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.
Treshnish Farm
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The outer edge of Treshnish headland. Where the sheep do not graze. Where the Shags roost.
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Red deer on the skylineOxeye daisies round our feet
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I have already posted today's #30DaysWild but I couldn't not share these fledglings. I gave Farmer a nest cam for his birthday last year. We could only access the camera outside as the walls of the house are too thick and the signal didn't reach. So every day we watched a Blue tit lay, then...
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Pink MilkwortPink PignutWood bitter vetch A bank of Wood bittervetchNorthern marsh orchidGreater butterfly orchidA tired Peacock butterfly.Noctilucent clouds lit the skies as Sunday turned into Monday.. for a few hours they rippled and waved 50 miles above our heads.
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A walk through Calgary woods this afternoon.A walk down to the shore beyond Haunn later. Lots of huge clumps of Lousewort and many Heath spotted orchids. There were Oystercatchers, calling, calling, flying out in formation over low tide rocks. Flying along the cliff face were...
Scottish Islands Explorer
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Here are two Outer Hebridean shorelines that feature in The Times 50 Best Beaches in the UK. Take time to look around and see how they compare and contrast.Scottish Islands Explorer - much to attractDigital Edition: takes you to the attractive instantly
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Some of the artificial islets, usually created in lochs and particularly prevalent in the Western Isles, could be older human sites than Stonehenge. Absorb the BBC report.Scottish Islands Explorer - follows routes to any islandsDigital Edition: helps break down insularity
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Crossing The Minch can be an ordeal by ship; swimming solo has not been achieved until recently. Take a look at The Times report on what happened en routeScottish Islands Explorer - accustomed to strokes on the keyboardDigital Edition: makes journeys effortlessly
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This shack on Barvas Moor, Isle of Lewis, comes from Bob Jones on the Geograph website. It symbolises a 'residence' without internet connections! That provides a lead for my notice - 'Normal Service Will Be Resumed As Soon as Possible' - a situation that could occur during the next few...
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The investigation of a crater caused by a meteor some mile wide crashing into the area now occupied by The Minch around 1.2 billion years ago is intriguing. The BBC will take up the story for you.Scottish Islands Explorer - can look back farDigital Edition: things have come a long way
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Four new marine zones are to be established in the Scottish waters to protect minke whales and basking sharks. A BBC Website considers the implications in depth.Scottish Islands Explorer - protective of many aspectsDigital Edition: operates through zones of its own
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles
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Joanna and Julian have had a look at parts of NG60P in Sleat that had not been surveyed before, particularly small areas of woodland. They added about 50 taxa to the tetrad including Platanthera chlorantha (Greater Butterfly-orchid) and new to NG60, Carex canescens (White Sedge). Bridgette re-found...
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Recently Neil reported Tellima grandiflora (Fringecups) as a garden throw-out from a lay-by in Glen Varragill and said there were other things in the discard pile too. On my way back from Geary I had a look and indeed there were, the most interesting of which is Geranium pyrenaicum (Hedgerow Crane...
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Yesterday Neil and I went to the Geary Ravine SSSI and then moved south to take in some woodland along the coast in the same tetrad. We got to parts of the Geary Ravine that I had never managed before but still failed to re-find any of the quite long list of things found by John Birks over 45 years...
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Tetrad NG46Q was unique in the vice-county in having 100% land but no records since before 2000. In fact it only had eleven ever. On Tuesday Neil and I sorted that out with the total now being 148. Much of the lower area was petty dull until we reached the Abhhainn Gremiscaig (as it is on the OS...
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On Friday, I took the boat from Elgol to Loch Coruisk and circumnavigated the latter. At the north end I went part way up Glac Mhòr, though only to about 300m. Loch Coruisk from Glac Mhòr This area is generally very species-poor but along the northeast side of the loch there is a small area of...
Marc Calhoun
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I have posted before on the Burma Road of Lewis, also known as the Hamnavay Track (see the Feb 17, 2015 post). It is a 10-mile unpaved road, gouged out of the moorland and hills in the interior of Uig, that leads from Ardroil to Hamnavay Lodge.I have walked this road about 10 times over the past 20...
