No motor vehicles, please.......

Driving a motor vehicle on the Speyside Way, except of course where the Way follows a public road or the vehicle has specific permission from the landowner, is an offence under Section 34 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act:

"1) Subject to the provisions of this section, if without lawful authority a person drives a motor vehicle—

(a) on to or upon any common land, moorland or land of any other description, not being land forming part of a road, or

(b) on any road being a footpath or bridleway,

he is guilty of an offence.

(2) It is not an offence under this section to drive a motor vehicle on any land within fifteen yards of a road, being a road on which a motor vehicle may lawfully be driven, for the purpose only of parking the vehicle on that land".

Police will and do prosecute offenders - Aviemore police, for example, are currently investigating an alleged incident between Aviemore and Boat of Garten with the intention of bringing just such a prosecution.

The very cold showery weather persists - day-time temperatures are struggling to get into double figures, and there are reports of night-time frosts. This, we fear, must have taken its toll on ground nesting birds in particular - tiny chicks such as the newly hatched snipe I saw last night really struggle to survive a soaking in cold conditions.