Country Diary: Strathnairn

The mystery of the red squirrels continues. This attractive mammal was reintroduced into the Highlands at the Beaufort estate, near Inverness, in 1844 and has rapidly spread. They are common in this strath, despite the planning office that seems to ignore this legally protected species when considering new developments. These days a favourite site for a house, or houses, seems to be in woodland, whether conifer or broadleaved. This involves considerable felling and fragmentation of habitat, which often leads to non-viable areas for red squirrels. Many such developments are outside the local plan and go ahead in woodland where there are breeding red squirrels and a wealth of other wildlife.

Fortunately, to counter balance this poor planning, there has been great success in feeding red squirrels in gardens. Such feeding was not the original aim but once people started putting peanuts out all the year round for garden birds, the red squirrels were quick to take advantage of the free food. Two people who found that red squirrels were getting killed crossing a road to their garden feeding station simply moved all the feeders into the wood on the other side of the road to prevent any more unfortunate accidents. One youngster from Farr Primary school now has a red squirrel almost feeding out of her hand.

The mystery is why our garden does not attract red squirrels. There are huge beech trees, often with a rich mast crop, cone-bearing sitka spruce and larch, many other trees and shrubs, plus several peanut holders that are full all the year round. Yet still no red squirrels.