| The
season of 2003
Once again my sincere
thanks to everyone who came along with us to explore the Hebrides
and see the wonderful wildlife during 2003. The sheer variety and
numbers of the wildlife this year was staggering - from many, many
dolphins to innumerable basking sharks (they are supposed to be
scarce??), from fabulous sightings of sea eagles and wildcats to
Sabine's gulls and killer whales! The flowers were again superb,
and the sunrises and sunsets awe inspiring!
We were fortunate in
having Peter Green join us as mentor on a watercolour week which
proved to be a splendid success.
But best of all was being able to take so many lovely people to
the islands and share moments of real pleasure with them. We saw
magnificent sights, ate some superb food, and explored some wonderful
places. We saw fantastic wildlife, but as usual it was the company
that proved to be most important to all our enjoyment of the trips.
I hope you will enjoy
sharing just some of those special moments looking at the images
and words that follow.
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The
worst and best job of the whole year is going through the
thousands of images I took during the summer - this season
even more than normal thanks to being a profligate digital
user!! No more worries about film and processing costs.
The
bad part is the time it takes. The good bit is enjoying seeing
all the faces, places, animals and flowers once again - that
takes me back in circular fashion to the bad part - yet more
time spent simply wishing I was back at sea and hoping next
season comes again quickly!! |
The weather this
year was OK - not as hot and sunny as down south, but still
fine for our purpose. All the trips to St Kilda went well
except for one! Still could have been worse - this is an image
taken by Doug, one of the SERCO workers on Hirta, showing
village bay and the pier in February - no thanks!!
The pier is about
twenty five feet high!!
I try to find better
weather when we go!
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| This image of Dun
shows the sort of weather we were to find later in the summer
at St Kilda! |
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Things on Hirta
seem to have changed little since the NTS took over from SNH.
The museum has been updated, perhaps even improved, it is
certainly different.
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Meanwhile on the
slopes of Ruaival, at what was thought to be the site of St
Brianan's (St Brendan- a contemporary of St Columba) chapel,
archaeological excavations are under way.
However, the latest
work seems to indicate the remains are much older and possibly
of more agricultural origins, perhaps an ancient shieling
amongst the screes dating back to prehistoric times.
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To
our great surprise on one of our visits to Kilda, the "Discovery"
an enormous cruise ship arrived in the bay intent on landing
600 passengers!! Low water at the pier prevented them landing
and they settled for tours around village bay for which we
were very thankful. |
Meanwhile,
members of NATO, in particular the US Navy, were conducting
exercises in the Minches, using live firing and of course
high intensity SONAR.
The
effect on our cetacean population is inestimable but we were
unable to find any minke until this one came close to us while
we were on anchor in Vatersay bay (Barra). It seemed to be
sheltering very close inshore in order to be sheltered by
the islands from the military noises outside.
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Some good news -
there has been concern over the last few years about the state
of the basking shark population. This year they appeared in
greater numbers than I have seen for twenty years. Here we
have two sharks - a male closely following a female with mating
in mind.
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| During our travels
we seemed to come across white tailed sea eagles everywhere
- from Skye to Loch Maddy, Morvern to Mull and of course Canna. |
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On one occasion
we spotted movement on the foreshore which we were pretty
sure, after much discussion, was likely to be a wildcat and
kitten. Later, back at the office, I was able to compare the
images with examples in textbooks which confirmed our identification.
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For the first time
we held a watercolour week, with Peter Green aboard as mentor.
This was the scene on the pier at Arinagour on Coll.
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Being
able to take advantage of the deck combined with a traveling
studio (the boat!) provided excellent opportunities for the
artistic temperament.
Peter proved to be exceptional as a teacher as well as an
artist in his own right.
I
hope we can run some more courses again in the future
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At times the waters
around the islands seemed to full of dolphins - in this case
the characteristic hour glass markings are clear on this common
dolphin.
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We
saw a lot of whale activity including a Sei whale (no pictures
unfortunately) and a couple of good sightings of Orcas - again
no decent images though.
Still
the minke proved more cooperative although I'm not sure whether
this one was surge feeding on sprats or trying to grab kittiwakes!!
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Sometimes the
colours of the flowers and the sea and sky seemed to be so intense
under the summer sun - here at Traigh Ghael on the Ross of Mull. |
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The thyme broomrape
was still there
(left) as was the narrow leaved
hellaborine (right)
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While
the flowers were very special everywhere this year, the machair
was exceptional and on occasion, as here on Coll, we waded
through a profusion of flowers exploding with colour. |
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Among the flowers
we found lots of butterflies including Scots argus (left)
and this speckled wood (right)
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Goose barnacles.Sometimes
at sea, we came across some oceanic wanderers such as this
metre long sunfish (left) or these goose barnacle (right),
both having come in from mid Atlantic.
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So all in all it was
a wonderful summer once again. Now we look forward eagerly to 2004
and what that will bring for us.
Once again
we will be going to St Kilda on some trips, round the Western Isles
on others and doing our usual 6 day wildlife cruises.
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