Auchnerran Blog

This is the week for our Big Farmland Bird Count across the UK and we have had another good build up to the event. GWCT Scotland ran an informative and fun Big Farmland Bird ID Day at GWSDF Auchnerran and one again in Northern Ireland.

2017 was a busy year on the Game and Wildlife Scottish Demonstration Farm at Auchnerran. We would like to thank all of the individuals and organisations that made it a success highlighting the importance of integrated land management for Scotland and the UK.

Ironically on a day packed with weather – including sunny spells, sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow showers, we set-up a new weather station today at the farm with colleagues from the James Hutton Institute. 

The last couple of years at GWSDF Auchnerran have highlighted the huge abundance of breeding waders on the site, with Lapwing, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Woodcock and Snipe present in droves. Here are a few photographs from the 2017 monitoring season.

GWSDF Auchnerran is a hill edge farm that is looking to inform other environmental organisations of the importance of integrated land management, influence Scottish government policy regarding the sustainable wildlife management in areas of productive agriculture and inspire farmers, land managers, communities and members of the public with the respect to the benefits farming and game management bring to our diverse countryside.

On a much-needed sunny day in Aberdeenshire recently, GWSDF Auchnerran welcomed Graeme Dey MSP, convenor of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee (ECCLRC); and Andrew Proudfoot, senior assistant clerk to the committee.

At the end of July, GWSDF Auchnerran hosted a meeting with a group of wildlife managers to discuss the LIFE Laser Fence project and its applicability to a variety of situations. The Laser Fence project is a partnership between several European organisations, led by Liverpool John Moores University, and is investigating the general question: can laser technology be used to scare mammals away from designated areas?

There is a lot of focus on Woodcock at present because of concerns over declining resident populations, so not surprisingly when we started working at GWSDF Auchnerran a couple of years ago, we began surveys to see how many Woodcock we had on the farm.

The LIFE+ Laser Fence project aims to investigate whether low-powered bird-scaring lasers might be effective at excluding various mammalian pests from designated areas.

Spring is now well on its way at our Scottish Demonstration Farm. Recent warm weather has caused an explosion of life; leaves returning to the silver birch forests, gorse in full bloom, and, of course, many young animals.