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Hebridean journal

Tuesday, 5 June 2007

Tuesday 5th June 2007


Another beautiful sunrise began another sunny day.


The mainland was clearly visible across The Minch with Canisp and Suilven made conspicuous by the latter's shape. It is a mere 2389 feet high - not a Munro, not even a Corbett but it remains magnificent. For Suilven is "wonderfully remote, breathtakingly craggy and blessed with the sort of scenic panoramas that prompt a landscape photographer out of bed in the wee small hours of the morning". In my case at 5.10 a.m.


The early morning warmth soon brought out the White-tailed Bumblebees in the garden. After breakfast we went into Stornoway and while Barry went in the Autoworld I watched the Rooks and Hooded Crows. Rooks are only found in Stornoway itself, not around the rest of Lewis at all.


We went to the Woodlands Centre and had a walk around the Castle grounds. The varied woodland was planted by Sir James Matheson in the 1850s and developed further in 1875 and at the turn of the 20th century, In the woods were plenty of ferns including Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant).


We had a wander around the outside of Lews Castle which is now closed because of its dangerous condition.


I just love these folk who are on the South-eastern corner of the building.


Despite the fact that the Common Seal is also known as the Harbour Seal these are Grey Seals in Stornoway harbour. Half the world's population of Grey Seals (Haliochoerus gripus) are found on and around British coasts and numbers have doubled since 1960. Today there were four of them in the harbour and two were practising synchronised swimming.


Outside the Woodlands Centre, where we went for coffee, there are two models of the Lewis chess pieces. Originally discovered on the Isle of Lewis around 1170, they are of Scandinavian origin and form the earliest known European chess set. The originals were carved from ivory and walrus tusk and are now on display in the British Museum. These six foot high models are carved from single blocks of wood.


Back at Tigh na mara for lunch an Angle Shades moth was sheltering from the wind on the garden gate.


We drove back into Stornoway and out to Loch Stiapabhat where there is a Local Nature Reserve. From the Braigh the Ferry was visible just leaving Stornoway. By the Loch, in a part of Fivepenny Machair that was full of daisies, a couple of Rabbits were happily feeding until we disturbed them.



From the hide we saw a great variety of birdlife including Whooper Swans, Mallard, Arctic Terns, Lapwings, Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Redshank, Dunlin, Skylark, and others.On one occasion the Lapwings and gulls and terns took to the air with a great clamour and we thought they were arguing among themselves. Only when I got home did the photos reveal a splodge which are reasonably sure can be interpreted as Hen Harrier.


The second time they were upset we saw the cause before they even took to the air - a Peregrine. Wonderful.


On at least one occasion I saw and GB heard a Whooper Swan whooping.



From the Loch we went to the Butt of Lewis lighthouse and looked at the cliff-nesting birds, the rock formations and the dashing waves.


On the way back we stopped to watch and photograph a Rock Pipit, undoubtedly one of the most common birds of the Hebrides. Back at Tigh na mara the sun was illuminating the headland rather beautifully as it gradually moved around to set.



Posted by tigh-na-mara at 12:01 AM BST
Updated: Sunday, 10 June 2007 9:19 AM BST
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Monday, 4 June 2007

Monday 4th June 2007


Happy birthday GB - or do you stop 'celebrating' and start 'miserating' once you are past 60+! The day began misty but here that is not necessarily a 'Bad `Thing' and the views can be brilliant in the mist as it gradually sinks down into the valley with the sun coming up. A Cuckoo was calling away very close by but not from any perch that we could see. (Can I add a bird to my 'holiday list' if only hear it?)


The mist left water droplets on the cobwebs. A Buzzard was observed from the study window as it has been a few times since we got here - sometimes perching on the fence posts. Most amazing bird so far to me was the Snipe which thrummed its wa over my head so close as to make me duck as I was just over the garden fence this morning. Apart from the mechanical nature of the noise, its volume and the shock it was also the fact that I was se it was going to hit me. Needless to say the camera was on macro setting at the time even if I had responded quickly enough.


We went into Stornoway and I had a brief walk in the woods while Barry shopped. The lichens on the trees are very healthy - a sign of the unpolluted air. There is a beautiful Larch just outside the lodge with both young and old cones on it. We had coffee in the library and searched unsuccessfully for a water lily for GB for his birthday.


I photographed the boats in the harbour. Boats always look so romantic in the sunshine - so long as one does not have to go out to earn one's living in them.


As always there was a Herring Gull on guard duty on one of them. A friend of Barry's came around for lunch during which I momentarily broke off to photograph a Hooded crow. Considering how common they are I have had few chances to photograph one as yet.


In the afternoon I played at photographing the garden birds such as a regular visitor, the Greenfinch, before wandering down to the shore and playing with the camera at low tide.



Barry dug out more of his prospective waterfall and claimed to have been hard at work but as this photo from the shore showed he spent part of the time chatting!


The way down to the shore takes one alongside the stream in the adjacent croft and the Yellow flag are just beginning to come into flower there but they cannot as yet match the yellow carpet of Marsh Marigolds. As elsewhere throughout the island every damp part has a good sprinkling of Ladies' Smock.



The quiet little beach immediately below Barry's, with its view of Bayble Island just offshore, was as beautiful as ever. And, also as usual, the lichens so cover the rocks above the water line that their original ground colour is invisible .


The boulders at the top of the beach caught my eye - in particular the beautiful graining of the Gneiss. Gneiss (pronounced 'nice') was formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from preexisting formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.


An Oystercatcher posed politely on the rocks for me.


Among the other birds on the shore were the inevitable Herring Gulls, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and a Ringed Plover, seen above in flight.



A most attractive Cyanea lamarckii jellyfish was washed up on the sand (Barry tells me that I am not allowed to call it beautiful since he can concede how I might think it attractive but not beautiful!) It was a delightful purple colour.



Another tiny jellyfish was floating around - possibly a baby Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita).


One of the seaweeds on the shore was Dabberlocks ( Alaria esculenta) - the length of which can be seen from the bootprint in the sand in the foreground. There was plenty of Sea Lettuce (Ulva lactua) floating around.


A lovely delicate species which I think may be Porphyra umbilicalis was another seaweed being washed around at the tideline.... Barry's friends Pat and Dave came for dinner and Fiona called in at he cheese and biscuits stage. All in all a most pleasant day.


Posted by tigh-na-mara at 12:01 AM BST
Updated: Friday, 8 June 2007 5:06 AM BST
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Sunday, 3 June 2007

Sunday 3rd June 2007


We stayed around Tigh-na-mara all day with the exception of a brief excursion for coffee with a friend of my brother's. There were plenty of insects around including a lot of Snipe Flies (Rhagio scolopaceus).


Among the visitors to the garden so far have been Greenfinches, House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, a Skylark and Starlings. The Rock Pigeons, known to us oldies as Rock Doves, are regular visitors.


GB's garden pond has some Pond Skaters (Gerris species). The Common Pondskater (G. lacustris) is found throughout the British Isles with the exception of the Western Isles and Shetlands so this is an alternative relative.


Unfortunately I don't know what other species are found here. It would be nice if it was Gerris gibbifer as that is found in fewer than five 10k squares in Scotland. The other British species are G. argentatus, G. odontogaster, G. thoracicus.



The garden and the adjacent croft are full of Green-veined Whites at the moment and they are very strongly marked. There are also the occasional Small White and Large White around.



On the way out to visit Barry's friend we pulled in a passing place to let another car through and I took the opportunity to photograph the peats drying on someone's peatbank.


The day ended with a super sunset.



Posted by tigh-na-mara at 12:01 AM BST
Updated: Wednesday, 6 June 2007 5:42 AM BST
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Saturday, 2 June 2007

Saturday 2nd June 2007


Before breakfast (which in my case included haggis and black pudding) I had a little stroll around the hotel and photographed some Butterwort and Sphagnum mosses on the roadside as well as the Elm in the grounds. The owners of the Sconser Lodge , Philip and Debra Grice, are new, having only had it for three weeks.


The glorious weather of yesterday had disappeared but we had the day to explore the island and began with the serpentarium (http://www.skyeserpentarium.org.uk/) at Broadford where we were allowed to hold Goldie, a Royal Python.


We passed The Cuillin; dark and forbidding today.


After coffee, with which we tackled the crossword as usual, at Portree we headed up around Trotternish and stopped first of all to photograph that wonderful mountain, The Storr, a 2359 feet (719 m) high geological masterpiece.


As if this landslip were not enough a 160 foot (50m) high rock called The Old man of Storr, the remains of a volcanic plug, adds to the brilliance of the scenery - whatever the weather.


After exploring the path that leads to abandoned industrial architecture associated with the diatomite industry I photographed Lealt Falls.


Then we stopped at Kilt Rock. This is a 200 foot high cliff of basalt with a tartan like pattern.


In the foreground of the view from the viewpoint is the spectacular waterfall where the River Mealt plunges 200 feet over the cliff.


We had a tea at the Duntulm Castle Hotel in the rain which did not stop me photographing the castle itself. This was first a broch, then a Pictish stronghold before becoming a Viking fortification and then a castle. James V visited it in 1540 and it was abandoned in 1730.


We waited in the rain at Uig for the DSMV Hebrides which was late and after boarding my first trip up on deck yielded sightings of three separate pods of dolphins. Brilliant. Unfortunately the rain and dull light, speed of the ferry and tendency of the dolphins to appear only briefly above the water meant that not a single photo showed them. Got plenty of shots of waves though!



Posted by tigh-na-mara at 12:01 AM BST
Updated: Tuesday, 5 June 2007 4:57 AM BST
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Friday, 1 June 2007

Friday 1st June 2007


We set off from Pensby with lovely blue skies and white cumulus and it was like that for much of the day. We stopped for coffee in Penrith where we came across a pride of Silver Ghost Rolls Royces taking part in the Centennial Scottish tour.


My apologies to all Lowland Scots but I always feel that when one reaches Loch Lomond one has really arrived in Scotland and we stopped at Luss for a bowl of soup at a most pleasant cafe, complete with kilted waiter.


A loo stop at the Welly Stop at Tyndrum was also used as an excuse for an ice cream and I photographed a Swallow settled on a wire.


One of my favourite places in the whole of Great Britain is Rannoch Moor - an area of peat and bog for the most part, laid on granite, of some 50 square miles at a height of over a 1000 feet. It is the Watershed of Central Scotland where rivers start their journeys towards the Atlantic in the west and to the North Sea in the east. Over this area are scattered thousands of enormous rocks which have been torn from the sides of the hills and corries by a giant glacier moving eastwards 20,000 years ago. It has been said that the mood of the Scottish landscape depends upon the weather more than anywhere else on earth and Rannoch moor is a classic example of that. On a sunny day like today it is a gem of gleaming lochans. Rannoch Moor is notable for its wildlife, and was frequently visited by Horace Donisthorpe, who collected many unusual species of ants on the moor and surrounding hilly ground. Peat deposits pose major difficulties to builders of roads and railways. When the West Highland Line was built across Rannoch Moor, its builders had to float the tracks on a mattress of tree roots, brushwood and thousands of tons of earth and ashes.


Black Mount (Stob a' Choire Odhair & Stob Ghabhar) to the West of the A82 over Rannoch Moor still had plenty of snow on the tops We dropped down Glencoe and around to Fort William where we decided to push on to Skye before resting for the night.


On the edge of Loch Duich we stopped to photograph Eilan Donan - my favourite Scottish castle, originally built in 1220. In 1539 a feud between the MacKenzies and the McLeods of Dunvegan, over the disputed claims of Donald Gorm MacDonald to the title of Lord of the Isles, came to head when he attacked the Castle with 50 galleys. He was famously shot and killed by Duncan MacRae with a single arrow. In 1719 the castle was destroyed by the government and it was not until 1932 that the castle was restored and the bridge built.


We crossed the bridge to Skye and after a bit of hunting the Sconser Lodge kindly provided us with beds for the night and an excellent evening meal (in my case of langoustines and steak).


Prior to dinner we wandered the shore outside and admired the glorious sunset and a friendly Rock Pipit.



Posted by tigh-na-mara at 12:01 AM BST
Updated: Monday, 4 June 2007 6:08 PM BST
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