A LOCAL photographer who has been “hooked” on the flora and fauna of the National Park since a young age has shared some of his favourite photos from more than 50 years getting up close and personal with the area’s wildlife.
Balloch local James Duncan spent a lot of time in the wildernesses of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs from an early age, and from the age of 12 has been keeping an eye out for the creatures, big and small, who thrive there before capturing them on camera.
James’s expert eye - which has been kept busy throughout the pandemic - has helped him capture many pictures of rare or elusive animals in the area, with red squirrels, adders and a red deer stag among his favourite finds.
James told the Reporter: “Wildlife has always been my passion, from an early age in the 1960s.
“I grew up in the area where I still live today, and recall the times we all fished the local burns for baggies and trout.
“All the kids in our area did the same. It was carefree - we’d wander anywhere, staying out all day with only hunger telling us to head home.
“We could wander almost anywhere from our local Balloch Park to Gartocharn, Drymen and round the local area known as the Horseshoe (Auchencarroch).
“We’d follow the seasons and watch the local wildlife in the countryside around us - early signs of crows nesting, birds singing and the returning lapwings, curlew and snipe who came to breed on the farmland.
“The changing seasons had all the elements to enjoy our natural history, from the wintery landscapes, salmon and trout running up the burns to spawn, bird song filling the air in spring and listening to my first dawn chorus in Balloch Park at the age of six.
“I was hooked. We never were taught in school about our local natural history; we had to find it out ourselves and this is what we did.
“Adventures were like an open book, walking for miles and seeing changing landscapes around every corner.
“We’d discover badgers, red squirrels, foxes, brown hares - all, sadly, now disappeared, unless you know where to find them.
“That was the challenge - knowing where to look and reading the signs of roe or fox prints in the snow.
“The arrival of the geese mid September by the thousands is a sight and sound to behold.”
James first picked up a camera - a Halina Paulette 35mm fixed-lens camera - at the age of 12, and armed with that, a pair of binoculars and a flask of soup in his schoolbag, there was nothing he’d rather do than get out and about looking for birds, mammals and plants to photograph.
“I would head over the hills to Ardmore Point spending the day observing the estuary birds on the Clyde.” he continued.
“Loch Lomond, though, had much more to offer in species and birdlife - there were freshwater rivers, mountain birds like ptarmigan and snow buntings and forest specialities such as crossbills and the goshawk.”
The camera technology James uses may have moved on ever so slightly since those early days, but his fascination for the natural world - and in particular those bits of it that can be seen near his home - remains as acute as it was more than half a century ago.
“This area is unique in its abundance of wildlife and its geographical location on the Highland Boundary Fault line, which runs from Stonehaven in the north-east to Arran in the south-west,” he added. “This is where the Highlands meet the Lowlands.
“Nature is wonderful and still surprises me every day. Even just admiring the hills clothed in winter snow, or the song of a robin announcing that spring has arrived.”
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