#BWKM0 comes to Skye!

Earlier this week I blogged in anger, I think it was pretty clear for all to see. So I've pulled it down and have started afresh. I've kept the original couple of paragraphs, lightly edited, so feel free to just skip those. This was how it started...

You'd be forgiven for thinking that I'd quit this blogging malarkey, what with it being some two months since the last post. But no, nothing of the sort. I've been busy keeping my 2020 Vision Challenge alive and kicking, the idea being to concentrate on beetles and flies throughout 2020 with the overall aim of becoming slightly more proficient in these orders. If you're at all interested in flies or beetles, you'd do well to click the link and see what I've been up to lately (in truth, my 2020 blog is currently far more active than this one). And it's working, already I can recognise a sciarid, simulid or trichocerid, amongst others, at a glance. My beetle knowledge is coming on in leaps and bounds, largely thanks to several days spent in the company of beetle guru Mark Telfer on his home turf. 

In fact, my dipteran and coleopteran totals are completely running away with themselves. So far, I've managed to see and identify 27 species of fly (including 12 lifers) from 21 families and 93 species of beetle (including a whopping 51 lifers!) from 23 families - excellent!

And then the coronavirus-related restrictions hit. As some of you may know, I live and work in a hotel up here on Skye. Bojo stated that all bars and restaurants were to close, though initially he didn't specify that hotels needed to shut down. Regardless, the bosses saw the writing on the wall and shut up shop a day ahead of Boris stating that all hotels needed to close their doors too. This quickly led to every single member of staff being forced into furlough apart from me. Turns out that being the sole gardener and maintenance man on site, my services will be required throughout. Ho hum, it's not that bad actually. As Skev quite rightly pointed out, many people up and down the country now have nothing better to do than a spot of gardening and maintenance. At least I'm being paid for it and I still have a roof over my head.

***New bit***

Since I wrote that, we've entered proper lockdown and the majority of the locals seem to be taking it pretty seriously. There are eight live-in staff at the hotel and I'd already managed to create a second kitchen area in a separate building from the residential one. This was in an effort to reduce time spent breathing each others' air in the staff kitchen. It seemed to be working, life was pretty good, my social distancing was working well, this wasn't so bad after all. 

Then a flippin tanker ran aground on some rocks just offshore. A state of emergency was called and the hotel was asked to open up to the salvage crews that were flocking to Skye in an attempt to shore up the damage and stop any more diesel spilling into the sea. Now the hotel has full occupancy and all thoughts of keeping the hotel virus-free seem to have evaporated in front of my eyes. About a third of the staff have been brought back to deal with the new arrivals. Initial thoughts are that they'll be here for three weeks, hence they'll be using the staff washing machines and tumble dryer. Deep joy. 

But enough of that doom and gloom, the weather has been great for a few days now, though it was bitterly cold today. I've been spending more daylight hours online than I usually do since lockdown happened. One blog I always visit is North Downs and Beyond as written by Steve Gale, a birder/botanist and occasional PSLer who I've met a couple of times before. Nice chap, great blog too. Anyway, it was from his blog that I heard about #BWKM0 and, after a bit of thought, figured I'd join in the fun and give it a whirl. Why not? You can see the listings of folks taking part via Steve's site by clicking here, which is the day I signed up. 

I was doing paperwork in the dining hall (this was before all the salvage chaps arrived) and glanced out of the window in time to see a shockingly bright white gull fly across the bay and land on a gravelly spit exposed by the low tide. WTF, I ran to my room, grabbed my bins and camera, dashed back and it was still there, an Iceland Gull - get in!!!

I can tell you're all massively impressed.......

To be fair, it was quite a way away. In fact, this is the same view but without the binoculars. It's on the mud just to the left of the sign, in case you can't quite make it out, haha!

Skye without tourists - paradise! 

Whilst looking at the Iceland Gull, I spotted a few Oystercatchers probing away and four Red-breasted Mergansers were busy fishing in the shallows. Both common birds up here, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen mergs from the hotel before. Whenever I want to view the birds in the bay, I go down to the bay! It was this double-whammy that finally decided me, my #BWKM0 Lockdown List had officially begun! I then worked out my "from the hotel list" which came out at 62 species, plus the gull and mergs making it 64. Previous avian highlights have been regular sightings of both eagles, a Waxwing that briefly landed in a tree in the grounds, flyover Whooper Swans and a skein of Barnacle Geese. There's been a Carrion Crow at the pier recently, it's about a mile away across the bay but I know the roof it often sits on. Plus there aren't any Rooks here, other than occasional flyovers, so any black corvid on a roof near the pier should be it. Fingers crossed it's still there! For those wondering why I'd be at all bothered about seeing a Carrion Crow, we don't usually get them on Skye, it's all Hoodies up here. One chap found a Magpie in his garden a few days back, some fifty miles from here (lockdown birding to the fore) which means there are definitely two on Skye at the moment. Will they ever meet each other though? 

Precious little else of note has been happening of late. I did a massive trip to England and met up with The Ghost and Mark Telfer, both of whom put me up (and put up with me) in their house. Ghost is just ace, highlights included severely lopping a tree in his garden and not falling off the ladder, twitching alien plants and other plastic dross in a carpark and not seeing a guaranteed glued on Little Owl.

The Ghost with Galium murale, a lifer for both of us. It's the stuff in between the paving blocks too

I also discovered the joys of using an LED ring light on a microscope, I have my own now and can't think how I got by with the desklamp up until then. Mark had been suffering full on man-flu for the entirety of February and was almost at the point of backing out of an entomological bashing of Whipsnade Zoo's hot house that he'd organised. Thankfully, a couple of hours in 30 degree humid heat seemed to do the trick and he perked up no end. 

But I think the overall highlight of the England trip was meeting a couple of TinyDudes I've wanted to meet for a long time. Magic, pure magic!

It's only TinyBirder himself!!! On my nose!!!! 

And as if that wasn't enough to make me almost wet myself with excitement, look who else was there

And TinyRecorder too!!!!

Whilst the rest of us made do with coffee or tea, TinyDudes' chauffeur sat there ramming a full on meal down his neck. He's not a pig, he just has the constitution of a shrew and starts auto-digesting his own body organs after a couple of hours without food. Never seen anyone finish their meal and then eat the napkin too...

But back to Skye. 

Obviously there is no way of knowing how long this lockdown is going to last, I fear the government will use it as an example of why we should blithely do whatever they tell us to do in the future. Worrying times. I'm not overly worried about ending up in hospital should I contract coronavirus. Chances are I've been exposed to it already, the amount of folks that came through the hotel from various parts of the country before it shut, then the influx of salvage workers yesterday, plus the community shop is another obvious source for contagion. It's the absolute hub of the community now, well it always was anyway, but there's only it and the petrol station that are open here. It's 15 odd miles to Portree with its co-op and a bit more than that across to Staffin where the other shop is located. They don't even let you in the door at Staffin Stores, you say what you want and they go get it, contactless payment only too. Fair play.  

Meanwhile I shall be ducking around the salvage crews and other staff members, hoping to stay fit, hoping the situation will ease to the point that I can actually go see my girlfriend and that some degree of normality returns sooner rather than later. Same as everyone else is hoping, let's face it.

Spring is officially on the way!

Talking of Spring being on its way, the clocks went forward tonight. Damnit, that means I'm writing this at 2:20am not 1:20am and I have breakfast being made for me at 7:15am. Right, laters folks. Sorry for the lack of blogposts lately, that'll change now thanks to #BWKM0 and the steadily improving weather!