A trail of clues and a glimpse of a red squirrel
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Red squirrels are under threat from their grey cousins.
All of us who enjoy a nice forest walk have had one of those moments. Looking through the trees, you see a blur of red fur as an elusive squirrel darts up a tree and out of sight.
But where do these loveable creatures hide? And how can we improve our chances of getting a good look at them.
Of course, there are places in the Highlands where you know you have a decent chance of seeing them, including Carrbridge and the Osprey Centre at Boat of Garten. But in other forests, sightings are fewer and further between.
Now, red squirrel group See Red Highland wants to build up a bigger picture of squirrel activity in the region.
That’s why I turned one of my regular weekend walks into a squirrel-hunting adventure. My guide for the day was Juliet Robinson, red squirrel conservation officer for the Highlands, and the woman who coined the phrase “extreme squirrelling”.
It’s a phrase that conjures up images of clambering up tree trunks (in my head at least), so I didn’t quite know what to expect as I pulled on my walking boots at Invermoriston.
Our plan was to explore the conifer woodland below the steeply-rising summit of Sron na Muic, where the Forestry Commission has relatively few squirrel records. The main path through here is part of the Great Glen Way (GGW) and this is the route we followed down the quiet minor road to Dalcataig.
As we walked, Juliet gave us a quick lesson in what to look out for. There are two main signs you can hunt out – stripped cones and dreys (squirrel nests). She had both with her in the car! Boxes of cones gave us a good visual indication of what we would be scouring the ground for, while an old drey – which she assured us had fallen out of a tree at the end of a season – meant we knew what “home” was to the squirrels.
After we left the tarmac road behind to continue on a forestry track, it wasn’t long before we found our first sign, a stripped cone. It’s easy to tell the difference between one stripped roughly by a squirrel and one tidily finished off by a mouse, so we knew there were squirrels to be found here.
After the first find, there was another, and another. A squirrel can get through a decent sized cone in around three minutes, so the solitary creature must have spent some time in this area. There was hope that we would be lucky and get a sighting.
Juliet Robinson, red squirrel conservation officer for the Highlands.
We carried on, by now with our eyes glued to the ground, so we had to remind ourselves what a beautiful area we were in and that we should look up and enjoy the beautiful surroundings too. We cut left at a track junction, following the route of the former Great Glen Cycle Route (still marked on the OS map but no longer in operation) at a blue marker post.
There were further signs of squirrels along this path, as well as some other unexpected wildlife Juliet told us about. Droppings on the path were apparently those of a pine martin, while a pellet was identified as being from an owl.
As we followed the GGW south, our eyes were drawn not only to the ground but up into the trees, where we might have a better chance to see a red squirrel or, at least, a drey. There are two types of nest, one for summer and one for winter, the winter ones being larger and warmer for breeding. They are roughly the size of a football and, in conifer woods, tend to be up against the trunk on a branch.
And, a few trees beyond another pile of stripped cones, there it was, three-quarters of the way up a trunk. We were now outside one of the squirrel’s houses, but there was still no sighting.
However, that’s not necessarily the point of extreme squirrelling. It's all about finding out where the squirrels are living in the Highlands, especially in woods where the conservation authorities have no records of them. Locals may know there are squirrels living in a particular wood, but See Red Highland wants to know too in order to assist in conservation of these iconic creatures.
We never did see one as we completed our walk down to Rubha Bàn and along the pavement back to Invermoriston, with spectacular views out over Loch Ness.
But the next day we decided to go back out, armed with binoculars, into Craig Phadrig forest in Inverness. We scoured the ground and eventually found a few stripped cones, then there it was – that fleeting glimpse of red fur.
I followed the bushy tail as it darted up a trunk, then got sight of it in the binoculars. I watched as it paused on a branch, cleaning itself and watching me intently. As soon as I reached for my camera, it was off.
