Spring heaven

Wood anemones dripping in the mist yesterday, in the Haunn field.

But today. Another day. And with it sunshine and warmth.  Like a different world.  We went looking for Primroses at lunchtime.

There are remains of walls in unexpected places.  This one runs from the Haunn cottages down to the gate onto the Point.  East cottage guests were sitting in the sun outside the cottage, having their lunch by the look of things, when we walked past. (It was warm enough!)

Birds singing in the wetland area. Prasad is waiting for the Sedge warbler.

And some interesting double gate lamb proof arrangements. Farmer took the second gate off and leaned it against the dyke.

It is wonderful to re-discover the Primroses.  We were beginning to wonder if the sheep had eaten them all.    The photographs do them no justice at all.  The banks and sheltered cliff faces are covered in them.

Wood anemone abound in places where there is no other visible sign of woodland any more.

Dog Violet and Lesser Celandine.

 The faint island shape in the distance beyond the Dun is Iona.

After 18 years Farmer still doesn't tire of the view. (Don't tell him I posted this pic whatever you do.)

This overhanging rock has a small 'fank' carefully constructed by previous shepherds. You can see the stones piled to form a low wall.  We don't know how long ago it was made, but it will have been a useful holding pen perhaps for a sick animal.  Farmer had to lamb a gimmer along the coast the other day, and he used a similar cave to pen her and waited with her and the lamb to make sure they mothered up properly.  Shortly after the successful bonding had taken place, he left her and her lamb, to begin his walk back to the quad with Cap the collie.  Suddenly, out of the blue, with no warning, Cap leapt (as if stung, Farmer thought, by an adder) and killed a mink.  Farmer was astounded as Cap is no hunter.  The mink was killed instantly and Cap was unharmed. (Mink can be very vicious).

In 2005/6 we got a grant to do lots of different bits of regeneration and largely (to my mind) Due to Farmer's vision of wildlife corridors linking parcels of existing woodland across the in-bye, we were given a helping hand by the Forestry Commision and an ecologist was sent to survey the in-bye for interesting tree stories. He told us that this was Salix Arbuscula (mountain willow) and that this was quite special for a site this far south.  Prasad is not sure that it is Salix Arbuscula!

Calgary Beach from the Point with Ardnamurchan behind.

In the foreground, and slightly out of focus, is Sea Campion.  The feed plant for the very rare Grey Moth which is found here. Last year, Tom Prescott brought 2 moth experts with him to trap moths here, and the Grey was one which they really hoped to find.  In the end, they didn't see a Grey, but they did take some sea campion back to Aberdeen with eggs on it. And luckily for them, some of the eggs were from the Grey.

The Point used to be grazed with cattle as well as sheep, but we have not put our cows out here because the cliffs are SO steep.  We prefer people not to walk with dogs here if the sheep are grazing it.

I think this is Bitter Vetch.

The steep cliffs of the Point.

And the view back to Calgary.

Willow flowering.

A stonecrop emerging.

 And the prettiest wood sorrel. Again growing where there are no trees.

The primroses are difficult to photograph in their carpeting numbers.  But if you strain your eyes perhaps you can make out the yellow spots here. The style at the top of the picture is one Guy made last week.

Primroses again on almost vertical cliff.

A lot of rain.

Dog violet again.

 Colts-foot again.

King cup or marsh marigold in a wet bit of grasses.

Another bank of Primrose.

Wood anemone again.

Lesser Celandine again.

King cup growing in a sheltered burn guarded by willow.

Without fencing, this area of reeds would be heavily grazed.

We saw a pair of Golden Eagle, Ravens, Skylarks, Wheatear, white butterflies too far below us on the scary steep cliff to identify and just below the Haunn cottages a Peacock butterfly rested long enough for me to catch it on a primrose.

Lichens and new leaves

A damp walk through the Atlantic hazel woodland beside the Ensay burn.  This woodland is deer fenced along the hill side and along the Ensay burn.  This is the woodland we are looking after to protect Hazel Gloves Fungus and also some nationally rare lichens.  

At this time of year it is easier to see the progress of the natural regeneration, as the tiny saplings show up when their bright green leaves open.  

Bedraggled wood anemone.

Wild honeysuckle.

New leaves on new trees.

Lichen thriving in the clean sea air.

No sheep or cows are allowed to graze in here, so it is well fenced. Every now and then our neighbours sheep are accidently 'pushed' over the boundary cattle grid, and we have to round them up and get them out again! 

The editing on Prasad's book (Birds of Treshnish and North Mull) is nearly finished, and so it will be published soon.  I will post a link once it is available - as an ebook initially.

A mixed week

With all but a handful of in-bye ewes left to lamb, we are half way through, time wise.  The tups are usually with the ewes for 6 weeks (from the end of November until just after New Year) which governs the length of time 'lambing' goes on for - give or take a few days for premature or late lambs! The ewe fertility cycle is 17 days and so we expect 75-80% of our ewes to have lambed by the end of the third week.  This doesn't mean Farmer can put his feet up through.  You still have to check as often for 5 ewes as 50.  However, it is a relief to be able to see that most of the ewes have lambs now, on the hill as well as in bye.

Yesterday was horrendously wet and cold and so Farmer was on the look out for lambs who might have misplaced their mothers (or vice versa) and got too cold.  This morning he has brought a new born  lamb into the house whose mother appeared to have walked off (sometimes happens with gimmers/ewes having their first lambs) and having had a feed, it is currently warming up under the lamp.

I accidently disturbed a greylag goose from her nest on this stoney little beach on the east coast of the island between Salen and Fishnish. Such big eggs!

Coltsfoot.

There is lots of wild garlic around and it is lovely to see the marsh marigold coming up now in sheltered damp spots.  The larch is brilliantly green and the needles at the soft and luscious stage.

Clumps of foxgloves growing. I am NOT looking for the first bracken fronds.  I know some people have seen some, but I don't want to see it.  We will be not looking for it on the 77 hectares that we had aerially treated last summer, but anxiously hoping it will have been successful.

The copse of geans have suffered in the wind, just as they were beginning to flower. The ground underneath is littered with their delicate petals.

Guy has been helping out with a few chores - putting in styles and hanging gates. At last we have a style beside the graveyard.  Cap is moving kennel and Guy has gated the kennels now so that they are more private.  Cap is a very passive unaggressive dog, but quite often dogs (walking through the yard with their owners) would run up to him in his kennel, so now he can be undisturbed as they won't be able to see him. 

Another job which Farmer has been desperately looking for time to do, is cutting back some of the brambles in the in-bye fields.  As I have written about before, with the grazing restrictions at certain times of year, the brambles have really been growing upwards and outwards in several of the herb rich fields. So it is good to have had Guy's time cutting them back a bit. 

Along Loch na Keal.  

Tobermory - Wednesday afternoon sunshine.

The goldfinches are really enjoying the seed feeder. Bird photography is not my forte, but I crept up on this one as I only had a 100mm lens on the camera at the time. 

The RSPB are coming to do a twite survey on the farm next week.  They will be comparing the results of this year's survey with the last one they did here in 1999.  We were 4 years in to the ESA conservation management scheme then,  and 1999 was the year we went organic although we had stopped using artifical fertilisers a few years before that.  Hopefully the survey will show an improvement in numbers!!  I was busy earlier in the week getting some photographs and information ready for Plantlife as they are doing a Case Study on the farm for a paper on farming for wildlife.  

The River Bellart bursting its banks yesterday after a day of rains.

Highland Wood Energy came to service the wood chip boiler this week.  Apart from a cracked grate (which will need replacing at the next service), everything was deemed to be working well, so that was good to hear.

It must be Beltane - the bull is out.

This ewe is one of the few in-bye sheep which haven't yet lambed.  There were only about 5, last night, out of 120 who didn't yet have a lamb or two at their feet.  They do seem to have lambed quickly this year, despite the weather, and Farmer is attributing this to 2 reasons.  The first is that we took the lambs off in August last year, which gives the ewes a month longer in which to recover their condition before going to the tup again in late November.  In 2011, the lambs were late coming off the ewes because Farmer was effectively off work because of his bad back, waiting for his operation and reliant on others to help when they could. The second thought is that he had put Brownie (Zwartie neutered male pet lamb) in the same field, and he must have been acting as a 'teaser'!  Whatever the reason, it is great to know that this lot are so close to complete.

I am sorry I didn't get a photograph of the momentous occasion of the bull 'going out'.  Farmer decided to let him join the cows a couple of days early.  He normally goes out on Beltane - today - May 1.  The cows have all returned to the hill now, and Farmer hasn't reported back as to how things are going, but presumably fine!  I will try and get some photographs of him soon.

Cold but sunny weather to start the week.

Jan..waiting...waiting...

This is Macaskills stone.  The story of this stone is that Macaskill from Bunessan walked up to Treshnish from the Ross of Mull to a gathering at Treshnish and when he arrived he took part in a show of strength, and showed his strength by lifting this stone above his head in his bare hands.   He was a tall man, and very strong, by all accounts.

The wetland area adjacent to the Haunn field is beginning to get some colour back.

I really struggle to successfully photograph sunny banks of primroses.

This ewe is so attentive to her lambs and as soon as she could, she quietly took them away.

Slightly mad looking ewe and lamb up in the top corner of the hill park.