WITH the New Year upon us, it is always good to reflect upon the year just past and some of my wildlife highlights in this marvellous Wee County of ours.
I encountered many beavers along the River Devon during 2024, with dawn and dusk during the summer months being an especially good time to spot them.
I suspect many Alloa Advertiser readers will also have seen their signs along the river, including gnawed and tumbled trees.
Some might regard this as 'damage', but nothing could be further from the truth because native trees felled are for the most part coppiced rather than killed, with new sapling shoots quickly emerging.
This provides dappled shade on the river, rather than the full shade of large trees, which benefits fish and invertebrates.
A coppiced tree can live for a considerable time – and certainly much longer than a tree that has matured and died.
I also enjoyed several close encounters with otters over the past 12 months and it is wonderful to see their population doing so well on the Devon. Kingfishers are similarly flourishing with the recent series of mild winters benefitting them.
Down on the haugh, my favourite month is May when cuckooflower blooms in profusion, which in turn attracts orange-tip butterflies
Orange-tips have been described as 'feel good' butterflies, and no wonder, because they have a brightness and freshness about them that mirrors a crisp freshly ironed table cloth.
It is the brightness of the orange combined with that dazzling whiteness; a happy and reinvigorating contrast.
The French call the orange-tip 'aurora', representing the glowing sun at daybreak.
Up in the Ochil Hills, only a few weeks ago I was mesmerised by a short-eared owl that floated across a hillside like a giant moth, swooping this way and that as it methodically quartered the ground in search of field voles.
But my true happy place in 2024 was a small wild pond near Tillicoultry where dazzling dragon and damselflies abounded in late summer.
Sitting by this pond on a warm sunny day was supremely relaxing as I watched the dragon and damselflies skim above the water.
In a world full of stress and turmoil, getting close to nature is the perfect tonic and a chance to put into perspective on the things that really matter.
I wish you all a Happy New Year.
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