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.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles
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Last night I had 76 moths in and around my moth trap. There were two Brindled Ochres, which I have not had before and an Angle Shades, which I have had as an imago in May, September, October and November, but not previously in April. Brindled Ochre A week previously the moth trap had...
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Seth has been busy, finding a host of garden throw-outs and planted specimens in Kyleakin including the following that are new to the vice-county: Brassica oleracea cultivated variant, Hyacinthus orientalis (Hyacinth) and Levisticum officinale (Lovage). Cabbage or similar Lovage He has...
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Recent attractions have been some large fish (by rockpool standards) including a covey of 5-bearded Rockling and a very fine Shanny/Common Blenny. On a much smaller scale, Warren Maguire has determined some Sea-lice I sent him as the Speckled Sea-louse (Eurydice pulchra) There are three species...
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The banks of the River Chracaig in Portree have yielded a number of new vice-county or new to Skye records in the past few years, the result of past planting and recent garden throw-outs. Seth has now added two more, Rumex sanguineus var. sanguineus (Red Wood Dock) and Cupressus obtusa (Hinoki...
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In the polytunnel where the weeds are still rife, there is a rust on some young willowherb plants. The plants are almost certainly Epilobium obscurum (Short-fruited Willowherb), though I cannot rule out hybrids at this stage, and the rust is Pucciniastrum epilobii. The presence of uredina on both...
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Yesterday’s gathering was very successful with a dozen attendees. We visited some Polypodium sites in Portree and then undertook some microscopy to check the species. We saw both Polypodium interjectum (Intermediate Polypody) and Polypodium vulgare (Common Polypody), but no sign of the hybrid...
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The 2021 second half report is available here. There will be few surprises for regular readers of this blog. Winter Sycamores
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I added 31 moth species to the list for my home location in 2021, taking the total to 232. Most years I have been away for much of September, but this year it was October. I had thought that this might mitigate the quite large drop in species numbers from August to September, but in fact, the drop...
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Several fellow-botanists (Joanna, Neil, Seth, Steve) have been looking at Cotoneasters for me, in particular those in the C. bullatus/rehderi group. I had been told that the fruit length was diagnostic and as our plants pretty much all have fruits in the 9-10(-11) mm range, I started to believe...
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November has seen a rash of new 10 km square plant records, mostly garden escapes/throwouts/plantings but also a few others such as: SpeciesHectadRecorder(s)Lemna minor (Duclweed)NG24JoannaAnthriscus sylvestris (Cow Parsley)NG15 SethPolypodium interjectum (Intermediate Polypody)NG24SethRosa...
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Skye Botany Group is undertaking a project with the Darwin Tree of Life project. We will be recording Polypodium (Polypody) species and a hybrid (we hope) plus two species of Ophioglossum (Adder’s-tongues). On Wednesday we had a day with pteridologist James Merryweather to look at his local...
wondering wanderers
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Which sounds like a recovering alcoholic!Today marks the three year anniversary of us leaving the Isle of Rum, a place which had been our home for just short of seven years. We left in much the same way we had arrived, crammed into a vehicle loaded with what we thought we needed for the next...
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Our year ended with a burst of festivities. Not as many as any of us may have hoped but we still collectively managed last days at work, exchanging gifts with friends, a meal out, taking a stall at a Christmas market and visiting another one to make sure we shopped local. We made lots of Christmas...
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(another sneakily backdated post)Another ‘during these strange times’ birthday chez Goddard as Scarlett turned 19. Prevented from doing much by general restrictions, our own sensibilities and the fact it was winter and not lovely weather it was a day spent at home. French toast for...
Treshnish Farm
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Great excitement in the farmhouse this week as the long dreamed of Polycrub is put up. Back in early December we sold some Herdwick ewe lambs to some crofters from Sanna, Ardnamurchan who have a Polycrub, and during the course of our chat over a cup of celebratory tea they advised us to...
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In mid December we went back to Cumbria to attend the rescheduled Grazing School workshop. Caroline Grindrod from Roots of Nature/Wilderculture runs the Grazing School and works with James and Helen Rebanks who hosted this workshop on their farm. There were about 30 attendees -...
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Wishing you a Happy New Year and a healthy and fulfilling year ahead.
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November was a bit of a write off as we both had Covid, and I was under the weather for most of the month. Farmer managed to feed the sheep for all but 3 days, even if it meant getting up to do the feeding and let the dogs and hens out, and going back to bed. He wasn't well enough to...
Marc Calhoun
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More delays. We ran out of beer, so the guide went on strike until we returned to Oban to stock up. Once the bar was replenished we head over to Oronsay. The sea is calm, so a landing on the white sands of Oronsay's east beach is possible. A walk around the old priory is always...
