AT the AGM of the Highland Biological Recording Group we all celebrated its silver anniversary and with over 60 members there it was a great success.

Members came from far and wide with some from north of Lochinver to those from the Isle of Skye.

There have been five chairman of the group and we were all asked to speak for about five minutes about the group when we were in office.

As the founding chairman, I was on first and tried to explain what it was like to be a naturalist in the Highlands over 25 years ago. In those days there was a sense of isolation.

There were national recording schemes such as those on plants and birds that you could take part in.

There were no schemes even on butterflies let alone moths, dragonflies, mammals and amphibians or reptiles, all of which I was interested in.

The sense of isolation was by the very few people, if any, who were so keen on these groups and others.

For me the most interesting part of the meeting was the talk by Ro Scott about, the forthcoming "Atlas of Highland Mammals".

I felt very sorry for Ro as after some years of Herculean efforts to produce this the printers had promised it for the meeting - but it was not to be.

Ro gave a fascinating talk about the Atlas and the various species involved. Whilst I was very interested in the descriptions and maps of all the species it was the surprises with some of them that fascinated me.

One was the wild boar that are now, almost unbelievably, breeding in areas on the west side of the south end of the Great Glen between Loch Arkaig and Glengarry.

The other species were the rats and mice. The house mouse, for example, is apparently now very rare in the Highlands with suggestion that this may be because of the competition and domination of the wood mouse that now lives quite happily in houses.

The brown rat also had a very patchy distribution which I found surprising as I expected it to be common almost everywhere.

We had been asked to see if we could bring something to the meeting with a "silver" theme including anything that was amusing.

People had photographs of species, others just mentioned them but I decided to take along a live specimen.

It would be silverfish as they live in our kitchen. The idea was a good one but first catch your silverfish.

Normally there are a number of them under every carpet or cupboard in the kitchen but at this time of the year it is different. It took us some time to find a specimen and not helped by five dachshunds who wanted to join in the "game" as we scrambled round the kitchen floor.

Silverfish are primitive, tiny and wingless insects only 15mm long but they dart around and scuttle at surprising speed.

After much hilarious searching we managed to get one in a clear plastic tube.

The other silver item I mentioned was cowrie shells.

I took along specimens of the two species that occur in the Highlands and they have the delightful Latin name of "Trivia". I explained where I found them in various parts of the coast from the Isle of Rum to John O'Groats.

Then I said that in the Viking sagas I had always been intrigued over the legend of silver cowries.

The legend has it that at the right tide on some very remote and tiny beach on a moonlight night silver cowrie shells could possibly be found.

I then explained that I had managed to find two in all the years of searching and showed the audience two solid silver cowries.

The reaction from the audience varied.

Keep your eyes peeled for hibernating butterflies

The records of the week came from readers who kindly e-mailed me some sightings of red admiral butterflies in their gardens.

Some queried the time of year whilst others said their "last dates" were later than mine.

One interesting comment was from someone at the HBRG AGM who said that he too had seen red admirals well into November.

We discussed the fate of these and the fact that they will all die in the winter in contrast to the small tortoiseshells and peacocks that would mainly survive.

That is, if they did not succumb to any predators such as mice who could attack them in their hibernation as adult butterflies.

We discussed whether all the red admirals would die.

This was based on the fact that each year there are a few more records in southern England where these large and attractive butterflies have made it, as hibernating adults, through the winter.

Late red admirals have been seen this year fluttering around ivy on walls and tree trunks, so could it be that there, under the protection against the winter weather, the butterflies could survive this far north?

The other indication they might just survive is the fact that in the last couple of springs they have been amongst the first butterflies to fly, along with the tortoiseshells and peacocks.

Not only that, as one reader pointed out, these early butterflies seem to be in pristine condition.

This may indicate they could not have flown very far north to get here as the wings would have been tattered.

So if any readers finds hibernating red admirals please keep an eye on them, without disturbing them, until the spring and let us know what happens.

Forefather of nature conservation's memories of the islands are captivating

HEBRIDEAN MEMORIES by Seton Gordon. Pub. Neil Wilson Publishing. 2011 ISBN 978-1-906476-21-2. 131pp. £9.99.

Seton Gordon was one of the greatest writers on Scotland and its wildlife and is considered to be one of the forefathers of nature conservation.

His writing portrays a man who dedicated his life to wildlife and its natural history and his appraisal of their so many aspects was, and is, appealing to all.

He had a way of explaining both the common and rare moments so that readers would therefore get a greater appreciation, enjoyment and understanding about a very wide range of subjects.

He was born in 1886 and died in 1977.

In some ways his best writing, exploring the wildlife and landscape, was after the Great War and such is the case in this book about the Hebrides.

His is a comprehensive account of what it was like in this changing period of history as far as the islands are concerned.

First published in 1923, it gives a rare insight before the drastic changes of the last 90 years or so.

Fortunately for us he was a prolific writer of books with over 28 until 1971 and "Hebridean Memories" was published in 1923 after he had moved to Skye with his wife, Audrey.

Some of his books are on species such as golden eagle but for many, including myself, it is his general accounts of the landscapes and its wildlife that are the most appealing.

To some his best work along these lines is in this book on the islands off the west coast. This is not to say he confined his writing to wildlife as there is a very moving and poignant account of an emigrant ship going to for Canada.

The book is in four parts with the first three covering the four seasons.

In Part III that covers Autumn and Winter he also adds a section on "Other memories".

The final part IV is on "Some Birds of the Hebrides."

All the titles in the four parts are evocative such as in the Spring when he lists "A Sea-girt Home of the Peregrine", "A Western Corrie and its Wildlife" and "The Whooper Swan". Part two covers "A Western Haunt of the Ptarmigan", "Summer Sheilings" and "A Uist Headland". The "Other Memories" in part three includes "A Winter Climb: Beinn Mor Mull", "The Highland Piper" and "A Hebridean Emigration".

Part four covers some birds such as hen harrier, dunlin and the twite which he knew as the mountain linnet. It is in this section that there is a most intriguing discussion on "The Decrease of Game Birds in the West".

He maintains that it is not the birds of prey that were responsible for the decline in game birds but the hooded crow, gulls, and the brown rat.

Food for thought.