tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58569079428840624602024-02-07T17:28:00.856+00:00Wildlife on a Skye CroftThe fauna and flora of a shoreline croft on the Hebridean island of Skye.Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-3980040080603488292015-10-02T18:12:00.002+01:002015-10-02T18:12:43.734+01:00PostcriptI am now living in Hook Norton, ("Hooky") one of those cosy English villages with thatched house and honey coloured stone cottages. The complete antithesis to Skye. I have started a blog on the wildlife there (no otters yet, though a few spraints a few miles away) see <a href="http://hooknortonwildlife.blogspot.co.uk/">Hooky Natural History</a>Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-5825371014126045132015-08-19T12:40:00.002+01:002015-08-19T12:40:28.881+01:00GoneI<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">t's just over a couple of weeks now since we left Skye. Predictably this is my last blog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am not sentimental but I am glad it was a dreek day for our last view of the croft, making departure less regretful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In amongst sorting out boxes of household stuff, I have been able to reflect on our 12 years there and ownership of the croft for almost 8 years. The flippant answer to why we left Skye is to move south to be closer to Waitrose. The metaphor works surprisingly well. The trigger for our departure was another speed camera (this time in Roy Bridge on a quiet Sunday morning) and the risk of loss of my driving licence in consequence. Fortunately I did not lose the licence but the potential penalty of what one could do without being able to drive on Skye brought into sharp focus our status. Skye is remote and without being able to drive, Skye would be just about impossible. Public transport is woeful, and just getting to Broadford, 6 miles away, there and back in a morning, is just about unachievable. Getting further afield is even more challenging. Health services are being transferred to Fort William 70 miles away whilst anything serious has to be dealt with in Glasgow, another world away (well, 6 hours by bus). Not a place for the old and infirm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Skye is not a wealthy area and the services available reflect that situation. A small example is that a car with a 15 or 64 year registration will be a rental, (and should be given a wide berth, because of unpredictable driving). Most of the island is dependent on tourism, but this employment dominance goes unrecognized because there are a myriad of micro businesses employing ones and twos, but no large employers and no lobbyists to get in the ear of government for help and investment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Infrastructure development to bring in more, wealthier, tourists on short breaks, maybe in the winter has been ignored. Despite a campaign led by the highly respected owner of the Three Chimneys, arguably the best restaurant on Skye, to get the government to fund upgrade of the airstrip at Lusa to allow commercial flights at a maximum cost of £12m, the response has been a flat 'no'. Yet oddly Dundee can get support of at least this amount and more for a copy of the London V and A museum, (a white elephant in the making). Access to the Highlands has not changed in the 12 years we have been there (except for the removal of tolls on the Skye Bridge). The A82 from Glasgow past Loch Lomond is dangerous and slow, the A9 dual carriageway project was shelved in favour of average speed cameras. There are no marina developments. Broadband speeds are a joke, so no chance of attracting anything remotely high tech. As for local services there is no butcher, no fishmonger, no clothes shop; not even a Pound shop. Two Coop supermarkets and the Tesco vans from Inverness keep everyone going. Yet the possibilities for developing a tourist infrastructure based on its stunning topography is immense, if only... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Highlands and Islands are not a government priority unless it is a windfarm development or a fish farm but these have little or no impact on local wealth. Windfarms create environmental damage and impact adversely on tourism, with the benefit of only a few construction jobs. Others elsewhere get a lot more benefit: power to the central belt, profits that flow overseas to the owners of power companies save a token for the community. The same is true of fish farms - environmental damage to Skye, fish to China profits to Norway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Without question though I will miss the opportunities for enviable wildlife experiences and the distinctive culture:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Otters almost on demand</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dolphins, to give unexpected pleasure</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Orchids and bluebells - reliable yet spectacular</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Excellent events featuring local musicians in concert at <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14.6545457839966px;">Sabhal Mòr Ostaig</span> or maybe Aros Portree</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwmmkE-1vttiwTSwuWJkjASaUpummubinNX4UuelWCHyKRzteh8Eo2zmTsJueKM7wE1fkZtRf3lTjT1RwjRC82CbWeou_Jf5-arS-T7aIUcO9a7YvGs2Kb7BprptUflcvxX_1uglLUbro/s1600/IMG_3123+Blazin+Fiddles.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwmmkE-1vttiwTSwuWJkjASaUpummubinNX4UuelWCHyKRzteh8Eo2zmTsJueKM7wE1fkZtRf3lTjT1RwjRC82CbWeou_Jf5-arS-T7aIUcO9a7YvGs2Kb7BprptUflcvxX_1uglLUbro/s320/IMG_3123+Blazin+Fiddles.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have some regrets of things not achieved in the 12 years. Here are a few examples:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Failing to get to the top of Glamaig, which I could see from the kitchen window (I was beaten back by a blizzard and fading light some years ago, and never got round to going back at a more sensible time)</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHzHjtqKNrhsOEsX9VVWCdu4iZLnLbEGT4GU4_BlTZlKf0wirJYQAUlA7WfNDU4ShMltwBy9Czh1zecojsz1gbQzLPWOW-P4egiQkYiGb1uFHk8gZLsRQzpbz-8_7Pl0MogwO2bO-5yW8/s1600/IMG_8680+Glamaig.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHzHjtqKNrhsOEsX9VVWCdu4iZLnLbEGT4GU4_BlTZlKf0wirJYQAUlA7WfNDU4ShMltwBy9Czh1zecojsz1gbQzLPWOW-P4egiQkYiGb1uFHk8gZLsRQzpbz-8_7Pl0MogwO2bO-5yW8/s320/IMG_8680+Glamaig.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Not even attempting the Cuillin ridge</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Not making the most of the almost unique geology such as visiting the Spar cave near Elgol</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Not finding some of the more interesting plants such as bog orchid despite several forays to likely places and not seeing the narrow leaved helleborine near Storr Lochs.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However I shall not miss:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Winter storms with winds which can reach speeds beyond 70mph with the potential to lift the roof, take down trees, damage outbuildings and almost certainly cut off power.</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uZ9RIQjluGUCYuv4EJRWQVNVGUAuwrTbJ_cuSDRZ1h_gp86jEZQzhmTKpKVNDLWSS0M39IHkdY60O3RDcXIbzLtuGXSop58TghZOGRR_SYkBXd3YER3P2q-89AS_GAoJfD_04Tbdn7s/s1600/P3060027+Storm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uZ9RIQjluGUCYuv4EJRWQVNVGUAuwrTbJ_cuSDRZ1h_gp86jEZQzhmTKpKVNDLWSS0M39IHkdY60O3RDcXIbzLtuGXSop58TghZOGRR_SYkBXd3YER3P2q-89AS_GAoJfD_04Tbdn7s/s320/P3060027+Storm.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7hkg8wnP8rRMQbkAKmf_PyWnXNH_Z9DY3jmhWpF9Lb3iAkfzdYSEe5LKWNidi7wExv3Gpkj1GubErY8ETjse7SRSTvM5gV8bAs-xlQyEZOVZ9aTkmda2ig3a0H-6sMoF75SQB9iQYII/s1600/IMG_1616+Storm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7hkg8wnP8rRMQbkAKmf_PyWnXNH_Z9DY3jmhWpF9Lb3iAkfzdYSEe5LKWNidi7wExv3Gpkj1GubErY8ETjse7SRSTvM5gV8bAs-xlQyEZOVZ9aTkmda2ig3a0H-6sMoF75SQB9iQYII/s320/IMG_1616+Storm.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Highland midges - the destroyers of hope. I have still to understand what ecological remit they have and why legions of bats have not moved in. Midges turn every pleasant summer evening into a disappointment, and make a midge jacket a fashion item.</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCQCb6i98faZ4skipm_zOXglP0mlFS8EDbDSqUcLr1vBbQGfoQ4QFm8pMF5oghtwTHGy-Vi5FJK1P_bWP7ZHT4sFbM-B-NNPmiqerlVKghGvpZXvpm_7WOGD5iUIoU0Mq3VIXfKmVoWMw/s1600/IMG_0553+Midges.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCQCb6i98faZ4skipm_zOXglP0mlFS8EDbDSqUcLr1vBbQGfoQ4QFm8pMF5oghtwTHGy-Vi5FJK1P_bWP7ZHT4sFbM-B-NNPmiqerlVKghGvpZXvpm_7WOGD5iUIoU0Mq3VIXfKmVoWMw/s320/IMG_0553+Midges.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And those other destroyers of hope, the Scot Gnats; more recently evolved than midges but another species whose ecological niche is difficult to fathom. Where midges thrive in damp peaty heathland the Scot Gnats are to be found gathering abundantly around oil and gas unless it is fracked, with their screeching 'Yes' a constant background noise. Blaming others for the ills of Scotland, and taking a highly selective and prejudiced view of Scottish history they do virtually nothing with the tools they have already to make lives better, worrying more about how to distribute wealth rather than create it in the first place.</span></li>
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-57520455798411921092015-07-24T14:15:00.003+01:002015-07-24T14:15:53.993+01:00GoingWe are selling up and moving from Skye to North Oxfordshire, swapping remoteness, dramatic, sometimes austere, landscapes and unparalleled wildlife for the cosiness of a Cotswold village.<br />
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In between packing, I have been completing this year's orchid survey. I have not had a chance to analyse the data yet and lack of time meant that I only counted the early marsh, northern marsh orchids and the butterfly orchids. There are as many heath fragrant and heath spotted orchids as ever but I am not sure if I would have learnt much from counting the 400 or so spikes of each. I have though taken lots of photographs of the heath spotted orchids to show the range in the patterning, colouration and shape of the heath spotted flowers, a few of which follow.<br />
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I have also been completing the croft flora, with a few garden weeds bringing the total up to 146. There may be the odd grass that I have missed, or maybe a willowherb, but I think the job is done now, and is a record for comparison in the future. There are no rarities, save for a few hybrid orchids. Dactylorhiza x evansii, the hybrid between heath fragrant orchid and heath spotted orchid is uncommon, as is the hybrid between early marsh and heath spotted. There are a few of each of these hybrids. The photos below are of a very pale form of D. x evansii; it could be mistaken for a heath spotted orchid but the plant is scented and the spurs are too long - a very elegant plant!<br />
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The bird count stands at 76. I thought I had an addition when I saw a tawny owl in the early evening down amongst some eared willow bushes, but it turns out that I had recorded it oreviously based on hearing the call one night.<br />
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-58181074642034164612015-07-06T20:55:00.002+01:002015-07-06T20:55:35.058+01:00Hybrid Orchids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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All the orchids are now in flower except for the single plant of small white orchid which first appeared last year but this year is showing only 3 basal leaves. Flowering is late this year because of cold and wet weather in May and June, the impact of which can be seen in a vegetable garden that is far from healthy; we should be eating broccoli by now but the plants have made no growth, and of the Maris Piper seed potatoes over half look to have rotted in the cold, wet earth. All very frustrating and we will have to rely on the supermarket this year, but for those living here a century or so ago a crop failure of this type would have been devastating, This week has been much warmer, but growing time has been lost.<br />
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The average flowering date of the early marsh orchids this year was June 17, 12 days later than last year, and the second latest in the 7 years I have been measuring it. The latest date was in 2013, June 19. Surprisingly though, the total number of flowering spikes is a record, at 118, 23 above the total for last year which was the previous highest. When I have a moment I will try to find a correlation with the weather statistics because nothing else has changed, the croft management regime is just as it was.<br />
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Amongst the orchids are a few hybrids. My copy of a new BSBI publication, 'The hybrid flora of the British Isles' by Stace, Preston and Pearman, should be with me this week and I am keen to see what it says about marsh orchids (Dactylorhiza) which are probably one of the most difficult plant groups because they hybridise freely with each other and with other closely related groups such as fragrant orchids. Accurately naming marsh orchids and their hybrids is like a Sudoku puzzle where a printing error has missed a few key numbers and it becomes insoluble.<br />
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In flower now are crosses of northern marsh and heath spotted orchids, but I found today a cross between a heath fragrant and a heath spotted orchid. Last year there were three, one of which would have reflowered had the bud not been nipped off by a roe deer a couple of weeks ago, It looks very much like a heath spotted orchid except that the labellum has a slightly different shape, it is flushed pink (but then the parent often is) the spur is a little longer and the plant is strongly scented.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBD5T0T3r5yhpB4odD3lQTS4Hgh7wptGFA6OBVLPMBI5DS5uRme0ce3IEARkHTwR1MEu4EvVwTkwF65s-6tgfic19AJfS3Utaa83INuwZQPtW49I-Xle9M25-4FAPBidPG-R8zWSr-Uy0/s1600/IMG_4839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBD5T0T3r5yhpB4odD3lQTS4Hgh7wptGFA6OBVLPMBI5DS5uRme0ce3IEARkHTwR1MEu4EvVwTkwF65s-6tgfic19AJfS3Utaa83INuwZQPtW49I-Xle9M25-4FAPBidPG-R8zWSr-Uy0/s320/IMG_4839.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heath fragrant orchid</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hybrid - heath fragrant x heath spotted</td></tr>
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The hybrids on the croft are easy going compared to a complex site I visited yesterday near Strollamus. Last year I found a probable cross between Heath spotted and the striking, narrow-leaved marsh orchid (which we used to know as Lapland marsh orchid until its status was reassessed). In fact there was significant introgression there. Narrow-leaved on Skye is a majestic purple, the colour of the trim on Real Madrid's football shirts) on a white background with heavily spotted leaves; the middle lobe of the labellum is longer than the side lobes. Another characteristic is that the flowers on the spike are all to one side. Heath spotted has spotted leaves but the three lobes of the labellum are almost equal and the side lobes billow out. I found what I think was a clean hybrid between the two but lots of heath spotted had one-sided flowering spikes though with none of the other characteristics of narrow-leaved orchids. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Narrow-leaved marsh orchid</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Narrow-leaved marsh orchid leaf</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heath spotted orchid leaf</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heath spotted orchid</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hybrid - narrow-leaved x heath spotted</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Hybrid - narrow-leaved x heath spotted</td></tr>
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To add further complexity I found a couple of plants of what I think are crosses between early marsh orchids and northern marsh orchids - the same pale pink colour and unspotted leaves of early marsh, but the labellum is not reflexed. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAthKqlsgNm7Fuj0jvrfEC9iwb7-ghQKW6Xc_qu3pL5WZdnm07K96Eqg7lEeoPvvaNLiaaBqIBywrzqdpAzs8SQCRaZ-thpFAg6i4DaLK-4stAGFaf0Qj9gcAsqCGZyqeO6unaHNbYgI/s1600/IMG_4602+to+4622S++Hybrid+D.trans+x+incarnata+NG61087+25500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAthKqlsgNm7Fuj0jvrfEC9iwb7-ghQKW6Xc_qu3pL5WZdnm07K96Eqg7lEeoPvvaNLiaaBqIBywrzqdpAzs8SQCRaZ-thpFAg6i4DaLK-4stAGFaf0Qj9gcAsqCGZyqeO6unaHNbYgI/s320/IMG_4602+to+4622S++Hybrid+D.trans+x+incarnata+NG61087+25500.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hybrid - narrow-leaved x early marsh</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Hybrid - narrow-leaved x early marsh</span></td></tr>
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As a final comment, the roe deer which chopped off the hybrid is virtually a permanent resident. Once it gets in it seems unable to jump the fence to get out, even if it wanted to, with an excellent supply of grazing to hand. There could be a venison roast in the not too distant future.<br />
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-54161445423051287202015-06-24T10:58:00.000+01:002015-06-24T11:05:08.015+01:00A Croft Flora<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Continuing the listing process I have been compiling a flora (vascular plants) of the croft, stretching the definition to include the garden, a bit of the road verge at the top of the garden which contains moonwort and field gentian, and the shore. I have not included the common grazings which in any case have a limited flora, the dullest of acid grasslands. The croft crosses a monad (1 square kilometre) boundary, NG5728 and NG5729. I downloaded a list of records for both squares from the BSBI database, which although probably not as comprehensive as the records maintained by the BSBI vice-county recorder Stephen Bungard, gave me a starting point. As expected NG5729 had few records, because it is only the north of the croft and a chunk of Loch Ainort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So far I have noted around 140 plants, most found in both squares but some in only one. I need to make some confirmations of the ferns, willows and add perhaps to the grasses but the list is just about complete. The final step will be to add dates to each observation which means trawling through 7 years of photographs because at one time or another almost every plant has been photographed. A few of the common plants in flower now:</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Heath Milkwort</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Curled Dock</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thrift</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While compiling the list I looked back at some of the orchid hybrids. Over the years we have had numerous marsh orchid (dactylorhiza) hybrids, the commonest being D. x formosa (heath spotted x northern marsh) with the occasional D. x carnea (heath spotted x early marsh). The most exciting though because they are uncommon has been D. maculata x G. borealis (heath spotted x heath fragrant). Stace (New Flora of the British Isles 3rd edition) does not give a binomial for this combination. For the last two years there were three plants, and the first of these was well on the way to flowering again this year until a roe deer (the likely agent of destruction) nipped the bud off cleanly. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfk_RxTbXKEz8quCEmt_WjmXuw_ZoKTCE_xZ9HeheqecEHeiFIsr_uHDrqm8NtfhtyVSJDM3-WvnGNlFviQR4_3ce3o6dfNt3CUmmvkzGwaAI-ML8Enh6jmkUkMdAagVByYhrIFFVOPg/s1600/IMG_2814+Roe+Deer+in+Kale+Yard.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfk_RxTbXKEz8quCEmt_WjmXuw_ZoKTCE_xZ9HeheqecEHeiFIsr_uHDrqm8NtfhtyVSJDM3-WvnGNlFviQR4_3ce3o6dfNt3CUmmvkzGwaAI-ML8Enh6jmkUkMdAagVByYhrIFFVOPg/s320/IMG_2814+Roe+Deer+in+Kale+Yard.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roe Deer in the Kale Yard</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hybrids can be difficult to confidently attribute to the parent plants. In the case of D. maculata x G. borealis I am fairly certain however; the plant is scented, the labellum is spotted but otherwise looks like that of a fragrant orchid. The leaves are keeled but not as narrow as those of fragrant orchids. Two of last years plants had unspotted leaves but one had spotted leaves, which rules out D. incarnata (early marsh) as one of the parents, and there is no hint of early marsh in the flower shape. The spur is intermediate - broader than a fragrant spur but longer than that of a heath spotted orchid. And the plants are big and impressive!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hybrid between Heath Spotted Orchid and Heath Fragrant Orchid:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZSPnhDpfe17z6EnkTCCKQAQHUMXMw_zWiT9iL_iMAbAzerU6PAt84yR2RgMDDbOrrHMOoDPOeKw2X7Cklf1dJnnun_82zCvlywK5cHzqpwy-B6Xef6Bzl13X4fYvyG7uQESTego7a9KQ/s1600/IMG_1484+Heath+Fragrant+Orchid+%2528Gymnadenia+borealis%2529+Plant+F2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiJvqp0PUZXmT4z4fht4Y1i9s6H_BQKjPQ0G_6IS_5Fw5KQJ9cEYVYArjKcEFL-IY1pJiFPl_jkFxAZC74U9SZThzQoX8Zjj-WMpZ3qWO02PcUaqjn83-FBb2czN1nh8C26Ldd8NAYfOU/s1600/IMG_3017+Hybrid+Marsh+Orchid+%2528G.+borealis+x+D.+maculata%2529++Plant+X21.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiJvqp0PUZXmT4z4fht4Y1i9s6H_BQKjPQ0G_6IS_5Fw5KQJ9cEYVYArjKcEFL-IY1pJiFPl_jkFxAZC74U9SZThzQoX8Zjj-WMpZ3qWO02PcUaqjn83-FBb2czN1nh8C26Ldd8NAYfOU/s320/IMG_3017+Hybrid+Marsh+Orchid+%2528G.+borealis+x+D.+maculata%2529++Plant+X21.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYF0PENg2M4uRgPP1gcg6D3R_zCznbp1GRuRnLtOX3rEZ-eKASTlwyrEBQzcOOOAnuUWo-pyOUgFoDazGn3hHf0PdFNYqgtcZMDCRkxKMGyRirSOgm0sTDr7XGnh9whQsHowdMzdIbvaY/s1600/IMG_1956+to+1973+Stacked+Hybrid+Marsh+Orchid+%2528Dactylorhiza+maculata+x++purpurella%2529+Plant+X8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYF0PENg2M4uRgPP1gcg6D3R_zCznbp1GRuRnLtOX3rEZ-eKASTlwyrEBQzcOOOAnuUWo-pyOUgFoDazGn3hHf0PdFNYqgtcZMDCRkxKMGyRirSOgm0sTDr7XGnh9whQsHowdMzdIbvaY/s320/IMG_1956+to+1973+Stacked+Hybrid+Marsh+Orchid+%2528Dactylorhiza+maculata+x++purpurella%2529+Plant+X8.jpg" width="213" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80dazAziLIiqrYrpRHPisBxSV-mhQM3No0jPlnTFqU52AzVNTgHbi758CmdftYZmFJZpVz-zEajA7WjuGXmrNT3PmEyRPsspoCPGlfwmlrM6SI-BOOoaroMoJzArbWOYHz_tb-ga1JVw/s1600/IMG_3011+Hybrid+Marsh+Orchid+%2528G.+borealis+x+D.+maculata%2529++Plant+X21leaf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80dazAziLIiqrYrpRHPisBxSV-mhQM3No0jPlnTFqU52AzVNTgHbi758CmdftYZmFJZpVz-zEajA7WjuGXmrNT3PmEyRPsspoCPGlfwmlrM6SI-BOOoaroMoJzArbWOYHz_tb-ga1JVw/s320/IMG_3011+Hybrid+Marsh+Orchid+%2528G.+borealis+x+D.+maculata%2529++Plant+X21leaf.JPG" width="213" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For comparison, Heath fragrant orchid and Heath spotted orchid:</span><br />
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-63889427885195997402015-06-16T19:25:00.003+01:002015-06-16T19:25:59.428+01:00Rubh an Dunain I went on the Skye Botany Group walk to Rubh an Dunain yesterday, covering about 10 miles. It was led by Stephen Bungard, who has already commented on the number of new records that were made and of the more significant finds on his own blog. <i>(<a href="https://skyeraasayplants.wordpress.com/">Plants of Skye and Raasay</a>)</i> I have been there before to see the Viking canal, the chambered cairn and the iron age fort, all very close together, but this was principally a botany trip, and in passing any other wildlife of interest. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everyone looking down - definitely a botany group</td></tr>
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Geologically Rubha and Dunain, close to the Cuillin ridge, is a basalt area, with some significant dykes running through, making the scenery quite dramatic, and interesting refuges for plants away from grazing sheep.<br />
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Orchids were just coming into flower. Many of the Heath Spotted orchids were pure white, with uncharacteristically narrow, unspotted leaves. Indeed the only reliable characters were the shape of the flower and in particular the fan shaped labellum, and weakly keeled leaves.<br />
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We saw the first Northern marsh orchid that any of us had seen this season, while there were also the first cohort of Early marsh orchids. On the croft 37 are in flower so far.<br />
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Certainly a highlight was Wood Bitter-vetch growing in an almost inaccessible place on the cliffs above the sea, facing south east. There is an excellent species account <i>(<a href="http://www.bsbi.org.uk/Vicia_orobus_species_account.pdf">Species account - Vicia orobus</a>)</i> on the BSBI website, prepared by Kevin Walker and Pete Stroh. This is a plant that is uncommon with few records on Skye. It might be more widespread but because of its preferred cliff habitat it is far from easy to find, and the cliffs to the east of where we found it might contain more plants; another day maybe.<br />
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Nearby there was a one very small Heath spotted orchid with the flowers upside down which is an unusual aberration in orchids, but not unknown. In some species such as Bog orchid all the flowers look the 'wrong way' up.<br />
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We saw lots of birds, including Golden plover, Lapwing, the resident race of Wheatear<br />
with their paler colouring (those we had on the croft were brighter and would be on passage to Iceland and Greenland), Cuckoos and Common sandpipers. <br />
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There were numerous day flying moths such as Common Heath but also this micromoth which one of the members of the Skye Moth Group on Facebook suggests is Clepsis senecionana. <i>(<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/323240764542571/392011594332154/?comment_id=392017857664861&notif_t=group_comment">Skye Moth</a> </i><i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/323240764542571/392011594332154/?comment_id=392017857664861&notif_t=group_comment">Group</a>)</i><i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/323240764542571/392011594332154/?comment_id=392017857664861&notif_t=group_comment"> </a></i><br />
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There are four or five places on Skye that are 'must see'. Rubha an Dunain is one, with unrivalled archaeology allied to the chance of seeing some really interesting wildlife. Oddly though, despite the seclusion and heavy sprainting here and there, we did not see any otters.</div>
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On the way there I stopped at the bottom of Loch Ainort where the pilot whales remain and have now been there for over a week. Whilst there is probably plenty of fish there usually, because it is a good place to see seals, it is very shallow and slopes gradually. I have no idea whether any moves are afoot to encourage the whales to a more convivial place.<br />
<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-896696419618276582015-06-09T11:54:00.001+01:002015-06-09T11:54:33.205+01:00ListsAdding up the number of mammals that we have seen prompted me to look at how many birds, plants and so on we have seen over the years. As my wife will confirm (or probably not) I do not make lists. Uncharacteristically therefore, I downloaded the British list of UK birds from the BTO website, and found we have reliably seen 78 species in and around the croft and of course on the water. I am sure that a keen and more knowledgeable bird watcher would add significantly to this list by careful observation of gulls and birds of passage in autumn and spring. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPTZGNgrj9AARQkP8F_2JxUpLVMHmJVJx8s3w8AnM3kBkdDEMIQMIQTJid9uqA3rWElRjIFFlTC743rxbzO1QcHBRy43Q4JZ4kGWZFrFI_27wom7jlS92QTrfiMdi9fapH8YqTif5il_w/s1600/IMG_0413+Willow+Warbler.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPTZGNgrj9AARQkP8F_2JxUpLVMHmJVJx8s3w8AnM3kBkdDEMIQMIQTJid9uqA3rWElRjIFFlTC743rxbzO1QcHBRy43Q4JZ4kGWZFrFI_27wom7jlS92QTrfiMdi9fapH8YqTif5il_w/s320/IMG_0413+Willow+Warbler.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Willow Warbler</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dunnock</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Siskin</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dFEyn0eduRvvHMg5PpYyQ3F_ll2cZDTtPOwxvUUHPXvqGcMSB1KmxCl4vfkQamRULC7M5YFVYxJ2WI5HlFLZXmpzcDlUaD45hwVD_dTMCwIa24adpAP1-dnzT9rmty7KoAV-c6QPdsc/s1600/IMG_0092+Great+Black-backed+Gull.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dFEyn0eduRvvHMg5PpYyQ3F_ll2cZDTtPOwxvUUHPXvqGcMSB1KmxCl4vfkQamRULC7M5YFVYxJ2WI5HlFLZXmpzcDlUaD45hwVD_dTMCwIa24adpAP1-dnzT9rmty7KoAV-c6QPdsc/s320/IMG_0092+Great+Black-backed+Gull.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great Black-backed Gulls</td></tr>
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The moth total in 2014 and 2015 to date stands at 147 species, while there are another 18 from 2013 not on that list but need checking for identification accuracy with the benefit of experience gained over the last couple of years. Working through the number of butterflies, dragonflies and other insects will take a bit of time because I will have to look back through the daily journal that we keep and 12 years of photographs. Fungi will also take a bit of work based on photographs because some of the identifications will need to be checked especially the waxcaps. I have only ever made half hearted attempts to look at moss species on the croft whilst lichens are just a step too far, with a whole new language to learn, and a significant number of UK species, as indeed is most stuff found on the shore.<br />
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Which leaves me with plants and despite a strong interest in botany the list of vascular plants (plants that have lignified tissue to allow transport of water and minerals) is incomplete. I cannot be a true botanist, otherwise I would have an unfathomable passion for grasses sedges and ferns (noted from personal experience on a few BSBI field trips where a magnificient show of orchids would be ignored in favour of some insignificant, but uncommon sedge) and so the records are thin on these families. I have started to try to fill in the gaps, aided by two heavyweight and authoritative BSBI handbooks on Grasses and Sedges respectively, but less overwhelming for the novice are the keys in Collins Flower Guide by Streeter et al. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_WidsolITya-AASrQ0kMNmJYpJVTpxOBBfJskp53JbwS-Jqx8Vi0ZwiYlYO6Aq2GadsigRK5erQTusoAJVsGViTzTVMyCr6EQJNOwsxlbleGNMxiknM92iiDMn_2nC63y7iJ0GZXGmo/s1600/IMG_1441+Common+Sedge+%2528Carex+nigra%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_WidsolITya-AASrQ0kMNmJYpJVTpxOBBfJskp53JbwS-Jqx8Vi0ZwiYlYO6Aq2GadsigRK5erQTusoAJVsGViTzTVMyCr6EQJNOwsxlbleGNMxiknM92iiDMn_2nC63y7iJ0GZXGmo/s320/IMG_1441+Common+Sedge+%2528Carex+nigra%2529.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Common Sedge</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnVEiV69WS5nUfNhtDqSP2SXGclYyufa_WvinTXiBjKVD7aJuBJKl3AjKkAqa00xxsCgAEamOOC8a7NvDV0HjlcaUGQ31Bv-Br8ho8SlGWI2_YUpXyuASneLeoo-gTURGwSNZBnWfYtI/s1600/IMG_1322+Velvet+Bent+%2528Agrostis+canina%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnVEiV69WS5nUfNhtDqSP2SXGclYyufa_WvinTXiBjKVD7aJuBJKl3AjKkAqa00xxsCgAEamOOC8a7NvDV0HjlcaUGQ31Bv-Br8ho8SlGWI2_YUpXyuASneLeoo-gTURGwSNZBnWfYtI/s320/IMG_1322+Velvet+Bent+%2528Agrostis+canina%2529.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Velvet Bent</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smooth Meadow Grass</td></tr>
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Enough of lists. The first orchids are in flower; on Sunday there were 4 Early Marsh Orchids in the bog. Usually we have between 70 and 90 flowering spikes in all but the first and average flowering dates are quite variable. Temperatures in May seem to be very important. The first flowering dates over the last 7 years have been:<br />
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2009 8 June<br />
2010 1 June<br />
2011 28 May<br />
2012 4 June<br />
2013 10 June<br />
2014 22 May<br />
2015 7 June<br />
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Once the complete cohort has come into flower I will compare the average flowering date with past years and look for any climate correlations.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early Marsh Orchid</td></tr>
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As a post script I am down south this week, working in London. On the journey we stopped off in Cumbria at Gait Barrows NNR which is one of the reintroduction sites for Lady's Slipper Orchid, just pipped by the Ghost Orchid as Britain's rarest orchid. There are probably 30 to 40 plants there, raised at Kew by micropropagation from seeds of the only existing plant in the wild near Grassington in Yorkshire. (See <a href="http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/cypripedium-calceolus-ladys-slipper-orchid">Lady's Slipper Project at Kew</a>).<br />
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A warm, sunny day, we got a top up of Vitamin D.Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-90101113765078958802015-06-06T19:03:00.002+01:002015-06-06T19:03:56.743+01:00Another Mammal Added to the List<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wow! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have been watching the wildlife in and around Ard Dorch for 12 years and have seen 14 mammal species in that time. Well now it's 15, and the addition is not one that you might expect, such as a rabbit or a hedgehog. No, it is another cetacean. 3 long-finned pilot whales were in Loch na Cairidh this afternoon and we watched from the shore despite heavy, almost wintry, blustery showers for over two hours. Maybe they were part of the group of 21 whales that got stranded earlier this week at Staffin island, three of which died. See: <a href="https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/599570/hopes-rise-for-pilot-whales-after-stranding/">Stranded pilot whales appear to have left Skye</a></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkI0fIFpiptT2bJGeFGqEV7xQJFcgrbUuAOiMjD9JRw6OBoV3ry0m1hmHuRUuzEgZ4TVDhFsP17eAaqvjsiXylaVRkTGehamuHhBK50Gfe1kJqduavzWtmYZexrKrLIllpcT4v0JtVHc/s1600/IMG_1679+%2528640x427%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkI0fIFpiptT2bJGeFGqEV7xQJFcgrbUuAOiMjD9JRw6OBoV3ry0m1hmHuRUuzEgZ4TVDhFsP17eAaqvjsiXylaVRkTGehamuHhBK50Gfe1kJqduavzWtmYZexrKrLIllpcT4v0JtVHc/s320/IMG_1679+%2528640x427%2529.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pilot whales in Loch na Cairidh</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My wife saw them first; I had gone to the other end of the croft to see if any of the orchids were flowering, which was a negative. Selflessly, even though she feared they might disappear, she came to alert me waving a stick frantically in the air and shouting into the wind. Eventually she managed to attract my attention and I ran up to the house for a camera, but we need not have worried because they were in much the same place for over 2 hours.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pilot whale in Loch na Cairidh</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In truth they did not do much, staying in the same patch of water no more than 500 metres or so in length opposite croft number 3 down to croft number 2. Back and forward, surfacing every few minutes and very occasionally blowing, though nothing like as spectacularly as humpback whales which can be seen blowing from miles away. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pilot whale blowing in Loch na Cairidh</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nevertheless very exciting, more because it was so unexpected. I have only seen pilot whales twice, in Nova Scotia and Tenerife respectively, so to see them on home territory was a bit special, even though we got completely soaked in frequent and unpleasant rain showers. What's a cold shower when a whale turns up!</span><br />
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Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-63475479819159657522015-06-01T14:04:00.000+01:002015-06-01T14:04:32.467+01:00Moths, Bluebells and Eagles<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I sent my moth records for April and May to our local recorder, Brian Neath, yesterday. Overall the species count to date is well behind last year (22 compared to 29), and May was particularly disappointing - too wet, too cold and too windy. Others commenting on the Skye Moths Facebook page have had much the same experience (</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/323240764542571/"><i>https://www.facebook.com/groups/323240764542571/</i></a>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nevertheless it turns out that the count of 85 red chestnut moths on a night towards the end of April was the highest recorded in a session on Skye- just a pity that it is such an unexciting moth. Despite such abundance I have never seen a caterpillar, but I read somewhere that they only feed at night. Distributed quite widely throughout Europe, UK Moths suggests that red chestnut caterpillars feed on groundsel and bedstraw, (and there is lots of heath bedstraw on the croft) an assertion that gets repeated on lots of moth-focussed websites. Wikipedia gives a few more host plants such as germander speedwell, again a plant which occurs on the croft. As a general point though the certainty and specificity of moth-host plant interactions is striking and it is not obvious where this data came from. My suspicion is that the data may be based on limited evidence, underestimating the extent of polyphagy (feeding on many different plants). Interestingly The NHM website "</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants" </span><a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/hostplants/"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/hostplants/</span></i></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> lists </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Red chestnuts are polyphagous.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Chestnut (<i>Cerastis rubricosa</i>)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The bluebells now look terrific and as ever I have taken far too many photographs, still looking for perfection but it is impossible to capture.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3wJlSXoscU_WgPzXK-719WjW2JiZhhvlOP4sFW6YtwPsIWAZnS4YOeMwQuG4zGFffNZMcclrZ613j6aVIMRykIhE8XYXesSACkG9KLeaXtv0bHYWHmAjtzs0t17vPBuUzv-BaduhbSEk/s1600/IMG_1166+Bluebells%252C+Field+2+%2528640x427%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3wJlSXoscU_WgPzXK-719WjW2JiZhhvlOP4sFW6YtwPsIWAZnS4YOeMwQuG4zGFffNZMcclrZ613j6aVIMRykIhE8XYXesSACkG9KLeaXtv0bHYWHmAjtzs0t17vPBuUzv-BaduhbSEk/s320/IMG_1166+Bluebells%252C+Field+2+%2528640x427%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Orchids are showing leaves and a few are in bud, but none flowering yet. Their development is a week to ten days later than last year, affected by the cooler weather in May in the same way as moth activity.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF_jt9S3agVYdmz30aNlOy4Lh_RYoJR81Ontwv1y0HLknR3NQ6LXXO2R0OzWXDBmWgB2r61KyFpiZtYvLtWfcFbj_2-8NkgfJ7pv7U83LaK604JcdOOx1FAHhw3g2wO4_JoW_Xmo3GfI0/s1600/IMG_1184+Lesser+Butterfly+Orchid+Plant+L3+%2528427x640%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF_jt9S3agVYdmz30aNlOy4Lh_RYoJR81Ontwv1y0HLknR3NQ6LXXO2R0OzWXDBmWgB2r61KyFpiZtYvLtWfcFbj_2-8NkgfJ7pv7U83LaK604JcdOOx1FAHhw3g2wO4_JoW_Xmo3GfI0/s320/IMG_1184+Lesser+Butterfly+Orchid+Plant+L3+%2528427x640%2529.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lesser Butterfly Orchid</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxGU18sCV7tBtQ56CGOQWhbQ-J1d94518pZe9zaRkDISmrclknqsF1uPxOwQEZRN8Dn5kGomLUDhj75Q__WcjtUX1T4eX0-fIx9zUAunTmzr-_fq7AzuaS_LFCsvDNyOeVTT8C_csojM/s1600/IMG_1197+Early+Marsh+Orchid+Plant+2014+E37+%2528427x640%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxGU18sCV7tBtQ56CGOQWhbQ-J1d94518pZe9zaRkDISmrclknqsF1uPxOwQEZRN8Dn5kGomLUDhj75Q__WcjtUX1T4eX0-fIx9zUAunTmzr-_fq7AzuaS_LFCsvDNyOeVTT8C_csojM/s320/IMG_1197+Early+Marsh+Orchid+Plant+2014+E37+%2528427x640%2529.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early Marsh Orchid</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBaUGG6OB-UEC0EJ8u6J_Shs9xwCqK8cRdNZNcRbpdWaPoHsfyhQ7hnaGc4bIP2oXrHx4Az4tv35E5MaqXvcFq0pkHvY1FYmLaoNynBCTqc1Yk9bryebSkg8mMu0boHyH-iu_a7kKT8Y/s1600/IMG_1174+Gretare+Butterfly+Orchid+Plant+G34+%2528640x427%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBaUGG6OB-UEC0EJ8u6J_Shs9xwCqK8cRdNZNcRbpdWaPoHsfyhQ7hnaGc4bIP2oXrHx4Az4tv35E5MaqXvcFq0pkHvY1FYmLaoNynBCTqc1Yk9bryebSkg8mMu0boHyH-iu_a7kKT8Y/s320/IMG_1174+Gretare+Butterfly+Orchid+Plant+G34+%2528640x427%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greater Butterfly Orchid</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We took a trip over to Minginish, the middle one of the 5 'bits' of Skye that stick out. We know of an eagle nest there, so on a pleasant sunny afternoon we thought we could try to get some photos. We did but from half a mile a way, so the quality was not great. Nevertheless eagles are great to watch as they make wide sweeps across the sky, riding the thermals. Expecting this one to be a sea eagle, it was in fact a golden eagle, and we watched it intermittently for over an hour, flying a little often mobbed by crows, but for the main part perched on a cliff top, and difficult to pick out. There are around 12 to 15 pairs of golden eagles on Skye, and a similar number of the larger, and introduced, sea eagles, but unlike Mull there is no organised observation point. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmnznZsQAFSw5TxQ-JbvK4rLUKTpavrHgE454fL2WmFLC_Mzm2JR7xVCSBO5VWzxi_B4qCRxORdZdhZnfkiP9gCUACPisbo9cotSA8dhozSok7qFiIy0r7S6vGOAjFzHwQtPAqIAvnGDo/s1600/IMG_0645+Golden+Eagle+%2528640x435%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmnznZsQAFSw5TxQ-JbvK4rLUKTpavrHgE454fL2WmFLC_Mzm2JR7xVCSBO5VWzxi_B4qCRxORdZdhZnfkiP9gCUACPisbo9cotSA8dhozSok7qFiIy0r7S6vGOAjFzHwQtPAqIAvnGDo/s320/IMG_0645+Golden+Eagle+%2528640x435%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Golden Eagle</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">No sign of the otter family I am afraid. Every year the number of otter sightings falls during the summer months, and this year is following the same pattern. The trail camera has picked up nothing, nor are there any fresh spraints. Roll on the winter (or, maybe not).</span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-65250402867441427752015-05-18T20:09:00.002+01:002015-05-18T20:09:35.917+01:00New Camera, Same Old Subject<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I bought a new camera, a Canon EOS 70D; the existing Canon EOS 50D is beginning to suffer from wear and tear; the new one is technically more advanced and offers video capability.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Keen to try it out, I needed a subject. Conveniently we saw an otter, maybe one of the otter cubs, and it posed for the new equipment. It fished in the kelp at low tide in Loch Ainort then took a nap for 25 minutes, camouflaged against the wrack, before briefly going back in the water. Out again it climbed up the rocks towards where we were hiding and was dumbstruck when it saw us, then raced back into the water before taking stock and resuming its slow progress west, as if nothing had happened. Four hours later, we saw it again, briefly, fishing 100 metres from the shore.</span><br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rWaY9UeO2CQ/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rWaY9UeO2CQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S1xJknLU03M/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S1xJknLU03M?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnzdiMXMlhHyOziM3Ml5g6fqqQFgHw96qQPw4jErGdnvTK7r0fUOO70ExtnUVo2LBh7yjQs27gaIfjgRVKjUeDsDhlCnGvw_dvZtO6iSmFP4JpcPrkCiSfM1Vp2f9f_KhAKjpJ1_MEDM/s1600/IMG_0129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnzdiMXMlhHyOziM3Ml5g6fqqQFgHw96qQPw4jErGdnvTK7r0fUOO70ExtnUVo2LBh7yjQs27gaIfjgRVKjUeDsDhlCnGvw_dvZtO6iSmFP4JpcPrkCiSfM1Vp2f9f_KhAKjpJ1_MEDM/s320/IMG_0129.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A nap</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyNF92bNveyY52PeaTJALVHqqvv6SPbv2QYVukWHRQPqQftpG4uzGkc1kW_AAXGZUjaSgDpmP5rU2OcHRfgpAkPcmspiWJXgVO19Zk68RVZfi7nsx9nCqEVUr3y3MkisxgDtjPWIv_VE/s1600/IMG_0159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyNF92bNveyY52PeaTJALVHqqvv6SPbv2QYVukWHRQPqQftpG4uzGkc1kW_AAXGZUjaSgDpmP5rU2OcHRfgpAkPcmspiWJXgVO19Zk68RVZfi7nsx9nCqEVUr3y3MkisxgDtjPWIv_VE/s320/IMG_0159.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Waking-up</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQ9EDdB-WWC_ha_6Mh8cTIwfSi9mX9Ao-_m0UZA_hZRwj6zmze75TPaVRqaau4Fcif0X_RPdMX1d46V3s7kmK-KEPjNNt5VqR5HdkPNXMAY5tg-aJvHqkd-rfXGgXzWzuRIU5Qjsod0k/s1600/IMG_0161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQ9EDdB-WWC_ha_6Mh8cTIwfSi9mX9Ao-_m0UZA_hZRwj6zmze75TPaVRqaau4Fcif0X_RPdMX1d46V3s7kmK-KEPjNNt5VqR5HdkPNXMAY5tg-aJvHqkd-rfXGgXzWzuRIU5Qjsod0k/s320/IMG_0161.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Stirring into life</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjylW4UWk0jcqXpDjMHks6d06tIQBVcygMxW4OJGSmbGSxbAZM2Y58jW6KvHUgLgczu-MDsBRGuJ5XQ5Ja94gc_cNJhMbolZD49V9CNvB7cucBRWGNLLXQrOtfcDlKHslbyW9Z4C7i8KdA/s1600/IMG_0170.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjylW4UWk0jcqXpDjMHks6d06tIQBVcygMxW4OJGSmbGSxbAZM2Y58jW6KvHUgLgczu-MDsBRGuJ5XQ5Ja94gc_cNJhMbolZD49V9CNvB7cucBRWGNLLXQrOtfcDlKHslbyW9Z4C7i8KdA/s320/IMG_0170.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scampering over the rocks</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Meanwhile the bluebells are beginning to look impressive, though as with every year we worry about whether our management regime has been appropriate and whether there are the same number of flowers as last year. Orchids are above ground and so far I have found the leaves of about 46 lesser butterfly orchids and 38 greater butterfly orchids, with an enhanced colony of the former around three of last year's plants.</span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinullikpYwxyKrTabG8EoE4IPartVHgZJhCPlp3ups-wbJQ89Bjn6xcyNqrs6_N6CPhTMt4dfX3vjtW2KlnS0jYYNx0OVYSpU7iorPePWwC_C9ktAm7zohSnX7UvZKLdffXAfUsusyJq8/s1600/IMG_0271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinullikpYwxyKrTabG8EoE4IPartVHgZJhCPlp3ups-wbJQ89Bjn6xcyNqrs6_N6CPhTMt4dfX3vjtW2KlnS0jYYNx0OVYSpU7iorPePWwC_C9ktAm7zohSnX7UvZKLdffXAfUsusyJq8/s320/IMG_0271.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bluebells</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2HZOXHkl0N5wYp4d00UKxBwn5fc7ZGsgY0WtlC0aDO-w61Sn2n6Nr-OmJT-k2NHIXZZk4-JggoBr6YVsi77GwZcM4jkZ3522CkvKO6qM7r4A1RsMGdhPf3K0cwi50WliB9ixRqDcdJk/s1600/IMG_0201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2HZOXHkl0N5wYp4d00UKxBwn5fc7ZGsgY0WtlC0aDO-w61Sn2n6Nr-OmJT-k2NHIXZZk4-JggoBr6YVsi77GwZcM4jkZ3522CkvKO6qM7r4A1RsMGdhPf3K0cwi50WliB9ixRqDcdJk/s320/IMG_0201.JPG" width="213" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lesser butterfly orchid leaves - 4 plants where there was one last year</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A heron which is normally stationed a few yards to the right of the slipway has been spending a lot of time stalking through the grassland, presumably looking for voles and frogs though I have yet to see it have any success. Nervous, the slightest movement at least 50 yards away will put it to flight, and I have several photos of a disappearing heron.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">More of the summer residents have arrived, the latest addition being the bright yellow and black siskins. I am a bit puzzled by their status; Skye Birds says they are a common breeding resident but in Ard Dorch we don't see them in the winter, and my assumption is that they winter perhaps in Southern England, but I may well be wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Much to see, this is one of the best months on Skye.</span></div>
Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-51857215631020892882015-05-03T13:58:00.001+01:002015-05-03T13:58:30.071+01:00Sunny Skye<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByjDgFoEWooqrnNQTe01QcxgF8SqoCbvmaZCS3OLADOHegk0xx0aKVApGW4HF0TF9W_JBdTOLwDjfoG97G-rlZ3AfNxZnYZ03XPTQolKEEoDcmrA9MTCmd4l06VETdeMbsqytmQUlGjc/s1600/IMG_1317+Willow+Warbler.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByjDgFoEWooqrnNQTe01QcxgF8SqoCbvmaZCS3OLADOHegk0xx0aKVApGW4HF0TF9W_JBdTOLwDjfoG97G-rlZ3AfNxZnYZ03XPTQolKEEoDcmrA9MTCmd4l06VETdeMbsqytmQUlGjc/s1600/IMG_1317+Willow+Warbler.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Willow Warbler</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Summer visitors have been arriving regularly. Willow warblers have been noticeable over the last couple of weeks, appropriately enough in and amongst the creeping willow. A couple of days ago we had two swallows, a common sandpiper and a small number of wheatears. One of the latter was unlucky enough to be taken by a sparrow hawk, on a short swift glide down by the shore, which is not much of a reward after travelling several thousand miles from North Africa. We have not had wheatear breed on the croft so I think those we see are on passage maybe to Iceland stopping off to fatten up for the last leg of the journey, or provide a meal for birds of prey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cuckoos started calling on Scalpay and nearby a couple of days ago, though on other parts of Skye they have been seen last week. Meadow pipits, which often acts as hosts, are everywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Already we have lots of voles, and a heron has been stalking them regularly on the croft though we have not seen it have any success so far. It quietly wanders around then after a while gives up and flies back to the shore.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepd5IBDVeFAyO_nCPkNebMk5tHlplsiQnNwmTHN4tAXqW8VptWBMRHBquTCaoNmhhPHKVQaFfzYa19tD0K40nDHXUqnmD0Y6XdY6z9Rh1j8nsmTLWRrkXM03BW6pSkwN14SerVHvdEXs/s1600/IMG_1471.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepd5IBDVeFAyO_nCPkNebMk5tHlplsiQnNwmTHN4tAXqW8VptWBMRHBquTCaoNmhhPHKVQaFfzYa19tD0K40nDHXUqnmD0Y6XdY6z9Rh1j8nsmTLWRrkXM03BW6pSkwN14SerVHvdEXs/s1600/IMG_1471.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Heron Stalking Voles</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The plant life is becoming more varied. The first leaves of lesser butterfly orchids are appearing above ground, whilst in flower inter alia we have wood sorrel in shady corners under walls, and a few bluebells. Lousewort is beginning to flower in the more boggy, less fertile places. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjt5II1lUtIEqckveT53SuAYgO5MNVFZKkRUfhLTAN8eJrpIqaj9xAY3YAeX39X4X9RtUlE8-R0ye2GwQ_3URW0iU8I1_APrK3WxYJb68uz-Nj-6U5qet7SCOEQVgKVx0tvUWA3mz8f8I/s1600/IMG_1412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjt5II1lUtIEqckveT53SuAYgO5MNVFZKkRUfhLTAN8eJrpIqaj9xAY3YAeX39X4X9RtUlE8-R0ye2GwQ_3URW0iU8I1_APrK3WxYJb68uz-Nj-6U5qet7SCOEQVgKVx0tvUWA3mz8f8I/s1600/IMG_1412.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lesser Butterfly Orchid Leaves - c. 1cm high</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAxMIrYUOXaZMxfq4APvObH6zvHX74bn6kZllb4a6TpgB4oETw6rT7afbQil0T_OOBdpuoH-huelglSh5CIGLawFQaM96fCpXnS2fGO_s6FvSqxfpAhm8v8_71YsalliYEgQMVEptNfFM/s1600/IMG_1044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAxMIrYUOXaZMxfq4APvObH6zvHX74bn6kZllb4a6TpgB4oETw6rT7afbQil0T_OOBdpuoH-huelglSh5CIGLawFQaM96fCpXnS2fGO_s6FvSqxfpAhm8v8_71YsalliYEgQMVEptNfFM/s1600/IMG_1044.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wood Sorrell</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPtgxAktSdVkEWKCRSfwfPannFfKhOppURS9cCyExMVK7J2lCJEG-jjD7d4f91ljZ3znntTCg-qCuY1DbpIqR1W6Sy6wf0c4LNwqV10FDsX6kNvI0AxO_N_dQshy3xCDcavj3QZJe9YY/s1600/IMG_1039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPtgxAktSdVkEWKCRSfwfPannFfKhOppURS9cCyExMVK7J2lCJEG-jjD7d4f91ljZ3znntTCg-qCuY1DbpIqR1W6Sy6wf0c4LNwqV10FDsX6kNvI0AxO_N_dQshy3xCDcavj3QZJe9YY/s1600/IMG_1039.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lousewort</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXhFgU_uV9Ej7MBMwMDN7uBGdCA23ypf7wUkVVsgtqEydNlKzAdg1MU58dmqWr5L8-nFjG7SCtHApZ9clMN41CgAB9Vw16rfx28cWnAzbrAG60xc3oPQ2dcoYVnhyq_ngDlisPok6XHU/s1600/IMG_0781+Common+Carder-+bee+(Bombus%2Bpascuorum).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXhFgU_uV9Ej7MBMwMDN7uBGdCA23ypf7wUkVVsgtqEydNlKzAdg1MU58dmqWr5L8-nFjG7SCtHApZ9clMN41CgAB9Vw16rfx28cWnAzbrAG60xc3oPQ2dcoYVnhyq_ngDlisPok6XHU/s1600/IMG_0781+Common+Carder-+bee+(Bombus%2Bpascuorum).JPG" height="133" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Common Carder Bee</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5ofhh5XnfqXMmvAPKo-OfN1hPNJ85qcNGJmW_j6qZUMSoffXipnRegOQd-hP_Fef1TH0fuiIk1otDjc7kBUQJyGrxGgYymlLb1e_tELtWWItA3zZpZiqKX6QnfYHt175w-a6Jb06cDU/s1600/IMG_0928.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5ofhh5XnfqXMmvAPKo-OfN1hPNJ85qcNGJmW_j6qZUMSoffXipnRegOQd-hP_Fef1TH0fuiIk1otDjc7kBUQJyGrxGgYymlLb1e_tELtWWItA3zZpZiqKX6QnfYHt175w-a6Jb06cDU/s1600/IMG_0928.JPG" height="133" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Garden Bumblebee</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Several warm, dry days last week brought out Bumblebees in numbers that we don't often see. The most common and catholic in the flowers they visited were White-tailed Bumblebees and Common Carder Bees, though we have had Early Bumblebees initially almost exclusively on a purple azalea, but now that has passed its peak they are focussing on blackcurrants. For the first time I noticed Garden Bumblebees attracted to a patch of Lesser Celandines (they could be Heath Bumblebees though; Garden have longer, narrower faces, but it is actually quite difficult to photograph them head on, usually it is just the abdomen that can be seen). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Each bee species seems to have a characteristic pitch to its buzz, which is different to the next. I found an explanation in this snippet on line. </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"<span style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gard Otis, a professor of environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario who studies bee behavior, ecology and evolution, explains.</span></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bees buzz for two reasons. First, the rapid wingbeats of many species create wind vibrations that people hear as buzzes. The larger the bee, the slower the wingbeat and the lower the pitch of the resulting buzz. This is a phenomenon of the wingbeats and not specifically of bees--some flies, beetles, and wasps also have buzzy flight caused by their wingbeats.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In addition bumblebees (genus <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bombus</span>), are capable of vibrating their wing muscles and thorax (the middle segment of their body) while visiting flowers. These vibrations shake the pollen off the flower's anthers and onto the bee's body. The bee grooms the remainder of the pollen onto special pollen-carrying structures (on the hind legs of most bees) and takes it back to the nest to feed to the larvae. When bumblebees vibrate flowers to release pollen, the corresponding buzz is quite loud."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had the moth trap out on two nights with catches of a wapping 200 or so on one night (the largest I have had in 5 years) and 36 on another, but with small species counts. The catches were dominated heavily by Red Chestnuts and Hebrew Characters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Finally to otters. Several sightings, the best on April 23, when I heard one of the cubs eating on what looks like a crab (crunching through bones), before I saw it, then on May 1 we saw both the mother and two cubs moving east from the slipway round to Croft #1 where the scuffled and jostled for a time, occasionally catching a fish.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The trail camera picked up otters by the cliff holt on 8 occasions in the last 4 days. Here are a couple of clips which I think are quite neat.</span><br />
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<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E6IdaSTBWTE/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E6IdaSTBWTE?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/r6PVHJ_STlo/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r6PVHJ_STlo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-50848951597889378942015-04-19T21:00:00.002+01:002015-04-19T21:00:51.072+01:00Skye at Night (groan)<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We travelled south just over a week ago because I had to attend a meeting of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland London. On the way down at 5.06 am on the 10th we saw a meteorite, a fireball, over in the north east. At first we thought it was a marine flare, but clearly, where it was in the sky suggested that explanation was incorrect. There was a bright streak moving down and then broadening out to a greenish ball. All very exciting but rather brief and puzzling, needing some reflection to work out what we saw.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We are now back on Skye, greeted by yet another bright and sunny day. It's never-ending!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The trail camera picked up the otter family early this morning leaving the holt; each lingered in front of the camera for once. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Spring is progressing at pace. Out in flower on the croft are Marsh Violets and Common Dog-violets and among the rocks on the shore there is Danish Scurvy-grass.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZuNUOYz7wxc0omVi6v15EXXNxod6RRegz5ftZl0kGBWpaxAFzBf6PQZoW6TpoNxpj3MzYvNEdZPMU_PORj4r7SiFAmedlQvfX083b__zJOp1lDTz_QWal-VjcvRbrYu2Mbx_oPciiDX0/s1600/IMG_0698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZuNUOYz7wxc0omVi6v15EXXNxod6RRegz5ftZl0kGBWpaxAFzBf6PQZoW6TpoNxpj3MzYvNEdZPMU_PORj4r7SiFAmedlQvfX083b__zJOp1lDTz_QWal-VjcvRbrYu2Mbx_oPciiDX0/s1600/IMG_0698.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Danish scurvy-grass</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFr3FppwRqVf5sRNpQDafyoq4SzfsenbF_CA27sYFIkUlQ6g7Ny04suLw712cuCGSrCE_B1CSDeBEsb0xST2yFgVCUBGxePxstw_7gmBFL17xNaRkZaUHSf1aNCA9t6WeQ4S67RESKbA/s1600/IMG_0699.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFr3FppwRqVf5sRNpQDafyoq4SzfsenbF_CA27sYFIkUlQ6g7Ny04suLw712cuCGSrCE_B1CSDeBEsb0xST2yFgVCUBGxePxstw_7gmBFL17xNaRkZaUHSf1aNCA9t6WeQ4S67RESKbA/s1600/IMG_0699.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Marsh violet</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In addition to the comprehensive marking of butterfly orchids, I marked the position of around 120 plants of the other orchid species and hybrids that flowered last year. I want to see when they leaf and the churn rate, the percentage of plants that repeat flower. There are leaves appearing on three of of those marked orchids, so the first ones should be in flower towards the end of May. The time interval between leaves and flowers is typically 5 weeks. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiez-ZLcwQ4lkMhZGQpJLgV4vs4nJUEoZuc_GrWng9bFwd59uP_zCSFbMrOBdylqq_P2RtJ5_KhbaZwz5IbjGdNtC8zjyzTHFaAR2xFGg9DedaDbFyEeYsSjY1vIwRcoz-mbr6Vs4CqnXs/s1600/IMG_0697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiez-ZLcwQ4lkMhZGQpJLgV4vs4nJUEoZuc_GrWng9bFwd59uP_zCSFbMrOBdylqq_P2RtJ5_KhbaZwz5IbjGdNtC8zjyzTHFaAR2xFGg9DedaDbFyEeYsSjY1vIwRcoz-mbr6Vs4CqnXs/s1600/IMG_0697.JPG" height="200" width="133" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Early marsh orchid with last year's spike remnant<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EvNWkKVruQoc1tGJo8YFX3-rU5vPKZapfb0lJhiABFC4vTO9sDrhn04Vz6EWzaeAQLskDMEE4JcJBvoiYVeHhiNTFJ41duvWk48jKthGaGxe2xvzaNPfPA6QOG0CH_0DNP1WlZL3Z7g/s1600/IMG_0693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EvNWkKVruQoc1tGJo8YFX3-rU5vPKZapfb0lJhiABFC4vTO9sDrhn04Vz6EWzaeAQLskDMEE4JcJBvoiYVeHhiNTFJ41duvWk48jKthGaGxe2xvzaNPfPA6QOG0CH_0DNP1WlZL3Z7g/s1600/IMG_0693.JPG" height="133" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Heath spotted orchid (Heavy blotching atypical)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4spOOZ10jXo4ehxdXspAhUErcaW3Ify_tF2QkkuG0vC8pSzTeAR0nwBpP6zDgnH1BYwODiGIpJUvQKRux5SEFvIyseNm03hWpju-JAExF8ONfGN9Qm7V9XqTW1h3vJtQrFFCc0laN4tg/s1600/IMG_0375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4spOOZ10jXo4ehxdXspAhUErcaW3Ify_tF2QkkuG0vC8pSzTeAR0nwBpP6zDgnH1BYwODiGIpJUvQKRux5SEFvIyseNm03hWpju-JAExF8ONfGN9Qm7V9XqTW1h3vJtQrFFCc0laN4tg/s1600/IMG_0375.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Primrose</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxiVvXX6gVk5wvEdsnmV6q3PqB0aVFG_2n9-AYnmOgGAjHt-jfPazo5_lKfbXFbM_jVClhhcJtYyOzuUPERoGjvdMoZSSjYCIV6uke1GxiPzHkpFsAfQ46mP0hr_ALpbZNoU1i5iQv-Y/s1600/IMG_0397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxiVvXX6gVk5wvEdsnmV6q3PqB0aVFG_2n9-AYnmOgGAjHt-jfPazo5_lKfbXFbM_jVClhhcJtYyOzuUPERoGjvdMoZSSjYCIV6uke1GxiPzHkpFsAfQ46mP0hr_ALpbZNoU1i5iQv-Y/s1600/IMG_0397.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lesser celandine with fly covered in pollen</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPRKLFYHYiP28C5s7ievI50dSL2Fp1FCgJm8n6sODRGqDt3FgPV6VOcOZr8_2y3ynw2SWUpQSZOxwDnxtE6Oh0UXb39tMbUDD9uMCNEdak04ZDqolbU8Vw-Rj1Me5pSGMbwr15ESVmCc/s1600/IMG_0392.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPRKLFYHYiP28C5s7ievI50dSL2Fp1FCgJm8n6sODRGqDt3FgPV6VOcOZr8_2y3ynw2SWUpQSZOxwDnxtE6Oh0UXb39tMbUDD9uMCNEdak04ZDqolbU8Vw-Rj1Me5pSGMbwr15ESVmCc/s1600/IMG_0392.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Marsh marigold</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There is a hybrid male willow near the shore which is always the first willow to flower, and this morning, at any one time, in the sun there were 3 or 4 white-tailed bumblebees stalking through the flowers. All have some form of parasitic mites gathered tightly on their bodies, particularly under the head. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Du-I61jZdXC1A2DhGYqOyTWsWN7o8ddg_mw38t5KtgwOhRty-3XANOOouj0XqoqMGWu42rVcktfkWsHtJF6o1cARaS3b8-suJ6PpnO2OKIVQfFIS3bACzmTKtK_MFU3iShlKguU9t3Y/s1600/IMG_0403.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Du-I61jZdXC1A2DhGYqOyTWsWN7o8ddg_mw38t5KtgwOhRty-3XANOOouj0XqoqMGWu42rVcktfkWsHtJF6o1cARaS3b8-suJ6PpnO2OKIVQfFIS3bACzmTKtK_MFU3iShlKguU9t3Y/s1600/IMG_0403.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">White-tailed bumblebee</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have only seen one otter in the last couple of weeks, probably a male fishing quite far out. Our neighbour Alan, has however seen one of the cubs. The trail camera picked up otters at the cliff holt at night and early in the morning on several occasions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A couple of days ago two Slavonian Grebes swam past the croft, quite the most elegant of the grebe family; yesterday there were several scattered Great Northern Divers, the most imposing of the divers especially now their summer plumage is showing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dry weather meant that I could get the moth trap out on 3 nights, with a modest 7 species in total, and counts of 11, 7 and 57. On the first two nights I put a groundsheet above the trap fearing rain and this might have affected its efficiency. I got lots of Hebrew Character and Red Chestnut Moths, and the first Common Quakers. I also had a Pine Beauty. Nothing new though to add to the all time count for the croft.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWoJamvI8Gl8stjhAJYbLdUIulcSK32jHXkIDvciZKrgTj6yEoUNBSf3Z7NLpwTJiy0Hah6Vz4lEuhgj0KDMjtPEMZaXWiF46qWJQi_8BgNMfnwI7UlgQEI_gc5e47Dj2sfvhRks9HlQ/s1600/IMG_0366+to+0374+Pine+Beauty+(Panolis%2Bflammea).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWoJamvI8Gl8stjhAJYbLdUIulcSK32jHXkIDvciZKrgTj6yEoUNBSf3Z7NLpwTJiy0Hah6Vz4lEuhgj0KDMjtPEMZaXWiF46qWJQi_8BgNMfnwI7UlgQEI_gc5e47Dj2sfvhRks9HlQ/s1600/IMG_0366+to+0374+Pine+Beauty+(Panolis%2Bflammea).jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pine beauty moth</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had a couple of trips off the croft. The first was to Sgianadin, 5 km down the coast, where Forestry Commission Scotland have made a woodland walk after most of the planted firs were cleared several years ago. The walk goes to a point, Rubha na Sgianadin, passing a quarry on the way, with a good exposure of what looks like Raasay ironstone - heavily iron stained sedimentary rock We had a couple of visitors who said they had seen otters there, and sure enough there was a mother and cub, fishing quietly off the rocks and ignoring a 69-year old winkler nearby. (Collecting winkles looks backbreaking but apparently they are much in demand in Spain, and a profitable afternoon's endeavour). It was low tide and difficult to get close to the otters without disturbance, but I got a few pictures. To add further interest there were several common seals splashing noisily, close to shore; Guillamon island where they haul out is only 1 km away. Near the quarry I found what I think is a pine marten scat, but I need to check it out, before I commit to an evening of observation. I also collected the first ticks of the year!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGLUe8Ui06C1PYDr70EHUvGSlC1V94o10UKP9BV_UK9WD-Bpz1wxo06LeP9gE7Gi-eAy4UD4-PiVGOaQPKq58MQ6LWnKmWy4Z3YNCHAlXDdf7giU-XbELzRINFiZZTAKY9-iYjAqw7nO0/s1600/IMG_0207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGLUe8Ui06C1PYDr70EHUvGSlC1V94o10UKP9BV_UK9WD-Bpz1wxo06LeP9gE7Gi-eAy4UD4-PiVGOaQPKq58MQ6LWnKmWy4Z3YNCHAlXDdf7giU-XbELzRINFiZZTAKY9-iYjAqw7nO0/s1600/IMG_0207.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mother and cub</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZAYsjOXgOnsOVqAvOmVbFW2-QrhhRP5BntUlVRVxecEkwevE8tbxUnhyFrmeBLAfk3vRpY3lDaRLLtD9OD2ePCPRaQ6wuPyiEjcMWaYmLZOEoME_nYaqUFXSTLAHQdwncCCgRcEmQtY/s1600/IMG_0173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZAYsjOXgOnsOVqAvOmVbFW2-QrhhRP5BntUlVRVxecEkwevE8tbxUnhyFrmeBLAfk3vRpY3lDaRLLtD9OD2ePCPRaQ6wuPyiEjcMWaYmLZOEoME_nYaqUFXSTLAHQdwncCCgRcEmQtY/s1600/IMG_0173.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Subject to checking, pine marten scat</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On Sunday we joined the throng of tourists and travelled up to Staffin in the hope of seeing the dinosaur prints on the beach at An Corran ("the rounded bay"), 'enjoying' incognoscenti cope with single track roads with passing places (especially those from abroad who are already confused by driving on the left, and coping with unfamiliar hire cars). The precise location of the dinosaur prints on the rocks exposed at low tide is not revealed, so we joined 10 to 15 people aimlessly wandering over the rocks, some with mobiles to look at appropriate websites to try to get a clue but seaweed and sand obscured what might have been there. I took a couple of pictures of what might have been prints but in reality they were just marks in the rocks. I also tried to marry up a few pictures of the scene to that om an information board but that did not work reliably. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xchTUDc2gziE1nB_8d9m7eCm9nwFVp-0GAZn-yQudtjdNJ1d6jyN0Sj1pmB8nbUKRXHYTM-0gU7tkGBvxMkkNcAaATcdhlz1-GkUAI-kx4MIM48AyfQZwZrIktIeyWQ7d1fuHdeTlWg/s1600/IMG_0276+An+Corran+Beach.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xchTUDc2gziE1nB_8d9m7eCm9nwFVp-0GAZn-yQudtjdNJ1d6jyN0Sj1pmB8nbUKRXHYTM-0gU7tkGBvxMkkNcAaATcdhlz1-GkUAI-kx4MIM48AyfQZwZrIktIeyWQ7d1fuHdeTlWg/s1600/IMG_0276+An+Corran+Beach.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">An Corran</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbeqbXf1kw8T16Mu_fjQuPlSnMJ6x2pzs0388o1Nc4QQvQnApUvLmEW-Yr2Y_XLt6qk_rPCgZcuhHNbBcc8B4XoqhWRk2ixLe271pZpS57mG9O0rjuugk1Czgr9sO-_t_1eWMjRCcGlw/s1600/IMG_0284+Low+Tide.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbeqbXf1kw8T16Mu_fjQuPlSnMJ6x2pzs0388o1Nc4QQvQnApUvLmEW-Yr2Y_XLt6qk_rPCgZcuhHNbBcc8B4XoqhWRk2ixLe271pZpS57mG9O0rjuugk1Czgr9sO-_t_1eWMjRCcGlw/s1600/IMG_0284+Low+Tide.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dinosaur prints somewhere down there</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> More research is needed (ie ask someone who really knows the position) and return after a storm when the seaweed might have been cleared away.</span><br />
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-91303486556372389952015-03-20T10:16:00.003+00:002015-03-20T10:16:39.725+00:00Solar EclipseWe got there. It was raining at 06.00 but breaks in the cloud let us see the eclipse at its best at around 09.30. It did not get very dark, but most of the birds went silent and when the light started to return oyster catchers were the first to make a noise as if startled.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydAJacJez8AoRcwS8-4ibSVMg_cz4XLLFXgMbWlF8JXIf8nRVuk4mRzGI8-Sbe-0-7AbPkUoNRtntjQ2YtJCWh7174ncDQsRce92eNvgFaW6s3Q9Jn-pWSpRbP71Ny9yoyZB1lnzVvhc/s1600/IMG_0055+Eclipse+09.36.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydAJacJez8AoRcwS8-4ibSVMg_cz4XLLFXgMbWlF8JXIf8nRVuk4mRzGI8-Sbe-0-7AbPkUoNRtntjQ2YtJCWh7174ncDQsRce92eNvgFaW6s3Q9Jn-pWSpRbP71Ny9yoyZB1lnzVvhc/s1600/IMG_0055+Eclipse+09.36.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eclipse 09.36</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WZEhK0r89olC9ejPW7RMwuS9hXvv7vci1EMR6pIrey7J09qXe4GoEwpkk991up2fP_xPxAyIxuSBtx0MBcIry6Q03mk9CYXkzv4CSA9NDnLdwqkhQaA7TkDIohhQG5nhogSh6IstUQ0/s1600/IMG_0063+Eclipse+09.36.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WZEhK0r89olC9ejPW7RMwuS9hXvv7vci1EMR6pIrey7J09qXe4GoEwpkk991up2fP_xPxAyIxuSBtx0MBcIry6Q03mk9CYXkzv4CSA9NDnLdwqkhQaA7TkDIohhQG5nhogSh6IstUQ0/s1600/IMG_0063+Eclipse+09.36.JPG" height="198" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eclipse 09.36</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BEUbAEO8LYOnElGRpZ1I_mAAVroBa3zmfLaadCdyjsEtT4-MMkhLF760o1gn2RUmDV4LRzacSP9tr9ccSml3KPSnKB_f1smpDxtQDQG96CX9qwFWuECixvIVLlDAgRzDpqVW4Csh5rs/s1600/IMG_0067+Eclipse+09.39.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BEUbAEO8LYOnElGRpZ1I_mAAVroBa3zmfLaadCdyjsEtT4-MMkhLF760o1gn2RUmDV4LRzacSP9tr9ccSml3KPSnKB_f1smpDxtQDQG96CX9qwFWuECixvIVLlDAgRzDpqVW4Csh5rs/s1600/IMG_0067+Eclipse+09.39.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Half light 09.39</td></tr>
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Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-36347952416485803072015-03-19T18:09:00.000+00:002015-03-19T18:09:31.585+00:00Sleepless in Skye<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It did prove quite a long night's vigil on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, but it was worth it because we did see the Northern lights eventually. In the evening high cloud obliterated the Northern night sky as the forecast Kp from <span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.300000011920929px;">the Kjell Henriksen Observatory in Svalbard,</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.300000011920929px;"> </span>remained tantalisingly at 9 (on a scale of 1 to 10) As the night wore on, I dozed off in my chair, but woke up to find the sky quite bright, as if moonlit, and most of the cloud gone. The aurora light show was just beginning, the time being 01.30 am. By then the Kp forecast had fallen to 7 and with the naked eye the colours were muted, yet distinct beams could be seen, brightening and fading. The camera on a long exposure enhanced the colours, green and purple in the main. The whole show lasted around an hour - I found that whisky keeps the cold away - and towards the end the sky seemed to shimmer and sparkle like sunlight reflecting off waves in the sea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Daytime and yawning whole otter family made an appearance in bright sunshine, fishing in Loch Ainort at low tide. There is ample food available, but identification of what the otters are eating is difficult when most fish are eaten in the water. What is apparent though is that they come to the rocks with scorpionfish, almost without exception, probably because they are spiny and awkward to deal with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The eclipse next; my wife has got a colander ready as a super pin-hole. Unfortunately the forecast is for cloud tomorrow morning.</span><br />
<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-76306482793822597252015-03-17T18:52:00.001+00:002015-03-24T20:30:48.295+00:00Independence<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After what seems weeks of rain and wind, a few warm sunny days have lifted spirits. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The otter cubs can now function independently of their mother. Yesterday we watched, and filmed, one of them for over an hour fishing at low tide in Loch na Cairidh and Loch Ainort. The mother was nowhere to be seen. The cub was quite efficient and caught at least a dozen fish; the larger fish, or maybe just the more awkward ones, were brought out onto a rock for consumption. I took over 10 minutes of film but as it is on mini DV, digitisation is not straight-forward and will have to wait a few days. Here are a few still photos taken from some distance and not very sharp.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NsHIuyKcYOazsFZ0PqxAvH02VyBxOBl9N1SnLJEyMeIWpHqS6tjbzjIDYi1RRv-i4hCYNjwkpquVzksYhWRs3QwynT4EBJNY5t9fBLvf8oYwNczo2GRJ9hTx3YFY9rBFjk9rqCZAmT4/s1600/IMG_9730+Otter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NsHIuyKcYOazsFZ0PqxAvH02VyBxOBl9N1SnLJEyMeIWpHqS6tjbzjIDYi1RRv-i4hCYNjwkpquVzksYhWRs3QwynT4EBJNY5t9fBLvf8oYwNczo2GRJ9hTx3YFY9rBFjk9rqCZAmT4/s1600/IMG_9730+Otter.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iVKIvOgyDpj6i25ljTCENDwHA-ef1knITLMQJRpRo8n9KjGh73bP47RpMGniRYcZCEPI_d4m0tc0ohURJnmCyCcUShQwYYnOsdYy5rX84M7pwVNYK44TwFYGpnLbMEtbzB0T8avNaTs/s1600/IMG_9747+Otter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iVKIvOgyDpj6i25ljTCENDwHA-ef1knITLMQJRpRo8n9KjGh73bP47RpMGniRYcZCEPI_d4m0tc0ohURJnmCyCcUShQwYYnOsdYy5rX84M7pwVNYK44TwFYGpnLbMEtbzB0T8avNaTs/s1600/IMG_9747+Otter.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then today again at low tide we saw, and filmed (!) both cubs fishing together, occasionally squabbling. One is more cautious than the other and spends more time eating its catch on the rocks. I suspect they are fishing at low tide because the kelp, where most of the slow moving fish will be, is in shallow water, and the dive distance reduced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Later this afternoon we saw both cubs with their mother fishing in deeper water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had the moth trap over the last couple of nights, catching a few Mottled grey moths and clouded drabs. The latter are very variable in appearance.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuvqfB-zXsFPpIqQ-ravhHJO4HGxpwFN1Nhova-LDf-73r9s73e9wBTndyWGrQDBke0MEgGN-YNrz-Ppj3oEquBeiu8-vtYdelabJExMDxs8uD6BpWrM-HuV1f7gQgDRR5FQQYVEWVR7s/s1600/IMG_9794.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuvqfB-zXsFPpIqQ-ravhHJO4HGxpwFN1Nhova-LDf-73r9s73e9wBTndyWGrQDBke0MEgGN-YNrz-Ppj3oEquBeiu8-vtYdelabJExMDxs8uD6BpWrM-HuV1f7gQgDRR5FQQYVEWVR7s/s1600/IMG_9794.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Clouded Drab Moth</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGI8WgIoYQE0CpynICGp9TNrFEXxtENOeEvf3oUzneGQ1aRpgw1eZgDtPjCh1P4oU3DTTFAQuLIT-kYQlHAv_KAD-BGLrjMFKq6k63EEcG4hQjbfAOdZT3t3wG1v9byUHdQjZkewVhw4/s1600/IMG_9802.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGI8WgIoYQE0CpynICGp9TNrFEXxtENOeEvf3oUzneGQ1aRpgw1eZgDtPjCh1P4oU3DTTFAQuLIT-kYQlHAv_KAD-BGLrjMFKq6k63EEcG4hQjbfAOdZT3t3wG1v9byUHdQjZkewVhw4/s1600/IMG_9802.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Clouded Drab Moth</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Finally its fingers and toes crossed. The aurora forecast for the next few hours is a staggering 9.... but at the moment there is a lot of high cloud about. It is forecast to clear later but will the aurora conditions last until then. A long night ahead. </span><br />
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Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-40786795917423534192015-03-02T22:51:00.001+00:002015-03-02T22:51:17.736+00:00Winter is still with us as is the otter family<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Snow! Rain and wind for the last few days, and now winter is back or rather it never went away. </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyone who does not know Skye assumes that we get severe winters, because after all we are a long way north, but the Gulf Stream sees to that and we end up with mild wet winters followed by cool wet summers. Today was therefore a real surprise as we had snowfalls overnight, the soft flaky stuff rather than the balls of ice that we had in January.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I saw the otters just before breakfast, and stayed with them for about an hour; the breakfast pastries in the oven were unfortunately rather well done as a result, for which I was strongly chastised. The family came up from Loch na Caraidh moving into Ainort where they ran into a male coming over from the Scalpay direction. A brief set-to ensued with a few warning noises 'hah-hah', and one shriek when one of the otters must have got a bite. After a wary parting, the family moved further along keeping very close to the shore while the male retreated to deeper water. Eventually it lost interest completely and headed off towards Moll.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We like to anthropomorphise animal behaviour and impose on them our ideal such as neat and tidy family groups; male, female and two offspring With otters, as for most mustelids, such family groupings are far from the case. After mating the male does not stick around and leaves the female to bring up cubs alone (so maybe human behaviour is trending to that of otters in the present day). Indeed cubs are at risk if subsequently a male is encountered, even if it is their parent, as it can attack them and do damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The family came out onto the rocks for about 10 minutes beyond the bay then spent a long period fishing over the kelp. The cubs, which are now about 6 months old, are fully proficient at catching their own food and eating it in the water. Fish were caught and eaten at quite a pace, though too far away to identify the fish species, but the sheer efficiency was impressive; a short dive, a fish, a few bites and gone, then another dive, another fish.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Cub</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The trail camera picked up otters by the cliff holt twice in the last 8 days. This is the best, though sadly brief, clip. </span></div>
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Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-24465638046400939952015-02-19T16:29:00.000+00:002015-02-19T16:29:15.989+00:00Trail Cameras - Essential!Earlier today I noted that we had only seen the otter family a couple of times in the last 4 weeks. Clearly we have not been concentrating enough, and putting in the amount of time needed. I have had the trail camera looking over the cliff holt for the last week, and this morning it picked up the otter family in front of the holt just after 8 am. The two clips, both short, are below. If only I had gone for my regular pre-breakfast stroll down the croft, but it just looked too uninvitingly wet underfoot, following heavy rain yesterday.<br />
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Noteworthy since then I saw a pair of bullfinches in the garden on bushes near the feeders but not actually visiting the feeders - I am hoping that they are nesting nearby and there should be lots of suitable habitat.</div>
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-91022129147391986212015-02-19T13:32:00.000+00:002015-02-19T13:32:14.453+00:00Stirring of LifeWe seem to have had quite a battering this winter. January was the fourth wettest month since 2009 (308mm) , and whilst it was not one of the coldest (7 days of frost which is about normal) much of the rain fell as hail driven by strong winds which made it feel cold and miserable (statistics for Lusa from <a href="http://en.tutiempo.net/">http://en.tutiempo.net/</a> ).<br />
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At last though there are now some stirrings of life. On the 16th there was the first clump of frogspawn in the garden pond, 8 days earlier than last year. There were three more clumps the following night. Mergansers are pairing up and several cormorants are in their courtship display. Great tits and sparrows are starting to nest and using the nest boxes in the garden as well as the house eaves (to wake us up in the morning). A few celandines are in bud.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgmeaDe-bj8rbxmiHaCqNPxhdHe9Th8h7eFlDWDR34CKYyNFZdOB3st0HNiOXzFHnyOJvtfPPd9VzQuzWLD1jP__8KM9rg7Zj5sDOrDp3Bp7GY-EKPbPVGRalzlohwEbcQlAMV7nBB-8/s1600/P2160020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgmeaDe-bj8rbxmiHaCqNPxhdHe9Th8h7eFlDWDR34CKYyNFZdOB3st0HNiOXzFHnyOJvtfPPd9VzQuzWLD1jP__8KM9rg7Zj5sDOrDp3Bp7GY-EKPbPVGRalzlohwEbcQlAMV7nBB-8/s1600/P2160020.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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The plant that seems to thrive despite the weather is soft rush and this week I strimmed areas of the croft where it was appearing. It is ubiquitous in damp grasslands on Skye and a persistent weed. I have a book written in 1945 by Fraser Darling,"Crofting Agriculture", which gives advice to the crofter on land use base upon his experiences on North Rona. A chapter is devoted to soft, or 'common', rush and its eradication. "A plant...can occupy a square yard of ground. The stems are packed together extremely closely and exclude most other kinds of grass. Cattle will graze the tops of young plants but sheep will not touch them, and graze carefully all round the clump, leaving the rushes in an ideal position, clear of competition". His advice is to use lime or to cut the clumps flush with the ground - which requires 'very hard work' and a grass hook. I have adopted the second alternative but fortunately I have a petrol driven strimmer to make light work of clearance! The soft rush is controlled rather than eradicated; if not it would just take over.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Uncontrolled soft rush nearby</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post strimming of the croft</td></tr>
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I managed to get the moth trap out on two nights, but it was quite cold and I caught only two moths (a dotted border and a winter moth), and only one on the second night (a micromoth, Acleris hyemana - thanks to Brian Neath and Mark Young for the identification). On the second night I also had a wood gnat in the trap.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Micromoth (Acleris hyemana)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dotted Border</td></tr>
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We saw the otter family a couple of times in the last month, and there has also been a male otter around. Poor weather meant no photos.<br />
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-75243430130530583962015-01-18T13:26:00.002+00:002015-01-18T13:26:41.837+00:00After the Storms and SnowStorms last weekend, followed by cold north west winds bringing hail and snow. Today was a quieter, slightly less cold day. The otter family were out fishing near the slipway and in the 30 minutes I watched, the mother brought on shore two scorpionfish, another couple of fish which I cannot recognise and found other scraps of food under the wracke at the water's edge, possibly crab. The cubs stayed mostly on shore, waiting to be fed. <br />
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I eventually lost them as they headed east along Loch na Cairidh</div>
<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-52424753803154948052015-01-16T12:41:00.001+00:002015-01-16T12:41:52.686+00:00Crofting BureacracyIt has not been a good week. It started with storms and power cuts but ended with the much more difficult challenge, that of a bureaucratic brick wall. It turns out that we are not crofters after all, so I am not sure what we have been doing for the last 7 years.<br />
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There are just over 18,000 crofts in Scotland, a legal designation that brings them under crofting legislation, which is unique to Scotland, and complex. The legal apparatus dates back to 1886 with the most recent legislation enacted in 2011. The whole thing is overseen by the Crofting Commission, based in Inverness, which has an annual cost of £2.5m. <br />
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Simplifying hugely, the aim is to ensure that crofts are worked (though most are not in any way), but an assumption is that the ideal is for each croft to have a landlord and a tenant paying annual rent. The tenant has some protections under the legislation. However since 1976 tenants have had the right to buy so that we now have crofts that have different statuses. In particular where the landlord works the croft - because he lives on the croft then he can be designated as either a landlord of a vacant croft (because there is no tenant) or as an Owner Occupier. The nuance is important because in theory a Landlord of a Vacant Croft could be required to find a tenant - something which the Crofting Commission can enforce whereas an Owner Occupier carries no such risk, and as such is clearly the preferred status.<br />
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When we bought the croft from the previous owner its status was that Landlord of a Vacant Croft. We applied to have the status changed in April 2008 to that of Owner Occupier and got agreement from the Crofters Commission (as it then was before morphing into the Crofting Commission) to that change. Unfortunately administrative oversight meant that they did not update their records and they are now refusing to act on their own previous decision which is quite extraordinary - the letter of confirmation is apparently not worth the paper it is printed on. So we remain Landlords of a Vacant Croft and all the uncertainty that creates. We have consulted lawyers and fear that we may have to go to the Scottish Land Court. This small plot of land is proving expensive.<br />
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A complex legal system, arbitrarily enforced is something that I never thought we see in Britain.<br />
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<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-16970865734830850132015-01-13T20:50:00.002+00:002015-01-13T20:50:37.088+00:00It's an Obsession<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I heard them first - the soft 'peep-peep' call that the cubs make but it was 30 minutes or more before I saw the otter family in Loch Ainort at 3.20pm, just under 4 hours after high tide. The mother and both cubs were fishing in deeper water over the kelp, though I am not convinced that the cubs have learnt the skills yet of catching their own food. The mother catches and eats fish in the water, then catches something for the cubs and they all come on shore to eat, with not a scrap left. It was too dark to identify the fish species and the photos I got in low light weren't of the best. The trouble is it has become an obsession that if I see an otter I have to get a photograph even though I have literally hundreds, if not thousands of photographs already.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The sun is there somewhere</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The cubs were very active running across the rocks and beating each other up; both rolled around for several minutes while the mother looked on nonchalantly. As well as food, they are still very dependent on the mother. On one occasion when the mother and one of the cubs swam quickly to the shore almost surfing on the waves, thrown up by some still quite windy conditions accompanied by hailstorms, the second cub got left 100 metres away. Panicking it let out lots of peeping calls and headed for the shore at the nearest point then ran along the rocks to meet its mother and sibling coming the other way to find it. </span>Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-37004329901496962512015-01-12T18:22:00.001+00:002015-01-12T18:22:55.815+00:00Recovering from the StormIn the north and west of Scotland we had a significant storm last Friday, early in the morning. Wind speeds of 113 mph were recorded in Stornoway on Lewis, whilst our own anemometer, down in a relatively sheltered spot on the croft, picked up 58.8mph. I think that is the highest we have seen and more exposed parts of the croft on the Loch Ainort side probably had gusts up to 75 or 80mph.<br />
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In common with much of the Highlands and Islands our electricity power was cut, and we were off line for 58 hours, back for 23 hours then off for 4 hours. Our provider Hydro PD was overwhelmed with significant damage throughout the area, so that at the peak 80,000 homes were off-line, but their engineers do a terrific job in often atrocious weather to repair faults. The power is back now, obviously! <br />
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The house got colder and colder, with a bedroom temperature of 7 degrees. I took off my fleece only yesterday after 3 days. Not trusting a little camping stove which we have for emergencies because it has a tendency to flare up, I lived off tinned fish, bread tomatoes, fruit, an apple pie from the local supermarket and chocolate. It's a brilliant diet and I lost 4 lbs.<br />
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The roof lost 4 apex tiles which despite continuing strong (40mph) winds I have put back, and a chimney cowl ended up across the garden. <br />
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A rowan tree was uprooted on the croft, giving me a chance to play at being a lumberjack. A second keeled over a bit but was stopped from going the distance by a fence. Rowan are shallow rooted and seem to be just about the only tree to take a hold amongst the thin soils and rocks. When they keel over there is a mass of stone and root, but no more than 30 or 40 cm deep. Once coppiced and righted regrowth occurs, and I have lots of firewood. The coppiced trees are a memento of storms past. The one I cut back today will have the name 9 January 2015, rather like an event commemorating street name in some South American capital. Some of the branches were dead and there is rot in the middle of the tree (see photo) so I shall look for beetles in the coming weeks.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9 January 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9 January 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5 December 2013 </td></tr>
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Unsurprisingly there is not much wildlife about. Even if the otters are around it is difficult to pick them out in the swell.<br />
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Need to end though as there is lightning about and no doubt another power cut on the way. <br />
<br />Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-63616687232426856612015-01-03T15:05:00.001+00:002015-01-03T15:05:38.918+00:00Otters Taking LunchRain turning to hail and strong north-westerly winds (30 to 40 mph) brought in the new year. The hail storms caused some damage to the bituminous roof on the observation hide that I built four years ago. There is a always something that has to be fixed.<br />
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Today was brighter but cold. We saw the otter family taking lunch about an hour after low tide. The cubs are now very active, though one, which I think is a female is definitely less keen than the other, which has already learnt to fish. <br />
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Staying in much the same place the mother brought small fish ashore for the lazy cub, tossing one nonchalantly in front of it, but then caught a scorpion fish which she set about herself. The idle cub then had a go until just about every part of the fish had gone.<br />
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The mother's eye problem looks to have healed a little but it is still very noticeable; now that the cubs are not much smaller than the mother it does help identification, There is a pink patch to the left side of the left eye, which is probably an injury, maybe inflicted by a male.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Injured eye very noticeable</td></tr>
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In all we watched for about an hour, and in a way we were rather glad when the otters went east, so that we could unfreeze fingers and toes. Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5856907942884062460.post-74352835743383889272014-12-16T13:45:00.002+00:002014-12-16T13:45:49.903+00:00Home Alone is Just a Memory<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The otter family is alive and well (ish). A few days after </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">we saw the cubs on their own for several hours we saw a male otter</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and this probably disturbed the mother on that day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had the trail camera out from Nov 24th to Dec 11th by the cliff holt and picked up an otter on 12 separate occasions, mostly at night. The cubs were seen in front of the holt on December 1st and 2nd, the first time we had seen them since the 'home alone' incident. The cubs are around 80% of the body length of the mother, which makes them around 60 days old. Therefore they were born at the start of October.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Otter cubs on trail camera</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis3dcUm3wYONA3DBUQeLy5cdRN1bpMJFY2-53y_dfG2OFZsnoyytyVSEb8acCWsmICcWfq1gKSLIO92naEAQ2Dd3Yd1QLF0ag6Z5yqZ2m7ZXpMCkOvQldZh_j9-aDCG-_elDg6dK5CRqg/s1600/SUNP0058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis3dcUm3wYONA3DBUQeLy5cdRN1bpMJFY2-53y_dfG2OFZsnoyytyVSEb8acCWsmICcWfq1gKSLIO92naEAQ2Dd3Yd1QLF0ag6Z5yqZ2m7ZXpMCkOvQldZh_j9-aDCG-_elDg6dK5CRqg/s1600/SUNP0058.JPG" height="160" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Otter cubs on trail camera</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKO_KyiO2AnUwfjAyfRdVxE7RqrcHM5tybmrQJmi-pb9KRWpVQmH8IrhLvRtgE7k4FQrx1PBmO8W-XMngXuer-SkeXpL9WNErUEIq-7jODfRw1vtUVCzLd-GrPNldrAXJsB4v2dT7q1aQ/s1600/SUNP0067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKO_KyiO2AnUwfjAyfRdVxE7RqrcHM5tybmrQJmi-pb9KRWpVQmH8IrhLvRtgE7k4FQrx1PBmO8W-XMngXuer-SkeXpL9WNErUEIq-7jODfRw1vtUVCzLd-GrPNldrAXJsB4v2dT7q1aQ/s1600/SUNP0067.JPG" height="256" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Otter cub on trail camera</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There was quite a storm on Sunday, with winds gusting up to 50mph (I was blown over once, 40mph does not do that; 60 mph and its hard to stand up at all). A surprise then to see the otter family fishing just before high tide, battling against the waves, and catching fish. One of the cubs is bolder than the other and even managed to catch a fish of its own. Its sibling is less outgoing and sat hidden in the rocks making a regular piping call throughout. I took 6 minutes of video which I need to digitise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today was calmer and 3 hours before high tide the family were out fishing quite close in amongst the wrack. (In the past I have carelessly been imprecise about the seaweed, calling it all kelp which of course it is not - the wrack is intertidal, the kelp can only be seen at low tide.) As on Sunday one cub showed a mark preference for the rocks rather than the water. We also noticed that the mother has an eye wound, hard to see precisely what the problem is but there is a pink area around the left eye. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcOpNWZOPnIeXNykGg8BnT0FnxYmSQdkMuhsR2wJJwkC-navivbwzRa2G_u9deq8UjGrRsYZt927xwO4DnVnD764FopcXWYSVfAafPrKYpshiQYuMIXKX4Lui8bkU0sbkMVhfx1CsLvI/s1600/IMG_8260+Otter+Family.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcOpNWZOPnIeXNykGg8BnT0FnxYmSQdkMuhsR2wJJwkC-navivbwzRa2G_u9deq8UjGrRsYZt927xwO4DnVnD764FopcXWYSVfAafPrKYpshiQYuMIXKX4Lui8bkU0sbkMVhfx1CsLvI/s1600/IMG_8260+Otter+Family.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Otter family</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzTNM_56FrQ-xGYQ38e5PL1hdO9GGS5Tstjpse_tMRCzMSQVJdm1tOPcWmc_A314WHPDiwK9wegTlQki52x91aLKzr2B7jJdtNh3gNEQRoL_46_Q4AJLyH33j2tjQAHuZP2hqrsW0ywE/s1600/IMG_8222+Otter+Family.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzTNM_56FrQ-xGYQ38e5PL1hdO9GGS5Tstjpse_tMRCzMSQVJdm1tOPcWmc_A314WHPDiwK9wegTlQki52x91aLKzr2B7jJdtNh3gNEQRoL_46_Q4AJLyH33j2tjQAHuZP2hqrsW0ywE/s1600/IMG_8222+Otter+Family.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mother with eye injury still able to catch fish</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ga2AoXvOyftoC1a4ShmSXXXnXQi0VcuGAVK1KV4VW4VCd5g1MaJtwxUBNRzEVpwTXhw__Rsji86BCe17xulG-My1gaelLZEG0PgNytF2PXBpJZlc_jSOHMgiONhoO5cPHNDyXTSfqC8/s1600/IMG_8248+Otter+Cub.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ga2AoXvOyftoC1a4ShmSXXXnXQi0VcuGAVK1KV4VW4VCd5g1MaJtwxUBNRzEVpwTXhw__Rsji86BCe17xulG-My1gaelLZEG0PgNytF2PXBpJZlc_jSOHMgiONhoO5cPHNDyXTSfqC8/s1600/IMG_8248+Otter+Cub.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I will wait to be fed</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A seal watched the proceedings.</span>Terry Swainbankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04295803121903172360noreply@blogger.com0