Allt nan Gobhar Walk

Our weather over the last few weeks has been dominated by southeasterly winds. From memory, the prevailing winds and storms of twenty years ago were mainly southwesterlies, often going round into the west. An easterly has always been unusual, but that's what we have today, a stiff wind bringing occasional showers. Being soft after the pleasures of Christmas and the new year, we chose a walk today which was protected from the wind, leaving the car at the forestry corner just before the Kilmory turn (see map at end of post) and walking down into the glen of the Allt nan Gabhar, the goat burn, and then following it upstream towards Ben Hiant.

There's an impressive stone circle not far from the road, which is either a bronze to iron age hut circle or a rather older kerb cairn, though no signs of a cist burial are visible today. We found it some years ago and logged it on Highland Council's Historic Environment Register, but an officer of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland visited it in 2014 and recorded it - here - his/her conclusion being that it was a hut circle.

There are plenty of other signs of past human occupation. Although it may not look like it, the loose rocks beside the burn at bottom right of this picture are some sort of shelter, possibly the remains of yet another illicit whisky still, though this one isn't close to a waterfall as are all the others.

It's almost impossible to enjoy a walk across Ardnamurchan's hills without disturbing deer. These ones were part of a group of five which were lying down minding their own business when we spoilt their day. Although the forestry is separated from the open land by a deer fence, much of this is down in enough places for the deer to be able to clear it easily.

The Allt nan Gobhar is a lovely little burn, with plenty of rapids and waterfalls. While it isn't at its best on a grey January day, walking gently along it, listening to the bubble of the water, is a great pleasure; and, as always on these walks, there's something unusual to find, in today's case....

....another mound of the mysterious white jelly which we've found before - see earlier post here. The various links from that post make all sorts of suggestions as to what this can be, from frog spawn to 'star snot' to remnants of recent meteorite showers to fungus and or smashed jellyfish. This time, purely in the interests of science, we dissected the biggest of the blobs, on the right, and found that....

....it covered a compact mass of dark eggs very like frogspawn. Since the jelly was on a steep, gravelly slope about ten metres above the burn, something has to have moved it there, and the best suggestion is one that has been given before, that something like a heron ate either the spawn itself or a female frog carrying it, and then regurgitated it.

We followed the burn to the point where is emerges from the forestry, looking back towards the road with Beinn na Leathaid on the right and a distant Meall nan Con towards the left horizon. If only the sun had been out....

Satellite picture courtesy Bing Maps.

Goldeneye and Other Birds

This goldeneye, the first we've seen here, was spotted yesterday on Lochan na Cranaig on the Portuairk road. He was paddling around looking very lonely, as if he really wasn't sure how he'd found his way to such a remote spot.

Goldeneye populations vary from a few hundred breeding pairs in summer through to 20,000 visitors in winter, coming from northern and central Europe (BTO site here).

Back in November the Diary carried a distant view of a diver - here - swimming on Lochan nan Al by the shop. Correspondent David identified it as a female red-breasted merganser. Here's a better picture of what may be the same bird swimming on Kilchoan Bay on an unusually calm day.

We cannot recall having seen as many eagles as we have in the last few weeks. This pair of golden eagles was wheeling above Ormsaigbeg yesterday, but we've also had almost a daily fly-by by at least one sea eagle.

Closer to home, after a long absence, we were thrilled to see a pair of siskins back on our peanut feeders. This picture, taken yesterday, shows the male. A few months ago he wouldn't have tolerated a chaffinch feeding from the same plate, but the competition is now so fierce that he cannot afford to be fussy.

We last saw the male blackcap two days before Christmas. The female has stayed, and has the huge advantage over the other birds that, set up as they are, the two sultana feeders are now inaccessible except to her and the occasional bluetit, so she has her own, private food supply. She also eats peanuts, and is quite willing to fight for a place on those feeders. She has also been seen at the seed trays. We mourn her partner, and hope he wasn't eaten by the sparrowhawk, which is currently very active.

Welcome to 2016!

A Death below Torr na Moine

I passed the Raptor on my way out of the village this morning. He was deeply upset, having just done something with which many, including myself, will deeply empathise. On his walk he had seen three eagles, a golden eagle and a pair of sea eagles, the latter flying over him so low that, as he shot them with his trusty Lumix, he knew the pictures would be quite exceptionally good. They weren't: he had left his camera on the manual focus setting.

I was on my way to Camas nan Geall, so he left me with the thought that, for there to be so many raptors wheeling in the skies over Ben Hiant, there must be something dead somewhere.

I reached Camas nan Geall just as the sun was coming out. My objective for the day was the low headland to the west of the bay. The reef offshore is called Sgeir Fhada, the long skerry, and the headland to its landward is described by Historic Scotland as the site of a prehistoric fort which is of sufficient importance to be scheduled. The easiest way to reach the fort is across the hill, Torr na Moine, which rises behind it, so....

....I drove back along the road and parked the car near the bridge by which the Kilchoan road crosses the Allt Torr na Moine. It's best to keep to the higher land as Torr na Moine, the hill of the moor or bog, is well-named but, once one reaches it, it does offer....

....fine views westwards towards Stellachan Dubha, one of my favourites particularly in sunshine. Hidden in the wide glen between here and Stellachan Dubha is the cleared village of Bourblaige.

As one follows the ridge the views towards the road open to another cleared clachan, Torr na Moine. When this clachan was cleared, along with Bourblaige in 1828, a large sheep fank was built on its site, and this is visible in the centre of this picture, to the right of the ruined house.

The prehistoric fort is just to the right of the bracken-covered hill, and was occupied today by a solitary sheep. The site is hardly worth a visit as there's nothing to be seen there, yet it is a scheduled monument - which is deeply disappointing when it is compared, say, to the fort at Rubha nah-Uamha on the north coast, which isn't.

By this time, with the sun fading, the skies were becoming increasingly busy with crows, which reminded me of what the Raptor had said, so I climbed to the summit of Torr na Moine, found a convenient rock and sat to watch them.

This view looks across to an intriguing area of marsh land which was once worked, and on to the coast of northwest Mull. On this side of the marsh there was a rare sight at this time of year, a small group of people who had left their car at Camas nan Geall and had worked their way round the coast before making for Bourblaige. It's a super walk.

The eagle pictured in the top photo came over, probably saw me, and left again. Soon after, a pair of ravens settled beside a ditch in a boggy area of ground below me and began to feed, while five hooded crows landed not far away to wait their turn.

As usual, the Raptor was right. A sheep had become stuck in the bog and died there. Given the chance, hoodies and ravens have a habit of pecking out the eyes of lambs and sheep as hors-d'oeuvres, so one hopes that this animal had died first.

After the Storm

Sunset this evening from Ardnamurchan Point.

The island of Coll is visible to the right, and Mull to the left.

Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird for the picture.