Kindrogan, Perthshire

Outside the Lothian area, I've recently been doing a couple of courses at the Kindrogan Field Studies Centre near Pitlochry. Last weekend I did a mammals identification course run by the Mammal Society, which included a lot of practical outdoor work on trapping and recording small mammals in and around Kindrogan House in the river Ardle valley. We caught a total of 28 mammals (mainly woodmice and bank voles, with one common shrew) in Longworth traps over the course of 3 days, releasing them all quickly once we'd had a chance to observe and handle them. We also went out hunting for tracks and 'scats' of Pine Marten and other animals, recording some good examples.

It was an extremely interesting experience and shed a lot of light on what goes on in the nocturnal world most of these creatures inhabit.

Here are some clips of the 'wee beasties' we had the pleasure of getting to know more about.