Habitats.

Part nine life in a natural pine forest.

Fragments on Britain`s primeval wilderness live on in Scotland, where they harbour a wealth of rare wildlife. Britain`s only large native conifer, the Scots pine, was once more exploited for its valuable timber, but now most forest tracts containing this survivor from prehistoric times are protected in nature reserves. They can be seen in such places as Glen Affric, which is west of Inverness, on Deeside and Speyside, they can also be found in the black wood of Rannoch. The pine forest protects, in turn, the elusive pine martin and the Scottish wildcat(i will be doing a separate blog about the Scottish wild cat in a later blog). The Scots pine also shelter the capercaillie. This amazing bird, with its fantastic mating call and ritual was once extinct in the British Isles. The crested tit also has a population, using hollows in some of the old trees to build their nest. There are also rare and unusual wild plants that flourish in the pine forests. These include chickweed wintergreen, common wintergreen, there are orchids such as the creeping lady`s tresses. Heather and bilberry`s are common throughout the pine forest. Bell heather grows in the driest areas, white cross-leaved  heath, bog asphodel, grass of parnassus and the amazing bog myrtle and its beautiful fragrant are found in the damper areas. Its also an amazing place to come and watch Britain's largest land mammal, the red deer. Birds of prey such as the hen harrier also flourish in the pine forset. The osprey is also now well established on the forest lochs, where it can be seen hunting for fish. The Golden eagle is also well established amongst the pine forest. The remnants of  the once-extensive Caledonian pine forests today form attractive, open woodlands which regenerate themselves  freely and contain trees of various ages. The older trees have flattish tops and bare stems, whereas younger trees are narrow-crowned, with branches to the ground. Young pines spring up in the open woodland unless the heather and moss become very dense, then the pine seeds cannot reach the soil. There is another native conifer that has established itself in the pine forset, the much smaller juniper. The remoter areas of the pine forest provide cover and feeding ground for the three native (shy) animals, the red deer,the Scottish wildcat and the pine martin, although the latter can be lured out by jam sandwiches.