It's Snowtime!

I had the first part of the day to myself, not having to be on shift until the evening. A Little Egret, still a rare bird on Skye, had recently taken up residency halfway down the Sleat Peninsular. Ordinarily it would take me about fifteen minutes to drive to the saltmarsh in question but, thanks to the overnight snow, today it took me nearer half an hour. Happily the roads soon became black again once the snow started to melt. 

You can't see it (though I did), but there's a Little Egret at the far end of that channel.

I pinged the pic to Ghostie, who soon came back with "Ha ha, that'll put a stop to your botany". Such a silly sausage, does he really think a bit of snow is gonna thwart my plans?

Gritters? Pah, we don't bother with those things 'round here! 

 I'm lucky to live in a such a wonderfully scenic part of the world

With the Little Egret safely secured for my Skye Yearlist, I headed to nearby Kyleakin for a couple of plants I knew I could locate despite the snow cover. They fell easily, seeing as the snow was substantially less than 7ft deep.

These are the two Gaultheria that occur on Skye - Shallon and Prickly Heath

Prickly Heath Gaultheria mucronata is widely scattered across much of Skye where it has a worrying habit of forming thickets and invading open areas. Shallon Gaultheria shallon is much more restricted up here, though it too is highly invasive where it does occur. This is the only site where I've seen them growing shoulder to shoulder. Other shrubs of note included a self-sown Darwin's Barberry Berberis darwinii, an entire thicket of Himalayan Honeysuckle Leycesteria formosa and quite a lot of Himalayan Cotoneaster Cotoneaster simonsii. I imagine there were probably some native plants too, hidden away amongst the aliens.

Himalayan Honeysuckle Leycesteria formosa was still in fairly good condition

The huge shaggy lichen Tree Lungwort Lobaria pulmonaria

I briefly popped into Kyleakin itself, just to have a scan across the water in search of waterfowl and gulls. Not too much happening birdwise, though an Otter and a distant Harbour Porpoise swam past me. A pair of Black-throated Divers seemed to be loosely following the Otter around, I wondered if they were using it as a means of spooking panicked fish in their direction. 

Kyleakin is a very reliable spot for White Ramping-fumitory, so obviously I went looking for that. It didn't take long to find, there's quite a lot of it here, but what I didn't expect was to peer over the harbour wall and find myself staring at a small patch of Red Valerian! I've never seen Red Valerian on Skye, in fact the sole site for it anywhere near here is in Kyle, growing on a roadside cliff. After that, I have no idea where else it occurs locally. I took a pic and pinged it to Stephen Bungard, BSBI Recorder for Skye.

Not exactly looking its finest, but this is Red Valerian Centranthus ruber

Looking at the BSBI database, it seems that Red Valerian is long known from the walls of Dunvegan Castle and there's just one other record from the pavement outside of a garden, also in Dunvegan. And that's it for Skye. Nice one!

Pleased with my unexpected bonus plant, I very almost drove right past another significant find. I did a double-take, spun the car around and went to check I wasn't imagining things.

The Hoodie hybrid is back!

We don't have Carrion Crows on Skye, other than the very occasional vagrant bird. I saw the one that arrived at Uig Pier several years back, but I can't think of any others in the eight years that I've been here. We do have a great many Hooded Crows though. And every once in a blue moon a hybrid bird appears. I first found this bird back in March 2024, at least I think it's the same bird. The markings on the lower flank look the same/very similar if not. It stayed for a few weeks and then disappeared. And yet here it is back again! I wonder if it's been here all along, unnoticed amongst the Hoodies, or if it's just here for its winter holidays again. 

Last year I reported it to the bird recorder as a Hoodie hybrid. Eventually I managed to get a decent enough image to submit to his website, whereupon he berated me "That's a Carrion Crow hybrid! You told us it was a Hoodie hybrid!!" Umm..? So this time, rather than be accused of anything untoward, I pinged the pic to the WhatsApp group, calling it a dark hybrid Hoodie. That evening it went onto the website as "Crow hybrid: hybrid Carrion/Hooded Crow at Kyleakin (SG)". 

I'm currently weighing up options regards replacing my lost camera. I'll probably end up with another Olympus TG-series, if only because they can be dunked underwater and I already know how to use them. But, being honest, I think the macro abilities of the TG-5 are better in terms of sharpness than its successors. Anyway, I'll see if I can see one in the sales maybe. Let's see if I can manage not to lose/break/wear out the new one within the space of a year.