Home from the hills

We left the Cairngorms on Wednesday morning, overnight Grantown on spey had a fresh fall of snow. As we travelled home, southward on the A9 the snow started again. By mid day it was quite heavy. By the time we reached our overnight stopover, the television news was full of stories of heavy snow in the Scottish highlands. By Thursday afternoon, many of the roads we had be driving on just the day before were closed due to snow. Such is the unpredictability of the weather in the Cairngorms. On Friday, we learnt that in the Cairngorm massive, heavy falls of snow and high winds meant drifts had reached 1.5 to 2 metres in some places.

Red deer are suffering in this unusual weather. Populations of Red deer have been on the increase, in part been due to the milder winters of late. Numbers of deer were at perhaps the greatest it has ever been. This year has been different. From the middle of December hills have been covered in snow. Unable to find enough food the populations are starving to death in every greater numbers. Many estates are feeding more than normal, in an effort to try and preserve the deer numbers. This is helping, but at the end of the winter we could be looking at half the number of deer in Scotland.

Extreme weather, is having a devastating long term effect on the wildlife of Scotland. As we have already written about, we travelled wildly in the Cairngorms looking for wildlife and found very little. The cold and snow has forced birds and animals to move out of their normal areas. Take for instance the Lochs. Normally during the winter some of the highland lochs support populations of geese and other waders. With the lochs completely frozen over these birds have had to move to warmer climbs.

Residents that can’t move, are having to try and find a way of surviving. Some will survive but many won’t. This summer the numbers of breeding birds will be lower than in previous years. It may take years for numbers to recover and some species may never recover to previous numbers.

Finally, our thoughts go out to the many people we met and the new friends we made on our trip. Their lives are being effected by the weather as we speak. Closed roads, mean missed appointments and not being able to reach home or work. Their only compensation. They live in one of the most wonderful bits of this planet.

Until next time.