Howard's Blog

I'll try to keep this blog updated as often as possible but sometimes life is just a little too hectic!

4th May 2010:    This is going to be a big update!  I have lots of news...

Over the last two weeks I have been getting about a lot and searching out the Spring wildlife in Scotland.  The Guillemots and Razorbills have started to arrive on their nest sites on the cliffs around Crawton.  It is still quite early but the signs are good that numbers will be in the tens of thousands again this year.

 

Already they are scrabbling for the best nesting sites; some of the fights among the Guillemots have been like a pub brawl!  The Razorbills have already started mating too and those Guillemots who have found a good nesting spot have been trying to woo the ladies with gifts of Sandeels ;)

 

The cliffs have at times resembled the debauchery of Pompeii before the eruption of Vesuvius; with orgies of gluttony, sexual frenzy and a liberal sprinkling of punch-ups!  Fortunately the volcanic ash cloud that has drifted over here recently was considerably less dense than that which enveloped Pompeii.

 

A recent visit to what was one of the busiest Black Grouse leks in Europe turned out to be an alarming indication of the devastation wrought by the particularly strong winter we have experienced this year.  A lek that normally attracted up to 30 birds had just five birds, looking confused and lost.  None of them seemed interested in lekking, suggesting that there were no female birds in the vicinity.  On the same day that Karen, Jason and I visited this lek, Dave was visiting another of the largest leks in Scotland and it was a similar story, with just five lethargic Cocks and one corpse on that lek.  This has been particularly difficult to take, as we have watched the population grow over the last few years to the point where one of these leks got so busy it actually split in two.  This morning I visited an area where we had found two new (or recently re-occupied) leks and neither of these had any signs of life.  I did, however, hear the sound of a small number of birds (2-3) lekking, so there must be a third lek in that area that we haven't found and that still has active birds on it.  A couple of miles away from this, I spotted a lone Blackcock wandering in a small wooded area, looking lost.  All in all it looks like the harsh winter has had a devastating effect on the Black Grouse.

Elsewhere, Spring has finally arrived.  Along the banks of the River Don I spotted Wrens, Robins, Great Tits, Blue Tits, a Tree Creeper, a Heron and two Grey Squirrels.  I also heard a Cuckoo but there is no sign yet of the Grey Wagtails or Dippers that usually frequent this stretch of the River.  No sign or sound either of the Great Spotted Woodpecker or the Nuthatch that were there last year.  Here's a few shots to whet the appetite from the River Don so far this year...

 

 

 

 

 

Elsewhere, Karen, Jason and I headed up to Chanonry Point on the Black Isle to see what was happening with the dolphins.  There were several around, including one mother with a very young calf. It's a little early in the season yet, as the Salmon run hasn't started in earnest but there was still the occasion leap to remind us of what to look forward to in June!  The Herring Gulls there have a knack for catching shellfish and you can often see them smashing crabs on the rocks but this time we actually managed to capture one as he caught a Starfish!  Whilst there we met a couple who had been fortunate enough to see a pair of Ospreys fishing on Loch Broom, at Ullapool, so we headed north to see what we could find.  There was a folk festival on in Ullapool and people were turning up in all manner of unusual transport, so I decided to deviate a little from my normal photographic fare and took advantage of the sight of three muscle bikes parked together at the campsite on the shores of Loch Broom.  We never did see the Ospreys but heading along the Moray Coast on the way back to Aberdeen, we were able to photograph the amazing Bowfiddle Rock and Portnockie.  From there we visited Pennan, which is now accessible again after the landslides which cut the village off.  We ambled along, stopping at every point of interest until we reached Kinloss and paused for a while at the 12th Century Kinloss Abbey.  I spent my formative years in the RAF based at Kinloss and it was there I developed my love for wildlife photography.  The Abbey is also home to the graves of RAF servicemen from the base who were killed in the line of duty.  It was a poignant reminder of how lucky I was to serve during the Cold War, when the threats mostly never materialised!  I resolved to create some photos of the graves that I hope will give some indication of the importance of remembering those who have died to protect our freedoms.

 

 

 

 

 

This morning I was back in the Cairngorms and was pleased to see that Red Grouse numbers don't appear to have suffered in the same way as the Black Grouse during the winter.  There were plenty of them about and the males are in good breeding plumage.  I also found Wheatears, Oystercatchers, Swallows, a Kestrel, Meadow Pipits, Curlews, Mistle Thrushes, Blue Tits, Great Tits and a single Willow Warbler.  For those who don't know, the female Red Grouse is on the left, the male (star of those annoying whisky adverts) is on the right...

 

 

 

 

 

So, that's it for this mega-update.  More to come very soon...

 

18th April 2010:    Plenty of Scottish wildlife news to report, both good and bad.

Two weeks ago we visited one of our regular Black Grouse leks in Perthshire for the first time this Spring.  This used to be one of the biggest leks in Europe; in fact it became so big that it actually split into two a few of years ago!  Unfortunately, the extremely long and harsh winter that we have experienced this year has taken a terrible toll on the Black Grouse.  We only found five birds and none of them was particularly interested in lekking.  It was the same story on our other favourite lek, where Dave visited on the same day, only to find five very distressed birds and one corpse!  Both of these leks had over 20 birds last year.

Last weekend, we headed to the Isle of May, off the east coast to see how the Puffins were doing.  It seems the numbers there have increased again, following a decimation a couple of years ago due to a crash in the population of their main prey species, the Sandeel.  It looks like there will be a healthy breeding population there this year.  The number of Atlantic Grey Seals on the island was also healthy.  We were, however, somewhat disturbed by the size of the rings that have been put on the Shags there.    Some of the birds were clearly uncomfortable with the huge coloured rings that had been put on their legs.  The thinking behind these rings is that they allow student research fodder to identify birds without the need for annual recapture, which would require the additional cost of training recapture teams.  The idea that this method reduces the stress on the animal by removing the need to recapture each year and thereby avoiding the extra five minutes of stress each year seems laudable but in this case, the rings are so bulky and uncomfortable that they are causing the birds serious problems.  We witnessed several Shags struggling to walk with these rings on their legs and at least one bird tripping itself up!

20th February 2010:    Had an interesting trip up Cairnwell in Glenshee yesterday, looking for Ptarmigan (Snow Grouse).  Dave, Jason, Chris and I arrived at the Ski-Centre car park around 9am and after a bacon roll and a cuppa, we headed up the mountain.  It was a tough old slog; those chair-lifts are really slow ;)

At the top, we headed round the mountain, looking for these elusive birds, which are VERY hard to spot in the snow!  Eventually Dave and Jason found some half-way down a particularly steep stretch of hard-packed snow.  I soon realised that I need to buy new boots, as I could not get any purchase and the only way I could stop myself sliding 1000ft down the mountain was to ram my poles into the snow and wedge my feet against them.  It was hairy to say the least!  I did manage to get a few shots I'm pleased with though, so it was worth the scary moments.

Hopefully I'll get some of these images, plus some others I need to add, into the galleries soon.  In the meantime, I also managed to capture some video footage of a very unusual creature on the mountain, which you can see below.  Unfortunately it was only taken on the video mode of my little compact camera but hopefully you will be able to make out enough detail to identify the creatures.

 

10th February 2010:    I've just seen a slideshow on the Wildlife Direct website highlighting the appalling dangers to wildlife and in particular lions, from the use of the pesticide Carbofuran.  Please take a look at this video and pass on the word.

24th January 2010:    We've been rather busy with commercial photography work for the last two weeks and haven't had much time to get out shooting more interesting things.  We have, however, been organising our safari equipment for the coming year and looking at ordering replacements for worn kit, including clothing.  We have always recommended CraghopperTM clothing in our equipment lists, brochures etc.  What we found ideal with CraghopperTM was the combination of excellent comfort and quality, practicality and the availability of several suitable colours for outdoor photography work.  It is with some regret that we feel we can no longer make this recommendation.  Since CraghopperTM was purchased around a year ago by RegattaTM, the range has been changed dramatically, with more emphasis on mainstream highstreet "outdoor fashion" and a consequent reduction in practicality, quality and suitability for serious outdoor work, both in cut and colour.  We are currently looking for a new supplier for our own safari clothing and would be happy to hear any recommendations or representations from individuals or companies.

12th January 2010:    A belated Happy New Year to one and all.  Christmas was exceptionally quiet but 2010 is already looking like picking up; thank goodness!  At last we have had a serious winter spell, with proper snow.  It may be a nightmare for politicians but it is an absolute delight for photographers!  I've managed to reach Braemar twice in the snow and both times it has been spectacular.

In other news we now have a new range of mouse-mats, key-rings, bottle-openers and fridge-magnets available.  I'll get round to updating the photo-gifts page with some images soon.

In yet more news, we would like to welcome the newest member of the PhotoClassic team, Michelle Gardner, who starts on Friday.  As well as being a trainee photographer/assistant, Michelle will be dealing with a lot of the marketing for PhotoClassic.  Feel free to send her a welcome email to "michelle-at-photoclassic-dot-co-dot-uk".  I'm sure she will appreciate the thought ;)

And finally, there's just time to mention what Karen's been up to: she has been busily working away on her own website, which will contain many of her wildlife and landscape images that you see on here, plus many more.  It will also include much of her other photographic work, ranging from portraiture to erotic and artistic nudes.  I'll keep you posted when batwoman.org.uk comes online.

31st August 2009:    Updated the galleries today.  We have now added a new gallery for captive animal images taken in zoos and wildlife parks.

26th August 2009:    Yeah, I know; I haven't updated this nearly as often as I should, so I'll just give a quick run through of progress so far...

Had a trip to Chanonry Point to photograph the dolphins about a month ago.  Weather wasn't great but the dolphins were amazing.  Photos Aren't good enough to sell, so I have to go back - shame that ;)

Finally finished the itinerary for the 2010 Kenya Road Trip: we made a couple of alterations based on feedback from previous trips.  I also, finally finished the Kenya Safari Handbook, which I hope will be of use or interest to people whether they come on safari with us or not.

Strange things happening on the domestic photography front: After a disastrous start to the year, with every wedding booking for the first half cancelled, I finally got one for, of all dates, September 11th.  What is really spooky is that the very next booking enquiry was for September 11th 2010 - how weird is that?!!!

I used to think personal injury lawyers were ambulance-chasing insensitive bastards but now I think they are ace (only because I just got a contract to take evidence photos!).

It's been a financial rollercoaster this year with contracts dropping like flies, wedding cancellations and then the odd spark of improvement.  Hopefully things are starting to settle down now; work seems to be starting to trickle in again, at least.  When they said self-employment goes from feast to famine they were not joking!

4th May 2009:    OK, firstly I apologise for not updating this sooner.  I have been busy and er...lazy...sorry!  Anyway, now that I'm here again, I should update you with some of the fun and games over the last couple of months.

Now that Spring is here, I am feeling a lot better about our wildlife, as the spring visitors and migrants start to appear in their droves.  With Karen and our pals Dave and Jason, we have been attempting to capture as much of the Spring wildlife activity in Scotland as possible.  We have made several trips to photograph Black Grouse leks and are pleased to see that numbers are increasing this year.  We have also found a few new leks (or perhaps old leks being re-occupied?) including one in a most unlikely spot with just one single bird displaying and burbling his heart out!  For those who don't know, the Black Grouse males display and parade to attract females, known as Grey Hens (they aren't actually grey, more a sort of mottled brown but hey).  They burble and screech, fluffing their tail feathers and strutting; sometimes they kick the crap out of each other too!  All of this happens on the same spots each year, in areas known as "leks".  To photograph them (or even just to view them closely) you need to arrive on the lek at least an hour before dawn and set up your hide to wait for the birds and you can't leave until after the birds leave, to avoid disturbing them.  This year we have been especially lucky, as the quality of dawn light has been particularly good on many of our visits (though a couple have also been obliterated by fog!).  During one trip with Jason, we had the privilege of a visit to the lek by one Grey Hen.  The resulting melee was just like last orders in an Aberdeen nightclub on a Saturday night, with dozens of males pairing off to square up and fight, whilst the Hen strolled through the lek enjoying the show, pursued by one sneaky male who saw his chance whilst the others were beating seven shades out of each other.  Off to one side, the shy and sensitive lad stood quietly, with his feathers fluffed but keeping notably quiet, just hoping forlornly that she might notice him.  It was pure pathos!

On another visit with Dave, the best moments came after we left the lek: we had only gone a couple of miles when we came across a Red-Legged Partridge (previously known as a French Partridge, as they were introduced as a game bird from France because they look so much more colourful than our own Grey Partridge).  He was stood on one leg by the side of the road as we passed and as we reversed back towards him, we fully expected him to scarper; these birds tend to be VERY shy because some people prefer to shoot them with louder and more dangerous things than cameras.  However, he was having none of it; this guy wanted his moment of modelling fame and stood there happy to pose, even after we got out of the vehicle and walked up to him.  Only after we put our cameras down did he saunter off into the undergrowth!  A few miles further on we found five Brown Hares in one field, the most we had seen in one place for several years!  Later that same day we found a Mountain Hare, who was busy sunning himself in some recently burned heather.  He was so laid back he didn't bat an eyelid as we wandered round photographing him from several angles.  We thought he might have a broken leg but he was just very relaxed in his sunbathing and eventually he just got up and wandered off.

With all the migrant breeders arriving, we also made several visits to the cliffs at Crawton near Stonehaven, photographing the amazing mating antics of Razorbills and Guillemots, as they perform sexual gymnastics whilst clinging to a ledge only inches wide!

Elsewhere, we have also managed to photograph Robins, Wrens, Common Tree Creeper, Jackdaws, Grey herons, Oystercatchers and Lapwings, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Meadow Pipits among others.  In the process I also discovered just how much damage a cheap filter can do to an image. I had bought a second-hand Sigma 400mm lens which was in perfect condition but all of the images from one safari with it were completely useless; out of focus and showing horrendous fringing.  Only after I realised I had no useable images from the trip did I spot the Jessops Skylight filter on the front.  A lot of people buy these to protect their investment in good lenses but the truth is they usually end up cancelling out any benefit of using good quality glass, making the investment wasted.  Since I removed the offending filter I have been delighted with the quality of the images and absolutely astounded at how much damage one cheap filter had caused!

My leaflets for the graduation photography finally arrived, though not before we ended up with 5000 leaflets for a Manchester bouncy castle company!  I have also been involved in a protracted war of attrition with Yellow Pages, who failed to deliver to a huge number of streets in Aberdeen last year (if you live in Aberdeen and didn't receive a 2008/9 Yellow Pages please do let me know!).  They claim to have delivered 60,000 more books than there are addresses in their delivery area!  I gave them notice that they had breached their contract with me and provided a list of streets that I knew had been completely missed and they insisted that their "statistics indicate no delivery problems in those areas".  They claim the delivery company commissioned independent market research to check deliveries, yet the delivery company had previously claimed that Yell commissioned independent market research bla de bla, before Yell gagged them! (guess what the truth is!)  When told that the areas they had claimed complete deliveries in had not received any books, they just responded with "well we still exceeded our minimum circulation" and threatened me with court action for non-payment of the balance on my account.  Seems like they are determined to take me to court, so pull up a chair and grab some popcorn; this is going to get very ugly!

16th February 2009:  Well, that was an interesting few days.  Karen's camera didn't arrive until about 4.35pm on Friday, so we drove over to the West through the snow in darkness.  The roads were not too bad but around Keith especially there were some tricky moments and the snow by the side of the road still covered some vehicles!  We got to the Glen Affric Backpackers' Hostel in Cannich at around 11pm - too late to get in, so we parked in a siding in Glen Cannich and resorted to sleeping bags in the car.  The night was bitter cold and we didn't get a lot of sleep.  We spent most of Saturday in Glen Cannich, shooting snow scenes and Red Deer.  It was disappointing to see so many stags but only one with more than eight-point antlers.  There was no sign of Loafy or Brutus, his superior in the old hierarchy, or any of the other ten and twelve-pointers.  I know this is a working estate and not a nature reserve but I really hope Loafy and Brutus are not adorning the wall of some rich Yank now!  Whilst we were brewing up a cuppa (on the now-restored Trangia!) one of the Estate staff stopped for a chat.  He was curious about our photos and asked for a card so he could have a look at them on the website.

In the afternoon we headed over to Glen Affric but we didn't see a lot of wildlife and the light was too dull for landscapes.  It was obvious there was not going to be a good sunset either, so we headed back to Cannich and the Glen Affric Backpackers' Hostel.  The door was locked, which came as something of a surprise, as the website said they are open all year round except Christmas.  We hung around for half an hour and eventually a guy appeared and told us it was not opening until Easter!  I pointed out that the website said they were open all year and he replied "Well we've had a bad burst [pipe] and it's not fixed yet, so we're just going to wait till Easter.  Along the road we found a B&B with a "Vacancies" sign, so we tried there but it too was locked and a guy came over and removed the sign, saying sorry for misleading us but it had just been re-painted inside and they weren't open.  We ended up in the Tomich Hotel which we had once been in for a meal in 1994.

Being Valentine's Day, the hotel was almost full but we got the last room.  It was actually a relief to have a warm room, a good shower and a bar and lounge to relax in after spending the previous night in the car!  The Tomich Hotel is an old Victorian hunting lodge, with a lovely open fire in the lounge.  After a shower, we headed down to the bar for a drink before dinner and were given a free glass of Champagne and a selection of canapés.  The food was delicious, with some lovely touches for Valentine's Day, including butter shaped in hearts and little red gelatine hearts in the sorbet.  I suppose it was only fitting that we ended up in a lovely hotel, eating a beautiful meal on Valentine's Day; it was, after all, our seventeenth wedding anniversary ;)

In the morning we had a superb breakfast, reminiscent of the breakfasts in Kenyan hotels, and headed off to take some more photographs.  An old ruined cottage in Cannich was our first stop and then we headed up Glen Affric, where we found a few stags and took some more snow scenes.  We did hear the distinctive rattle of a Capercaillie calling some distance away but never found him.  In the car park beneath Am Meallan, we parked for a while and laid out some bread and bird seed for the finches and tits that are usually so abundant there but nothing came.  The path along the river was treacherously slippy with melting snow and ice but we managed to grab a few more photos without falling in!

Leaving Glen Affric, we headed towards Beauly and then along to Inverness, before continuing on to Findhorn, where I had first become seriously interested in wildlife photography during my time in the RAF at nearby Kinloss in the early 1980s.  I had used my first Junior Technician's pay to buy a Praktica Super TL 1000 SLR and a Miranda 70-210mm lens at the Elena Mae camera shop in Inverness and spent many happy hours fruitlessly chasing Yellowhammers around the gorse beside the old Sunderland Launch Ramps on the edge of Findhorn Bay!  I still have that camera and lens and I still use the Miranda 7-15x35 binoculars I bought with my second JT's pay!

Heading home, I bored Karen with my lamentation on the damage we have wrought on our native wildlife.  Yes, we saw plenty of Red Deer, a few Chaffinches, some gulls, several Crows, a couple of Jackdaws, one House-Sparrow, five Hedge-Sparrows and two Barn Owls and a Tawny Owl caught in the headlights.  We also saw a skein of geese in the distance, caught a brief glimpse of a fox and heard the call of a Capercaillie.  However, on a three-day trip covering 350 miles, that is a pitiful amount of wildlife to see.  The truth is, we have almost eradicated ALL wildlife from these isles.  Putting this in perspective; one could stand still in the centre of Nairobi for one hour and still see a greater variety and greater numbers of wildlife than we saw in our three-day trip in Scotland!

When we arrived back, we discovered that our youngest daughter Lianne and her boyfriend Neil have moved back into our flat, only a week after her sister moved out.  Heather had moved in under three weeks after Lianne and Neil had previously moved out. They had asked us if they could move back in some time over the next couple of months, so it wasn't a complete bombshell, just a bit sooner than we hoped.  As we both had children when we met, we did not have the luxury of spending time alone at home before having kids, so we were looking forward to having our home to ourselves once the kids grew up and moved on. We have now spent a grand total of 3½ weeks living alone in our own place.  Oh the joys of parenthood!

13th February 2009:  Crikey!  is it really ten days since I updated this thing?!!  Been a good week so far.  Not really shot much.  Had an image library reject my model releases because they are in plain English and leave no room for lawyers to haggle.  Fuck 'em!  They don't deserve my work.  Other news; had an old friend over for dinner on Tuesday and used him as a guinea pig for a Jamie Oliver recipe; fortunately the grub was fine.  Ordered a new camera body for Karen on Thursday and tonight we're heading for the West Coast to shoot red deer in the snow/drizzle/mist/pink frilly underwear - who cares!  Hoping to meet up with another old friend, Loafy the Stag:  I really hope he wasn't shot last season, he's an amazing character.

3rd February 2009: Early start this morning.  Karen and I met Dave and the three of us went to the spot we discovered last week for shooting Buzzards.  We had a dead rabbit with us for bait, so hoped for some good photos of a Buzzard feeding.  The six inches of snow we were promised overnight did not materialise; instead it just pissed with rain.  Fortunately we had an excellent hide.  The dead bunny was staked out in the dark and we waited.  There was a slight mishap, when Karen poured us some tea and dropped the flask, which literally exploded with an almighty bang that blew the casing in half (that woman makes a bloody powerful cuppa I can tell you!).  Fortunately it was still dark then, so we didn't scare anything away.  As dawn approached, the weather remained cold and drizzly, with very little light.  Pretty soon the bunny carcass was surrounded by Magpies, who proceeded to rip it to bits.  A Buzzard did make an appearance but didn't seem too interested in our offering, choosing instead to look for worms elsewhere in the field.  After five hours we had had enough and called it a day.  At least the Magpies had a good feed!

31st January 2009:  After a couple of days doing contract work for a local lab, I spent yesterday organising my wedding adverts for the next year and paying my tax bill.  This morning I updated the safari pages on Safaripics and this afternoon I'll be re-doing the weddings page on PhotoClassic.   

27th January 2009:  Spent the day doing some location scouting.  Did a deal with one of the most popular student bars in Aberdeen to offer graduation photography there in July.  Also found a cracking spot to photograph a pair of Buzzards.  On the way back the alternator went on the car, so not all good :(

26th January 2009: What a weekend that was!  With my pal Jason, we headed for Glenshee and the Cairnwell summit (933m) in search of the elusive Ptarmigan.  Having been to the same mountain several times before, with varying levels of success, I knew the best spots to see Ptarmigan in the morning.  The ski forecast was for excellent conditions on Saturday and Sunday, so it looked like we had the perfect opportunity.  The plan was to pitch our tent just below the summit, facing a small rocky outcrop where I have frequently seen Ptarmigan in the past, so that we could just use the tent as a hide and shoot the Ptarmigan in the morning.  To encourage them to stay on these rocks a little longer, we left a few sprinkles of grain for them.

The Glenshee Ski Centre was very busy when we arrived in mid-afternoon on Saturday, with great conditions for the skiers and snowboarders.  We bought one-way tickets on the Cairnwell chairlift, which takes you almost to the summit, then hiked over the top to a rocky ridge just below the south-eastern side of the summit and pitched our tent.  Conditions seemed perfect and we settled down after supper, looking forward to a great shoot in the morning.  As darkness fell the wind picked up a little, as it often does in the Scottish mountains, but we were not too concerned as my tent had already coped perfectly with a Force 10 gale whilst photographing otters in Shetland in 2005.  Around 8pm I got a call on my mobile from Grampian Police; they had noticed my car in the Glenshee Ski Centre car park and were concerned that someone might be lost or stuck on the hill.  We had left a note on the dashboard saying we would be back down on Sunday but the car was now covered in snow, so they had not seen it.  It was nice to know that the Police were vigilant about these kind of things; too often they get bad press for their mistakes but the good work they do on a day-to-day basis just gets overlooked.

Shortly after their call, the wind began to pick up and increased steadily over the next few hours until it was really blowing.  Still we were not too bothered, as we were cosy in our sleeping bags and had a good tent around us.  By 1.30am the temperature had dropped considerably and the wind was strong enough now that the chill factor was probably around minus 10 degrees.  Nipping out of the tent to paint some snow yellow, it took over an hour for my feet to warm up again in the sleeping bag.  Just before 3am the wind suddenly started to get extremely strong and I felt a hard whack as one of the tent poles shattered and hit my leg.  Twenty minutes later, Jason got a hefty whack on the shoulder as another pole shattered.  The tent was now taking an incredible pounding and over the next two and a half hours it collapsed on top of us, as the guy rope mounts were ripped from the fabric of the flysheet and the wind continued to increase in speed.  By 5.30am the force of the wind pushing the tent in on us felt like we each had a ten-stone man sitting on top of us and repeatedly punching us.  We had no option but to sit the storm out, as leaving the tent in such a blizzard at night would be suicidal.

By 7am there was a hint of dawn light arriving and we decided on our plan of action.  By now the tent was mangled and thrashing about on top of us; spindrift had also filled its remains with several inches of snow.  Jason put his snow goggles on and went into the tent porch to pass our rucksacks in, so that we could pack quickly to leave.  Outside, the wind was so powerful, it was a job to stay upright and without our combined weight to hold it down, the tent made a dash for freedom.  Fortunately several guy ropes were still attached and we were able to wrestle it into submission.  Leaving our rucksacks and tripods in the snow, we took the deceased tent and headed for the tool shed next to the radio masts on the summit.  Visibility was only a few feet, so it took several minutes to get to the shed.  After depositing the tent, we then had to retrace our steps before they blew over, to recover our gear.  It was too dangerous to try to carry the dead tent any further but at least we had stopped it from littering the mountainside and possibly harming some of the wildlife; we will return when the weather improves and recover the wreckage.  After resting for about ten minutes at the shed, we made for the chairlift, where there was more shelter.  Visibility was so poor that we had to follow the indentation in the snow left by the cable conduit taking electricity to the radio masts on the summit.  Once we reached the chairlift we were able to relax and get a brew on and we realised that several parts of my new Trangia stove were missing.  Although only about 60m below the summit, the wind was nowhere near as strong at the chairlift and about an hour later it subsided quite a bit.  Jason attempted to return to the shed to see if any of the missing stove parts were wrapped up in the wreckage but after going only 20 yards from the shelter of the chairlift, it became clear that conditions at the top were still too dangerous to return.  Around 9.30am the wind dropped quite a bit and the Ski Centre staff arrived to prepare the chairlift for the day's skiing.  We helped them clear the snow from around the chairlift and they gave us a free run down the mountain as a thankyou.

Jason has checked the wind speeds recorded by Herriot Watt University and their graph shows a mean wind speed of 75mph with gusts to 85mph between 3am and 8am on Sunday - that's a Force 12 (hurricane); no wonder my poor tent died!

The moral of this tale is:  if you're going to spend the night on a Scottish mountain, don't rely on the ski forecast because it doesn't give you the overnight conditions!  The correct place to check is the Mountain Weather Information Service or MetCheck.