The Road to a Reserve
My lockdown experience revolved around a road. The road to a small Scottish Wildlife Reserve called Tallich, which is a lovely little Alder wood, the remnants of what used to be a loch a very long time ago. Now, you’d think that my focus would be on the Reserve, but lovely as it is, my most memorable experiences happened on the road to that would take me to the reserve.
We had recently moved to Hill of Fearn in 2019 before COVID-19 hit, life being busy and hectic as it is, we had not had a chance to explore the village or the surrounding area and I have to admit, we probably wouldn’t have if the epidemic and lockdown hadn’t hit!
An opportunity to explore
Looking for things to do while in lockdown, we started exploring where we could walk from the house. We knew that there was a reserve along the road that wound out of the back of the village, so decided to take a walk to it one day.
The road leading to the reserve is a small single-track road through farmland. It took about 30 minutes to walk to the reserve and an additional 30 minutes back, so we spent most of our time while out, on the road, with only a short 10-15 minute walk within the woods. This may be why it’s the road that has made a bigger impression on me.
Changing seasons
Needles to say, now we have walked this road many times throughout the year, we have seen it in almost all its guises – from the budding leaves and jumping lambs in Spring, to the variety of wildflowers on the verges in Summer. We have watched berries grow and just recently seen the trees give up their leaves again.
The road has never ceased to surprise us, first delivering a beautiful pair of Bullfinches in the stretch of planted oak and beech amongst the fields. These are my favourite birds, so I was hooked from then on. Later it offered up bounding Roe deer, loping Brown Hare and one Saturday morning – a young fox!
Wild Life and Neighbours
All these mammals were a wonderous surprise, but our road also offered up a greater variety of birds throughout the year. We have seen Blue tits, Long-tailed tits, and Goldfinches as would be expected. But also, Sparrowhawk, passing Crossbills and a Stonechat, which was perched on a dead tree by the side of the road. More recently with Autumn drawing in we have seen skeins of Geese and Hooper swan flying overhead towards Loch Eye to the north.
It’s not just the wildlife that has kept our spirits up but the neighbours we’ve met along the way. There has always been a passing wave or good morning and we’ve become more familiar with the faces we see every day. At one point, dismayed by the litter that we spotted on our regular walk we decided to take a bag and pick it up, only to be stopped by locals who told us they had been doing the same, or to commend us for putting in the effort. It was an opening for a conversation and introductions that we may not have had otherwise.
Now we’re back at work, but still take a short walk along our road in the morning, we don’t make it to the reserve then, and a longer walk to the reserve at the weekends. We can go further afield now but we’ve grown to love our little stretch of road and the connection it has given us to our home. It’s become a part of our home just as much as the bricks and mortar. It has given us the hope to get through lockdown, maintained our wonder and peace of mind and built a lasting connection with the people and place that we live.
I will be walking down that road for many years to come.
Marcia Rae – High Life Highland Countryside Ranger
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This blog has been kindly written by Marcia Rae, High Life Highland Countryside Ranger on behalf of the Think Health Think Nature project. You can keep up-to-date with Marcia and the rest of the Countryside ranger team by following them on their Facebook page, here.
For more information on how to get out into nature, you can visit the rest of our Think Health Think Nature website.