Tributes paid to Mr Cairngorms
TRIBUTES have been paid to "Mr Cairngorms".
Eminent ecologist Dr Adam Watson passed away last Wednesday at the age of 89 after a short illness.
The scientist studied and wrote extensively about plants and wildlife in the Cairngorms and for many decades recorded snow beds round the year in the high tops. They are now a valuable record of climate change.
Friend and colleague David Duncan of Kingussie said Dr Watson had developed an interest in the snow beds as a 10-year-old schoolboy.
He said: "His interest had been sparked after reading books by Seton Gordon, the well-known naturalist and writer. Seton lived at Achantoul, Aviemore in the 1920s and had been recording his observations on hill snow distribution and snow melt dates, mainly on Deeside since 1905.
"Adam met him as a schoolboy and was greatly inspired. Seton obviously recognised a kindred spirit and took young Adam for outings on the hill, where they would discuss botany, ornithology and, of course, snow patches.
"The young Watson went to Aberdeen University, where he studied mountain hares and ptarmigan and afterwards continued his studies on Baffin Island in Canada. It was there that he applied his rigorous scientific approach to snow beds and their extent relating it to the distribution of other species."
Mr Duncan added: "I was honoured to have worked with Adam for over 20 years."
Gus Jones, convener of the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, said: "He was an outstanding field naturalist, scientist and conservationist. Adam played a key role in launching the BSCG in 1975."