There is a special event on 24th January at Ettrick Bay on Bute. It’s being run in connection with the RSPB’s 30th anniversary Big Garden Birdwatch which For Argtll has reported on below.
The new hide is being opened, RSPB staff will be there to help in identifying birds, answering wildlife-related questions and telling people about the wildlife and healthy living initiative run through the Bute Landscape Partnership Scheme.
This will be the 30th anniversary of the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch and it has set itself the target of breaking the record of the number of people involved to mark the anniversary. It’s asking for help from Argyll to do this – for one hour of your choice next weekend on24th and 25th January.
You simply spend that hour watching, identifying and counting the wildlife in your own garden or a nearby park or woodland anywhere in Argyll and the islands.
Big Garden Birdwatch has grown into the biggest garden wildlife watching event in the world, helping to provide vital information about how some of our best loved species are faring.
Last year, 1,103 people in Argyll and Bute took part in the survey, and found that the chaffinch was the most common garden bird, just above the house sparrow and the blue tit. Chaffinches were spotted in 93.3% of gardens with an average of 10.64 birds per garden.
Jenny Tweedie, RSPB Scotland Media and Communication Officer, says: ‘The Big Garden Birdwatch has grown massively since 1979 when we first organised it. People that haven’t taken part before will find it a really enjoyable way to bring the whole family together for just an hour, to learn more about the wealth of wildlife that we’re lucky to have.
‘The record number of people to have taken part in Scotland is just under 30,000, out of a UK total of almost 400,000, so this year we really want to break through that 30,000 barrier for the 30th anniversary.
‘It’s really easy to get a form for results, as well as a guide to recognising the most common birds, either at our birdwatch website or by phoning us on 0300 456 8330. And the sheer number of results that we get helps us to understand how some of our common birds like the robin, blackbird and chaffinch are faring’.
The Keep Scotland Beautiful people have started a ‘Litter Pledge’ campaign – which is a good idea and needs as much publicity as we can all give it. Do it yourself – at the link above – and let as many people know as pssible.
This is also particularly timely. One of the problems that drove the establishment of weekend barriers at the Inveraray and Furnace ends of the old coastal track between them was appalling littering by weekend visitors.
Argyll man, Highlands MSP Jamie McGrigor has called for the retention of the Bill Hire scheme and, as For Argyll recently reported, secured a debate on the matter at Holyrood at which he spoke.
Now Dave Thompson, Highlands and Islands MSP, speaking in this debate, has urged Environment Minister Michael Russell, to bring forward a new version of the scheme to replace the one about to be closed.
433 crofters currently take advantage of the Government funded scheme which provides bull hire services throughout Scotland.
Mr Thompson says that the continuation of the current scheme, under state aide de minimus arrangements, would mean that the charge for a single bull would have to be raised by nearly 150 per cent, from £500 to £1,250.
Accepting that this makes the current scheme non-viable, Mr Thompson says: ‘There is no doubt that the bull hire scheme has had a positive effect on the maintenance of cattle quality and numbers, provided environmental and agricultural benefits and, over the past 100 years, encouraged local economic activity.
‘The fact is that the scheme now is neither economically viable nor allowable under state aid rules. The important point is to implement its replacement as soon as possible.
‘The same members who incorrectly claim that the Scottish Government has totally underestimated the importance of the current bull hire scheme are the same members who began the review of the scheme under the previous Administration, and oversaw its rundown while in power.
‘The Scottish Government is producing a viable alternative that will meet crofters’ needs while being economically justifiable.
‘It is with the 433 crofters who utilise the scheme in mind that I urge the Minister to ensure the replacement scheme has the same health and quality standards and accessibility as the old scheme and that, most important of all, it is operational by the time that the current scheme closes’.
At the end of last week, on 15th January, Environment Minister Michael Russell announced his proposed replacement arrangements. They are:
Following the success of the last series, Henri Macaulay is taking another sequence of Gaelic classes on Gigha for beginners and improvers.
The classes run over four weekends – each the last in the month – starting at the end of January and running through February, March and April.
It’s not all nose-to-the-grindstone. The classes are famously fun and conversational – and there’s a ceilidh on each Sunday night.
You don’t have to live on Gigha to come there and start on the language of Earra Gaidheal. The Gigha Hotel is offering a special deal for the weekends of the Gaelic courses. Get information on the Gigha website or phone: 01583 505 101 for more details.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d0ff82cc-0e52-4ff5-a81f-eaaaf3a86066)
The Rice family’s 33,000 acre estate at Dundonnell in Wester Ross is at the heart of a project to re-establish the red squirrel in the north west Highlands of Scotland, after an absence of around thirty years.
In a story of great interest to the many groups in Argyll engaged in protecting the red squirrel population here (and did you know that they number qualified Red Squirrel Surveyors amongst their members?), 32 red squirrels were released into woodland at Dundonnell.
The initiative was instigated by the Rice family and mapped out by well-known ecologist and wildlife consultant Roy Dennis. He visited a similar project in Wales and took advice on the best techniques to use to ensure that the squirrels have the best chance of surviving.
Dennis put a proposal to Scottish Natural Heritage and the Highland Red Squirrel Group. After detailed discussions, SNH gave Dennis a licence for the live trapping of 50 red squirrels from a number of locations in the East Highlands and translocate them to Dundonnell.
So how did they do it? As Dennis explains: ‘Some squirrels were placed in individual nest boxes located in the woodlands for immediate release into the wild, and others were ‘soft released’ after spending a short time in large aviaries in the woods getting used to their new surroundings. All of them have access to
squirrel nest boxes and feeding stations to help them acclimatise to their new home. The feeders are regularly topped up with nuts and seeds’.
Roy Dennis says of the need to translocate the reds: ‘There are no greys in the North West and Dundonnell Woods is not a location they could reach easily as there are no corridors of woodland for them to spread
from’.
Ron Macdonald, SNH’s Head of Policy and Advice, describes SNH’s involvement as concerned ‘to ensure that there is no adverse impact on the donor population of squirrels. We have also provided advice to ensure that the project is adequately monitored and reported on so that lessons can be learned from it’.
Since their release in November, the squirrels have been regularly using the feeding stations provided for them and have moved into conifer woods up to 500 metres from the release sites. They have been observed by local people and one has been seen over the hills beside Loch Broom.
Jane Rice takes up the story: ‘One squirrel amazed us all by turning up in woodland on the shore of Loch Broom to the north, having crossed several miles of open hillside and moor, and is now near Leckmelm. It must be the Ranulph Fiennes of the squirrel world! At this rate, the spread of the red squirrels may go well
beyond Dundonnell’.
The project has been greatly helped by estates and individuals in Moray and Strathspey, who gave permission for live trapping, and vets from Grantown on Spey and Edinburgh Zoo who checked the health of the squirrels. SNH say that the successful first phase would not have been possible without the financial backing of the Rice family.
First question is – is it any safer than playing? Joking apart, the Camanachd Association is on the hunt to develop its referees list. The new season is only a couple of months away so if you’re interested, the sooner you make contact with the Association the sooner you can be in charge of a game on the pitch.
The problem is that while the list is quite respectable it’s not long enough to cover all the games that will sometimes have to be played on the same day across the various leagues and competitions. And if there’s no official available, matches have to be postponed. And this can make a mess of a season.
Everyone interested in becoming a referees will complete a foundation course and once they’ve done that satisfactorily they would ne able to officiate at matches from junior through to reserve level.
There is a Foundation Course coming up this month at Inveraray and if budding Argyll referees can’t make that, there are others at Inverness (also in January) and at Fort William and Central in February.
Refereeing is open to all over-16 year-olds and referees in charge of a senior level match get a match fee of £30, plus 40p per mile travelling expenses.
As well as the courses for new referees, the Camanachd Association is also holding a national Level-One coaching course to be held on February 7th and 8th at Lochaber High School in Fort william, with area induction sessions to befporehand in the evening of Thursday 29th January.
Everyone interested in refereeing and in coaching is asked to apply to the Association as soon as possible, in order to be qualified to referee or coach for the start of the new season in March.
As Graham Cormack, the Camanachd’ Association’s Coaching and Performance Development Manager, says: ‘The higher the performance levels of the referees and coaches, the better opportunity for players to improve and enjoy the game fully’.
With Argyll hosting the final of the national competition, the Camanachd Cup, in Oban in this Homecoming Scotland year, it would be good to see referees and coaches taking Argyll’s celebrated shinty profile forwards.
For Argyll had a note from Mark Reynier of Islay’s Bruichaddich, saying mysteriously: ‘If you want to know what weather you’re about to get – click here’.
This note had a document attached to it spinning a great yarn about a ‘perilous whisky’ (arent they all?) – more of which below – and the click took us to a page of the company’s website where the upcoming weather seems to be warm, intense and proof against almost anything, including the future.
In a typically imaginative response to the recession’s rush to investing in whiskies as a high-performance security, the go-ahead Bruichaddich Distillery is offering a limited edition of 400 cases of Octomore of Octomore 2008 Futures. The whisky has been made from local Octomore barley – for the first time in 169 years, distilled in early 2009 and is available to order from the company at £450 per case of twelve 700ml bottles.
The ‘perilous whisky’ mentioned early in this report, is a translation of the Gaelic ‘Usquebaugh-baul’and – well you might as well get the yarn direct from the bottle:
‘In 1695 a Hebridean traveller wrote of an ancient, powerful spirit known as “usquebaugh-baul” (oosh-ker-vah-voll), the Gaelic for ‘perilous whisky’. He was told: “…the first taste affects all the members of the body: two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; and if any man should exceed this, it would presently stop his breath, and endanger his life.”
‘Its fearsome reputation came from a unique quadruple distillation – the extra two distillations increasing the purity of the spirit while raising the strength to 90% ABV.
‘Aquavit, vodka, eau-de-vie, usquebaugh all mean ‘water of life’ for in mediaeval times of disease and plague alchemists believed, with good reason, that high strength alcohol was a life preserver.
‘The new spirit – X4 – was recreated in 2008 by distilling director Jim McEwan at Islay’s Bruichladdich distillery, before being reduced to a less perilous 50% ABV at bottling. “X4 has loads of flavour, it’s no mere vodka substitute. It’s the original usquebaugh, the spirit of the Vikings that our forefathers knew. They didn’t wait to mature it, nor did we. It’s a little bit of history - so savour the flavour.”
The first bottling of 6,000 sold out. More Stock of X4 is expected late January and can be pre-ordered now online direct from the distillery for delivery in December.
In a deal not yet completed but described by Danish firm Welcon as ‘very likely’, the plant currently operated by the departing Vestas will be taken over by Welcon.
Its plan is to upgrade the plant and move to the production of offshore wind turbines, boosting jobs in the area from the current 96 to 300-400 within two years.
It is understood that the company will also upgrade Campbeltown harbour and the local road network. Well, let’s be realistic – it’s unlikely to be the company doing all of this. There has to be a very substantial Scottish Government subsidy to enable such sweeping development and of course there is.
Argyll’s MSP, Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, has been working on this solution, well below the media radar, since Vestas announced their departure. Rather than berate the company he has used their contacts to build this exhilarating outcome. It not only saves local jobs and prevents skills being lost to Argyll but takes the entire enterprise to a new and unanticipated level.
What is encouraging about this deal and about what must be a serious Government investment, is that it is clearly based on a vision of the strategic value of Campbeltown’s position and potential transport infrastructure in the expanding world of renewable energy technology.
Within easy distance of the Sound of Islay and the North Channel, a cutting edge and innovative plant at Campbeltown cannot but prosper, with the possibility of moving into tidal turbine production as a future-proofed option.
The sheltered harbour in Campbeltown Loch is a transport advantage which will be powerfully enhanced by upgrading.
The mysteriously long runway at Machrihanish Airport could come in to its own in air transport of offshore turbines all over the world. The runway is more than capable of taking the biggest transport planes like the Boeing Globemaster, the Airbus 400M or the ageing Antonov. And the plant is actually in the same land complex as the airport. Room to think big.
Whatever the Scottish Government investment in this initiative, it is one for the future. Welcon may well follow Vestas in taking off in pursuit of subsidies elsewhere once the period they commit to at Campbeltown comes to an end. But the market profile, the skils and the infrastructure will be there to move with the times. This is an industry with a certain future and it is an industry in which Scotland is recognised as leading the way.
Welcon has reached an agreement with Vestas. It is in talks with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Deveopment International (SDI) which are described as crucuial and at an advanced stage.
Jesper Ohlenschlaeger, CEO of Skykon, Welcon’s parent company is saying that the company hopes to reach a final agreement next month. The company, a major manufacturer of turbines, has been unsuccessful before in attempting to set up its first UK operation in Dundee so its first UK plant may now be at Campbeltown.
Welcon’s plan is to change the current maufacturing of onshore turbines, generating 2-3MW, to offshore turbines generating 5-7MW but Ohlenshlaeger sees units generating 10MW as being the market standard in a couple of year’s time.
Unsurprisingly there are no details of the figures involved. Welcon are not saying what they are paying Vestas (it won’t – or it should’nt – be much since Vestas gave their reason for moving as an obsolete plant manufacturing obsolete turbine designs). Similarly they are not saying what the overall investment figure is except that it will be ‘double-digit’ millions – a figure thought to be at least £50million and almost certainly much more than that.
Ohlenschlaeger did tell The Sunday Herald that public sector investment would be a minority shareholding, which, if it is the case, would be a change for HIE. Also if it is the case, it will mean a serious investment from the company which is an encouraging statement of intent.
The certain thing is that the Scottish Government’s investment in this development is a significant and much-needed commitment to the development of Argyll’s economy.
Wind strengths are abating but are still liable to surge, disrupting ferry services in Argyll. They are expected to slacken around lunchtime today. The current situation is:
Ferries
Roads
Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin
For Argyll is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache