Islay Nature Report 33 - Martin Clunes on Islay

Welcome to this weeks Islay Nature and Wildlife report. I was going to publish this last Sunday evening and realised that Jeremy is off to his gathering down south but did manage to submit a report today.

Last week a crew from ITV were on Islay for a new series about the islands and Islay, which will be on tv in the autumn or winter. The crew spent a day with Gus Newman diving around ship wrecks, they spent a day at the Bruichladdich Distillery and they were guests of Jeremy Hastings too. And Donald Fletcher from Persabus even went for a night's filming with them at Dunlossit to soak up the other island culture... On behalf of Meat Islay, Chloë Randall, from Dunlossit Estate, organised a spit roast pig and assembled farmers from the island at Balleachdrach Barn. Francois Bernier prepared a vast range of pig dishes, accompanied with lots of whisky while the camera’s rolled. Bruichladdich referred to this as men behaving badly, or is it just men having a good time? Martin Clunes who is quite a famous TV actor was up doing the presenting. Looks like they had a really good time! In his news blog on Thursday Jeremy writes: "Today I was out with Martin Clunes of ITV making part of a programme about islands and Islay especially. We were watching and filming a great big dog Otter, trying wild food and having fun in the wilderness! Yesterday was spent preparing. Excellent chap, good fun crew to work with." The Bruichladdich distillery issued a press release about Martin Clunes on their website and were kind enough to include some pictures. Back to more wildlife snippets. Continue reading.....
The Islay Birds blog: Ian has more and more images on his blog to accompany his posts which is a good thing. Most images are made by someone called Michal who works at the RSPB and he took a very nice image of a Turnstone. Another very special image of a rose-cloured Starling was submitted by Becky Williamson. A very rare bird which is usually seen in the south-east of Europe. On Thursday Ian reports that visitors had seen a basking shark from the ferry on route to Colonsay. Tonight Ian wrote: "The other night as we came back from Port Charlotte, there was a Barn Owl on the ground, right in the middle of the single track road, there was also a Hedgehog on the verge side about 4 yards away from it, so had the owl being out hunting and seen the hedgehog, or was it just a coincidence that they were close together?"

John Armitage from Portnahaven, who runs the Islay Birder Blog, has been away all week so we have to wait for next week to hear and read more from him.

[image2_right]This weeks Islay nature report by Jeremy Hastings from Islay Birding: A week of differences and extremes. Warm/cold and dry/wet. The sea watching has been excellent this week with Stuart Graham and I witnessing huge movements of Gannets, Shearwaters and Auks, Kittiwakes and gulls too. The Arctic Terns are apparent by their absence which is interesting it passing - however we did have a handful at Claggain last Friday.

We have had some excellent views of birds of prey: Golden Eagles being mobbed by Raven, Merlin storming across the moss and hen harriers causing havoc over the heather which is particularly stunning in bloom giving a magical purple/lilac hue. Other flora is also showing well and down at Claddach the Sea Holly is wonderful. I took a couple of images but am yet to process them.

I was filming with Martin Clunes midweek, talking history and wilderness and skills that have been passed down from the ancients. we also watched a huge dog Otter and managed to film him for over an hour at Kilchiaran Bay. Brilliant.

So light, sky and colour have been the order of the week and as usual Islay throws us suprises with every vista. Next week I am teaching, sharing and learning at The Wilderness Gathering in England so Ron will have to manage alone. Enjoy!