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. 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.
A nap
Waking-up
Stirring into life
Scampering over the rocks
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.
Bluebells
Lesser butterfly orchid leaves - 4 plants where there was one last year
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.
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.
Much to see, this is one of the best months on Skye.
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. 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. 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.
Heron Stalking Voles
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.
Lesser Butterfly Orchid Leaves - c. 1cm high
Wood Sorrell
Lousewort
Common Carder Bee
Garden Bumblebee
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). 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. "Gard Otis, a professor of environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario who studies bee behavior, ecology and evolution, explains.
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.
In addition bumblebees (genus Bombus), 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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
We are now back on Skye, greeted by yet another bright and sunny day. It's never-ending! The trail camera picked up the otter family early this morning leaving the holt; each lingered in front of the camera for once. 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.
Danish scurvy-grass
Marsh violet
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.
We had a couple of days of bright sunny weather over Easter which brought out the Lesser Celandines (and tourists, of which more later). The Lesser Celandines provide one of the first nectar offerings and a pollen bath to the first flies to emerge. By contrast although the first of the Primroses are also flowering these early emergers look a bit battered like someone awaken prematurely, hair akimbo, unshaven and in need of coffee to be able to function fully. Big, brassy Marsh Marigolds by a stream side are also flowering.
Primrose
Lesser celandine with fly covered in pollen
Marsh marigold
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.
White-tailed bumblebee
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. 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. 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.
Pine beauty moth
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!
Mother and cub
Subject to checking, pine marten scat
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.
An Corran
Dinosaur prints somewhere down there
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.
We 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.
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 the Kjell Henriksen Observatory in Svalbard,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.
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.
The eclipse next; my wife has got a colander ready as a super pin-hole. Unfortunately the forecast is for cloud tomorrow morning.
After what seems weeks of rain and wind, a few warm sunny days have lifted spirits. 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.
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. Later this afternoon we saw both cubs with their mother fishing in deeper water. 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.
Clouded Drab Moth
Clouded Drab Moth
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.
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