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.
wondering wanderers
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Anyone who knows us, or has been reading here for any length of time will know we love celebrations. We love anniversaries, birthdays, marking times. We love traditions and occasions. We are not a religious family although we are very close to nature and celebrate the turning of the seasons, the...
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As it seems to have become a monthly blog just now! I guess there are only so many ways to say ‘not much has changed’. Of course that’s not strictly true. The month has changed, the season has changed, the clocks have changed, the view from the window has changed.I was sitting...
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Having had all sorts of animals as pets and as livestock I can confidently say that my favourite creature to share space with is still a cat. We have had at least one cat as a part of our household for more years than we haven’t since Ady and I set up home together and bringing Kira to the croft on...
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Having had all sorts of animals as pets and as livestock I can confidently say that my favourite creature to share space with is still a cat. We have had at least one cat as a part of our household for more years than we haven’t since Ady and I set up home together and bringing Kira to the...
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I’m not going to comment on what’s going on in the world. Frankly we’ve never been great at ‘normal’ anyway and there is quite the irony in the whole world heading as far away from normal as it’s been in my whole lifetime less than a year after we aimed to rejoin...
Marc Calhoun
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Over a year has passed since my last visit to the Hebrides, and another may pass before I return. I have spent some of the year writing, but most of it relaxing on my recliner. And as I do so I am the perfect image of sloth. Would an image of sloth be worthy of a statue? I hope so. I can see...
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The old peat track up Bealach Maari looked inviting. As I strolled up the track the sun blazed intensely down, and so I stopped to take my shirt off. After a minute of savouring the cooling air the midges found me. I put the shirt back on. My destination was the summit of Crògary Mòr, five miles...
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The path into the hills started at the Glenrosa Campsite. It was an easy start, the boot-beaten path gradually ascending next to the winding Glenrosa Water. I’d visited Holy Island the day before (see chapter 1 of Firth of Clyde to the Small Isles), and was setting out to hike some of the Glen Rosa...
Treshnish Farm
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We bought a new Herdwick tup earlier this week, and he went out with the Herdwick ewes on Thursday. We were worried there wasn't going to be a Rare Breeds sale at Dingwall this year as the one earlier in the year was cancelled. So when I saw a Herdwick tup for sale on Facebook, in...
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Sheep don't automatically know how to eat hay or the sheep food we give them as a supplement. Every year in the autumn Farmer has to teach the hoggs (the ewe lambs) how to feed. This involves gathering them in and putting them in to the building. He puts a ewe or two in with them...
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It is always a sad day when the calves are weaned and go off to market. The cows holler and call for their calves, roaming around the fields looking for them after they have gone.Before we bought our own cows our neighbour used to graze his cattle here in the summer. When it was time...
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles
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Two new moths have taken my total for adult moths here to 199 species: December MothScarce Umber There are fungi everywhere at the moment, but two pink ones in the garden recently are Coral Spot (Nectria cinnabarina)and Wood Blewit (Lepista nuda), both common enough generally but with rather...
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It turns out that the bramble Rubus subinermoides recorded on Raasay and elsewhere in Scotland may in fact be different from R. subinermoides in England where the type species was first recorded. Amongst other things the large pink petals aren’t right. Those more skilled than I in batology...
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An excursion to Skye meant I happened across Tropaeolum speciosum (Flame Nasturtium) sprawling over gorse near Lynedale. Tropaeolum speciosum Tropaeolum speciosum This is a first for VC104, the sixth this year and, like most of the others, not a native. Here at home, a caterpillar...
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The total number of moth species I have recorded at home as adults has reached 197. New this month have been Feathered Thorn, Green-brindled Crescent, Large Wainscot and November/Autumnal Moth. The last was an Epirrita species which often need dissection to distinguish Autumnal, Movember and Pale...
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Solanum nigrum (Black Nightshade) has been recorded at Cleadale on Eigg – a first for VC104. Solanum nigrum on Eigg Image Neil Robertson There are recent records from islands to the south, outside my patch – Coll and Colonsay. Nick has found one or two more locations for...
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In my last post I had meant to include this smut on Bluebells. It is common enough in this part of the world, but under-recorded. Colletotrichum liliacearum on Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Bluebell) In Broadford I found Venturia populina on Populus trichocarpa (Western Balsam-poplar). Bruce...
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By the front gate there is a small Hawthorn tree (Crataegus monogyna). Yesterday I spotted a small moth larva that turns out to be a young Light Emerald. Light Emerald larva Apparently this species overwinters as small larvae lying flat along stems of the food plant. As you can see the larva...
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Yesterday, I spent a few minutes with my camera at an alder by my front gate. It turned out rather well…. This is the larva of the sawfly Platycampus luridiventris with no records on NBN for the west of Scotland. Thanks to Chris Johnson and Ian Andrews for i.d. Platycampus luridiventris...
