A small exploration of the western Highlands of Scotland and its deer is provided by Max Hadoke

What is the project you are doing? – My masters project, which is comparing deer monitoring method efficiencies in the field. The project is being used to test which methods are the most feasible for deer management on the estate where the fieldwork is taking place.

Where is your field site located and what does it look like? – The field site, which is stunning, is in Argyll and Bute on the West Coast of Scotland, south of Oban, on Kilchoan Estate. The estate, which sits on the edge of Loch Melfort, primarily consists of open hills where domestic sheep and cattle, and wild deer graze, but there are also woodlands, which house a wide variety of species. The topography is incredibly varied, with very steep areas of shale and rock, and large, flat open expanses of bog and peatlands. The owner of the estate is seeking to rewild the land and the loch, using tree planting and deer management, and oyster reintroduction and kelp aquaculture respectively, which is altering the way the estate looks.

When and for how long were you in the field? – In total, I visited the estate five times, for a week-long visit each time to carry out my fieldwork which started in March 2023 and finished in mid-June.

How did you get to the field site and what accommodation did you stay in? – I took the train to Oban from Glasgow, which is a lovely journey – however, it was somewhat soured by the leaving time of 05:20 on a Monday morning! Then, from Oban I had a car or bus and car ride to the estate.

On the estate, I stayed in what I can only describe as luxury. On my first and last visits, I stayed in the guest house, which has, among other things, an Aga (big range cooker). For my other visits, I stayed in a lovely small cottage with a small kitchen and was right by the loch.

What data were you gathering and what methods did you use? – My research seeks to determine efficiencies of deer monitoring methods. Part of sustainable population management is effective monitoring of population sizes. In the face of many different potential methods, I chose four for testing as part of my thesis. I am using distance sampling, faecal accumulation rate, and two forms of random encounter modelling, which use camera trap detections to determine deer numbers. Using the precision estimates from the deer densities produced, combined with both the time and financial cost (i.e. the time to carry out a method and the total cost of equipment) associated with each of method, measures of efficiency will be determined.

What have you learned from being in the field? – Things do not always go to plan and might not be as you expect them to be, so it is important to accommodate for these in some way. I found the camera trap model I was using did not have a feature that I was expecting it to, which meant my plans for the camera trap set up had to change slightly from what I was planning. Being adaptable is important!

Is there anything you will be taking forward into your future fieldwork? – Waterproof notebooks! There were some very wet days where I had to use microphone dictation on my phone to write out my notes because my notebooks failed. Who knew it rained in Scotland and paper isn’t waterproof?

Do you have final pieces of wisdom from being in the field? – Being in the field is an immensely rewarding part of research and I was particularly lucky with the supervisors, field site and stakeholders who were willing to work with me. As well as the study organisms and the skills I have learned, it is an immense privilege to see nature and share in its presence. I have seen woodpeckers, tree creepers, wrens, eagles, frogs, toads, lizards, midges, lichens, wagtails, highland cows, sheep, and more – all of which hold a sense of wonder. To be able to have part of the year with the “office” being around such wild (and not so wild) life, is fabulous!

Acknowledgements

The responses to the questionnaire were given and edited by Max Hadoke, with additional input from Taya Forde.

If you are within the School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine and would like to submit a fieldwork diary, please download the questions using the following link and follow the instructions in the document.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e5C8NUew5xFpEl_OPgH-yAjekmoc84OTLol0_eVoDL0/edit?usp=sharing

Banner image of Loch Melfort taken by Max Hadoke