major upgrade works to our Waste Water Treatment Plant to hopefully improve our discharge levels. We have just finished repainting the Ptarmigan and Base Station interiors after the wear and tear of a busy ski season, i think the numbers finished around 65,000 skiers. We are also busy updating our safety management system to tie in with the new cableways regulations which is another huge task.
I am passing over the blog to Ruari Macdonald(patrol 5) who is also a summer ranger who will give regular updates on all things on the wildlife and environmental side but i will still do an update now and then to let everyone know how things are going in preparation for next winter.
i would like to thank everyone for their posts on the blog and all their comments and views they had, i think on the whole the operation went pretty well this year but there is always room for improvement so keep the comments and ideas coming.
Cheers
Colin