West Coast Islands Blogs
Blogs (web logs) provide an ideal opportunity to explore the traditions, culture and wildlife of Wild Lochaber. We have put together a collection of local blogs and provide the titles and text snippets to give a taste of each entry with direct links to the main blog entry on the host website. We hope you will find time to explore the full articles and further information on the host blog sites.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions for blogs you would like to see here.
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John sent me pictures of something growing in his garden on Skye that I am pretty sure is Guizotia scabra (Sunflecks), a close relative of Niger. The latter (G. abyssinica) is well-known as a birdseed alien but Stace (2019) notes that G. scabra “has been found recently along with G....
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Painting the tups means...
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A day out at the Blackface Sheep Stock judging competition at Killiechronan, and a quick flight over the River Ba where it meets the sea. A winter flight over Calgary Beach after another storm
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Neil and I had an excursion on Raasay last week to catch a spit on the east coast of Raasay at low water. Whilst waiting for the tide we checked some coastal woodland for fungi and whatever else we could find. Lichens included species of both Sticta and Stictis species. The recent split of...
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Sell & Murrell, Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, give three subspecies of Hedera helix: subsp. helix with six forms, subsp. hibernica with three varieties, one of which has four forms, and subsp. poetarum. Irish Ivy is taken to be a cultivar of subsp. hibernica. They also say: “The...
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This is Violet coral fungus, which wasn't found here but a few miles away..
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Not every day in October is sunny and dry. But goodness it is glorious when it is.
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It is the peak time of the year for fungal fruiting bodies. Here are four that I have identified on Raasay recently. Clavulinopsis luteoalba Apricot Club growing in my garden lawn Amanita muscaria Fly Agaric in deciduous woodland Coprinellus disseminatus Fairy Inkap on dead Wych Elm (New to...
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Mervyn and Vicki spotted an old tree stump covered in fungal fruiting bodies: Galerina marginata Many photos later including photomicrographs of spores, Chris has identified this as Galerina marginata a deadly poisonous species known as Funeral Bell. It contains the same deadly poisonous...
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The Eilean Ban is a creel boat that fishes out of Croig harbour. It is skippered by a local fisherman, and we often see his boat lifting creels down below the house here. If we want to buy shellfish, we will buy them from the Eileen Ban.
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Yesterday I went measuring Wych Elms on Raasay for Euan’s project at the University of the Highlands and Islands, based in Inverness. I was interested to note that the two probably native trees that have their roots right on the river bank are multi-trunked, whereas the probably planted ones...
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We had a trip planned to Iona to celebrate our wedding anniversary and just as we had the tailend of a hurricane blowing the day we got married at Gruline, there was a hooley blowing the day we were meant to go. We decided to chance the Threat of Disruption Calmac alert that we picked up at...
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Joanna has been looking at Euphrasia this year and her latest finds include the rather rare Euphrasia frigida x ostenfeldii. Originally thought to be found only on Rum, the hybrid is now known from a few scattered locations in Scotland. Also, what the referee says is the triple hybrid E. arctica x...
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Late August and September are a busy time on the farm. Sorting out lambs and ewes for sale, and a weekly or fortnightly trip to Oban to market. Long days sorting sheep, long days leaving home before day break and not getting home until 12 hours later.
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One of the highlights of the summer for us was having a Turtle dove on the farm for a few days. Farmer has seen one here before, and so has Prasad, but I hadn't ever seen one. Initially I wondered if I ever would as Farmer kept seeing it, and so did our guests, but then finally I saw...
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The pupa on Polystichum aculeatum (Hard Shield-fern) emerged last week and turns out to be Psychoides filicivora sometimes called Fern Smut. Psychoides filicivora At the time of writing nothing has emerged from the pupae from the adjacent Polypodium vulgare (Polypody), but it is highly likely...
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August has been a month of growing weather. Warm and damp! The fields are lush and green with so much grass, seed heads galore, and armies of finches darting ahead of you as you walk. The garden has been producing lots too.. an abundance of tomatoes and cucumbers - which we share...
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Pelorism is the abnormal production of radially symmetrical flowers in a species that usually produces bilaterally symmetrical flowers. I had never seen this in Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica subsp. sylvatica) until Friday when I found this plant at Garafad, Staffin. At least in...
