After a three month absence of red squirrel evidence from our feeders, we at last had a small piece of positive evidence. You might remember that we had a sighting reported in March of a red squirrel south of Mount Stuart near Scoulag. What we discovered in early April was that a red squirrel had also visited Mark Low’s squirrel feeder near Scoulag Burn. His trail camera photographed it on 17 and 24 March. This ties in neatly with that earlier reported sighting which was the 19 March.

We cannot be sure that all three sightings are the same squirrel, though that would seem quite likely. We can also wonder why a squirrel only visited that feeder on two occasions. In several other locations we have seen that squirrels keep returning to a feeder until all their favourite foods have gone. It’s another puzzle. Was this a single squirrel on a foray into a new area? Was that area so poor for red squirrels that even the huge supply of free food wasn’t enough to keep it in the area for more than a few days?

In terms of our work with feeders to test for the presence or absence of squirrels across Bute, we have been steadily progressing from the north to the south of the island. We are about to reach the southern-most piece of woodland, Suidhe Plantation close to Kilchattan. We will then be ‘filling in’ with feeders in smaller areas of woodland around the island.

We are also at the beginning of the process of writing up our results, which we will circulate to professionals in the field of red squirrel conservation. Their feedback will help us to plan our next steps to help Bute’s red squirrels to prosper.

Finally, our thanks to the Friends of Bute Museum who kindly donated £130 to the project. This has helped us with project expenses, namely batteries for the cameras and food for the feeders.