HAVE you been enjoying good summer weather?
June, July and August this year saw temperatures in our part of the country almost a whole degree lower than average. What's more, we had to contend with rainfall totals for the quarter that were 50 to 70% higher than usual.
Apparently the jet stream has been further south than usual, and several Atlantic depressions have been slipping through these latitudes at around the position of the British Isles, bringing fronts and rain and winds.
The weather maps show that, for long periods, high pressure has resided over Europe and the Atlantic, deflecting low pressure cells over us like eddies in a stream running between stones.
This weather pattern makes for greater amounts of rainfall and cloud, stronger winds and less sunshine - a perfect combination for discouraging outdoor activity, especially in mountainous areas.
The poor summer is reflected in the recent report from Butterfly Conservation, the charity dedicated to our wild butterflies and moths and their habitats.
Despite 33,000 people - the greatest number ever - taking part in a Big Butterfly Count, the numbers of butterflies reported were down on previous years.
The results show that the most numerous butterfly reported was one which did not get into the Scottish top ten, and would be one I would be hard put to recognise - the Gatekeeper.
Nevertheless, this seems to have come out tops because it declined less rapidly than previously more numerous butterflies such as the familiar Small and Large White butterflies (which is perhaps good news for cabbages).
Scotland is becoming a stronghold of the Small Tortoiseshell, which has declined rapidly in England and Wales, partly because of a parasitic mite, and now this colourful and familiar butterfly is our most numerous, according to the survey.
Butterflies whose caterpillars feed on grasses seem to have had a good year compared to 2010. Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown did well, and the Scottish population of Ringlet was stable.
According to the Butterfly Conservation charity, butterflies are now one of the most threatened wildlife groups in the UK. The last four years have seen butterfly numbers plummet to an all-time low.
Almost half of British species are now under threat. Their work on the Big Butterfly count was supported by Marks and Spencer, and can be followed up at www.bigbutterflycount.org/
The next opportunity to indulge in counting butterflies will be in July and August 2012. Let's hope it's a better summer.
I UNDERTOOK to look for another sunshine-loving insect group in the Cairngorms, in the grid square numbered NJ00. No-one has ever recorded a dragonfly in these hundred square kilometres. I thought I could do it, but no luck so far.
To make things more difficult, I had chosen a square that is difficult to access, and although it has loch (Loch Avon, Loch a'Bhainne, Loch Dubh in the Lairig an Laogh) and rivers (the River Avon, Garbh Allt in Strath Nethy and Glasath too), there is very little emergent and riparian vegetation and a low nutrient regime.
Dragonfly larvae are rapacious underwater hunters, and the granitic bedrock produces rather sterile conditions for the development of their invertebrate prey species.
Then they like warm, sunny conditions with light winds for flying. Chance would be a fine thing. I'm running out of time, as they might still fly in September, but the forecast isn't promising.
There were plenty of little insects at Loch Insh this week, just harmless little black flies, mopheads and mayflies. They seem to proliferate during the day, when they make great food for the dozens of pied wagtails that are all over the moored boats.
In the evening, the flies have run out of energy and fall onto the surface of the loch. No doubt the fish benefit, and next day there is another hatch, and so on.
I was over at Loch Avon in the past week, and a similar hatch was very abundant in the warm, still air. The dark waters of the loch were broken only by the rings of rising fish, and the paddling of a mallard, picking flies off the surface.
It's the first time I've noticed fish in Loch Avon. Though I understand Arctic charr occur in the loch, I suspect these were small brownies (brown trout).
The water level has been high for most of the summer, giving fish easy passage up and down stream. It was good to see the waters of the River Garry from the train to Perth, swirling through the bouldery river channel, instead of the usual dry bed, emptied by hydro-electric demand.
We all know that mountain rivers move the rocks in their beds, but the proof is always impressive. During the visit to Loch Avon, I was rephotographing pictures of footpaths last surveyed in 2008.
Several showed boulders in the stream to have moved significantly, even ones that weighed several tons, shifted by heavy water flows and the press of winter snow.
The footpaths we were surveying are not heavily used. Perhaps fewer than a thousand people per year descend from Cairn Gorm's Coire Raibert to Loch Avon, but the effect is progressive erosion of the main path.
I believe this is a feature of wet summers, when the ground is permanently wet. We have seen this on unconstructed paths on Cairn Gorm in previous wet summers.
The upper part of the Coire Raibert path has been rebuilt by contractors for the Upland Footpath project of the Cairngorms Outdoor Access Trust.
Their regular employment these last few weeks has been to drive (with permission) half way up Coire Cas, then walk up to and over the plateau to their work site.
There they have been heaving big rocks around, digging pits for path surfacing and tolerating all the worst of the bad weather that we have had thrown at us recently.
They came down after work last Wednesday saying they had been passed by a funnel cloud moving west to east across the upper edge of the plateau.
They couldn't see whether it reached down to the ground. I suspect possibly not. Although I am not familiar with the track left by a tornado, I would expect some destruction even on the barren plateau, and none is evident.
THIS time of year is always fascinating for naturalists tracking what is still around and what has left for warmer climates. Added to this since the advent of the Raptor Track and Osprey tracking websites is the possibility of finding out where some of the most secretive birds have been moving around.
Two of Loch Garten's chicks have been tracked this year. The one called Tore had reached Plymouth Sound, where it has been for two weeks, while its sibling Bynack was having several days in the valley of the Meuse in Eastern France when I last checked. The website is at www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/lochgartenospreys/index.aspx
Maybe there are still a few stragglers coming through the strath, because we were convinced we saw an osprey crossing Loch Insh at the weekend.
IN this part of the world we are not familiar with wild mushrooms on sale to the public, in contrast to the wonderful public markets of Central and Eastern Europe. I did see a basket on a grocer's stand last week, and was shocked by how dirty they were. True, you can't wash them, but there is no need for all the pine needles, moss and earth they were growing in to be sold at £13 per kilo.
I would suggest collectors nip off the dirty bit at the bottom end of the stem, because it's not edible, and the dirt will only transfer to the good bits, where it will stick among the gills and be a perfect nuisance to clean.
I remember concern being expressed publicly about commercial over-collection and depletion of future populations 20 years ago, but the population of chanterelles in the woods this year seems to be the best I've ever seen.
It is refreshing for us to be able to wander out and pick a few very good edible wild mushrooms ourselves.
Every open mushroom has already dropped millions of spores before you get near it. If you're worried, leave all the waste bits out in the rain near where you picked the originals.
THIS month's Country Diary was submitted by Nic Bullivant, head ranger with Cairngorm Mountain Ranger Service. If you would like to report something for inclusion in the Country Diary, please get in touch with Nic on (01479) 861327.
