Today was the May Day Flower Ramble with Ranger Mike. After breakfast we headed down to the village hall to meet Mike and the other attendee (just one person today).
It was billed as a 3 hour gentle ramble around the village and coast to explore the early flowers but as there was only a small group we ended up looking at other stuff too. We saw various plants and flowers, heathers and grasses and tried a few wild herbs. Mike showed us a greylag goose nest and we looked at the eggs (four) the goose is sitting on. We saw oystercatchers, red throated divers, eider ducks and various gulls, looked at some insectivorous plants, learnt about gorse and various other stuff.
The weather here (continues to be) has be wonderful – we have all caught the sun today.
We introduced ourselves to Morag (the schoolteacher) who seems quite nice if a bit teacher-ish ;). She is on her third border collie so was more effusive about Bonnie than anything else :).
The walk finished over by the otter hide on the beach so we all sat and chatted awhile. Bonnie was exhausted – 3 hour rambles are too much for wee puppies ;). We pottered back in our own time and went up to the static for lunch. Then we left the kids and Bonnie there with walkie talkies (which cover certainly the whole of the village and pier up to our croft) so they could do some drawing, reading, writing and stuff. Ady and I first filled up our water containers, took our rubbish to the pier and then went to introduce ourselves to Ronnie who runs the Shearwater boat trips and will take islanders out on a wildlife tour on a Thursday with Mike giving commentary and providing spotter books, binoculars etc. We’re planning to do that on Thursday this week and potentially most weeks as the boat drops tourists on Rum and then goes across to deliver the post to Soay (small island off Skye) which is when Mike does his wildlife tour, a three hour-ish round trip depending on what wildlife is out there. Previous spots include whales (minke and humpback), sharks (basking), dolphins (bottlenose, risso, short beak) poipoise, sunfish and a wide variety of sea virds including shearwaters and eagles. Can’t wait 🙂
We also met Carl from Eigg who was over here doing a bit of work but we’d heard of when we were on Eigg as he is a bit of an eco warrior and self builder. He was away on the Shearwater but offered help with static siting in the future.
Next we had a foiled attempt at starting our Odd Job role by replacing a broken kerosene tank lid but the new one doesn’t fit. We walked back to the castle to speak to Vikki about it but she was working from home as the castle workmen were too noisy. I thought we could take a short cut through the woods to her house but it turned out we couldn’t so that was a rather hilarious walk 😆
We checked in with her and then returned to the kerosene tank to jot down some more information about the make and model and then Mike appeared declaring it beer o’clock and offering liquid refreshment. That seemed like the very best plan at 530 on a sunny afternoon so we joined him and got the kids to come down with Bonnie too.
A couple of drinks and chats with the locals later Ady and the kids have returned to the static and I’m having a quick catch up online.
can’t wait to come up and be taught about all the wildlife there from you all, you’ll be experts by September!
Loving reading, so glad all is going well xxx
Comment by Kirsty — 01 May 2012 @ 8:43 pm
You’re going to have to stop calling your fellow villagers “the locals” you know 😉
Comment by Alison — 01 May 2012 @ 10:03 pm
And when does ‘the static’ become home?
Comment by Em — 03 May 2012 @ 2:08 pm