The full days pics are through a click HERE

Day 12 - Another brisk morning, another bowl of porridge with golden syrup, one different thing today - it is the last day of the stag season. This also means it is the last chance that we would be out stalking as they are going to give the hill a week off while they prepare to switch to hunting the hinds instead.

The whole process is not very different apart from they can often shoot more in one herd at a time. This also makes the dragging a little harder sometimes as you may end up with two deer to drag and a calf to carry!

The weather was not so good this morning. There were clouds boiling in over the hills. As we drove down the glen the clouds were sitting on the tops of the hills so there was a hope that we would not be stalking. Our belief was that we would not be as there was only supposed to be one guest again, but you never know.

We arrived up at Alladale and were going to go into the conference room, but Chris had some work to do so offered for us to go off for a half hour or so. We did decide to go off for a walk and we got 'Dog' from the kennel to take with us - she was very happy to be able to come out and about.

We went off for a walk and found evidence that the highland cattle had been around. We went up to the top of the hill and had a look at the view and I took a few pictures of Alladale.

Then we wandered down through the wilderness trail into the woods and saw more evidence that the cattle had been around - plenty of hoof prints and chewing on the trees.

Just over half and hour had gone by when we got back to the house, we met up with Chris and he then gave us some information to read. Mich and I read through a document by Roy Dennis about the benefit of cattle to forest management as long as they are in a low enough density. Usually cattle grazing in forests do a lot of damage but this is due to them usually being there in too high density. The recommendation was to have a rating of 0.05 LU (livestock units) or 1 head per 20 acres, this may seem very low but if it were higher then the cattle would have a detrimental effect. In the right density they can help to fertilize the ground and increase the biomass. The right cattle will also eat the low nutritional vegetation and process it through which in turn will cause it to have more higher nutritional value young shoots. There are also many more beneficial effects of the right density of cattle grazing, but as they are from Roy's document, I will try and find a link to put here to follow (???CHECK???)

We saw evidence of both cattle and deer. The deer was most evident in the bark stripping that we could see on trees. The cattle could not do this as they only have teeth on the lower jaw and a solid upper palette. They also have very thick lips which would not allow them to get in so close to the tree.

Deer on the other hand have teeth in both upper and lower and can graze very close in, which is why when they overgraze floor based vegetation it gets cut too short to regenerate properly. Cattle when grazing floor vegetation also pull more at it, which aerates the soil, where the deer (or sheep) will simply cut it short with their teeth.

We then carried on into the wooded area looking at the species of trees that were around, in these forests they are mostly birch, rowan, pine or willow. The cattle appear to be favoring the rowan for eating, but there was also evidence in their poos of them having eaten willow too. They did not seem to be touching the birch though.

We also had a quick look at tree density - in one 1m squared area we managed to count over 40 trees, this was an exceptional area though and was showing a few signs of suffering from grazing as well as evidence of the cattle walking through it as demonstrated by the leaning trees! Now it was lunch time, which would have been very enjoyable if it were not for the constant irritation of the midges.

We carried on from this area across the river to a second area. There was still evidence of the cows having been here - hoof prints in the soil and the poos scattered around. It had not been used as extensively though. This area differed in vegetation quite a lot from the first in that it had a much lower tree density and move open ground with lots of moss and heather. The cattle are supposed to have a couple of effects on breaking up the heather - firstly they are supposed to graze on it and secondly their walking through creating pathways will help to break the heather up and create passages for small mammals.

There was still no sign of the cows though!

We then moved on to a third area - lower in the glen, back across the stream and road and more densely wooded. We wandered around here, again seeing clear signs that the bovine herd had moved through the area at some point in the none too distant. Just as we were about to start to leave the area we were asking ourselves where they could be, I looked over my shoulder, pointed and said 'Maybe that could be them over there'. In a brief glance I had seen a shaggy brown head vaguely against the brown background of the bracken. We had indeed found the four highland cattle.

We spent the next half hour or so taking pictures of them. We did have 'Dog' with us and whilst she mostly behaved herself it was evident that the cattle did feel a little uneasy about her being there.

They are great to watch and whilst they were a little disturbed by our presence for the first 10 minutes, they soon settled in to munching away. After a while one of them even lay down!

Once we had spent the time watching the cattle and 'Dog' was starting to get restless we went to head back up the hill to Alladale. On the way up I remembered that Ben had suggested we may like to clear the runs of the gravel and dirt that had collected in them. This we did with great gusto forming a line and hacking away at the grit in the trenches until they were clear.

My boots were great for this as the heel was the perfect size to wipe it clean.

Once we arrived back up at Alladale we went into the conference room. Chris needed to go off and make a few arrangements, so I took the lead with the computer and Carol read out the data she had collected for the day. I entered this into a document, so that Chris has a record of what it is we did. The data consisted of GPS readings for location and then observations about the condition of the vegetation.

Chris came to join us in the conference room and was happy with how we were progressing and we then took the conversation a step further to look into what should be set up as an ongoing study to be of benefit. It was assessed that there should be a weekly survey of the tree sites to see what effect the cattle were having on breaking up the ground and on tree mortality. Also it was felt that the cattle should be observed for at least half an hour every week (preferably at the same time) so that their behavior could be studied too.

This concluded our working day, which had been very informative and enlightening, so we packed everything up into the Land Rover whilst Chris went to collect a bag of goodies from the kitchen. Spades and other tools are already loaded ready for the morning of path improvements.

After our 25 minute drive back to Deanich we unpacked everything and got the food out. Carol and I decided on what to do for tea. Sort of a goulash. She prepared the meat (pork), whilst I chopped the veg into cubes (onions, fennel, carrots, garlic). Once this was done she took the fat out to feed the ferrets. I got on with cooking the veggies with a little imagination and mixing of spices including thyme and paprika, this gave the sauce a bit of a bite!

The other thing we did to go with it was rice and at 19:30 we all sat down to what was a very nice meal - even if I do say so myself! I am not sure what we will be making for tomorrow night - it will be my last night in Deanich! It is very strange, at times the time has gone slowly, but overall the two weeks have just disappeared.

After dinner it was in to watching repeats of Fire Fly, calling home and typing up the notes... now it is time for bed.

We have agreed a short lie in tomorrow as we are going straight to work and not having to go up to Alladale first.

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