The End of the Adventure. Farewell to Rum

Upon returning home, this is what greeted me...

 And so it comes to an end, my Rum adventure is over and I'm back on the mainland. It has taken me a wee while to come up with what I'd like to say on leaving. I must admit that I miss it quite a good deal, especially as I'm now in the middle of the Edinburgh festival surrounded by teeming millions of people. I've never noticed it as much before, but cities stink. From peaceful surroundings on Rum I'm now amongst noise and traffic, fighting my way through crowds, where before all I had to fight was more difficult heather thickets.

Evening light on Kilmory Bay

 I'd like to thank Martyn Baker very much for the training, experience and opportunity (as well as the beer, whisky, roast dinners and movies!). I learned a great deal out there, from postmortem procedures to correct neck alignment in recumbent animals. It was amazing to get out and explore the study area as well as get to know its inhabitants. 

Nice sunset in the closing days.

The BBC arrived just after a large storm blew over raining lightning down all over the place! They were here to film a piece about wildlife crime, interviewing the previous field assistant about her encounter with an egg thief. They finished the interview and began to discuss a re-enactment of the incident and so I was judged to be the best look-a-like for the thief. As a result I may be appearing on television as some point, always knew the moustashe would make me famous...

Kilmory with Askival and Hallival in the background and Helleborine05 in the foreground.

 In the final weeks, we got on with a good bit of maintenance as well as preparation for darting in the final week when Gudrun returned with Karla as her assistant. Martyn and I darted 2 hinds in the preceding week, including the rarer visitor Billabong and the troublesome Swallowtail 11.  We had drugs ready and were set for the week to go but of course, the weather didn't exactly want to agree with us when Gudrun arrived.

Hellboy! (Helleborine05)

 The darting week commenced and we began to realise that we were not having much success in the daytime and that evening seemed to be our best window of opportunity, especially as on one day almost half of the entire population seemed to be holding a meeting on the point at the far end of the bay!

Helleborine05 recumbent.

 Our tally of successful darting increased over the week, despite the entire Papillion family seeming to be armoured to the point of dart proof! In the closing days we decided to dart Helleborine05 (Hellboy) a stag, as it used up more drug as well as would hopefully make him less of a target in the cull. He is habituated to an incredible degree so will tolerate people walking to almost 10 metres away. We were concerned for the antlers as they are still growing in velvet, but he took the darting very well and went down with much fuss. We processed him efficiently and he recovered fine with his shiny new collar and ear flashes! What effect his new gear will have on the Rut is yet to be seen.

Martyn and Gudrun with Hellboy

The pastry art is misleading, the pie is actually chicken and bacon!

 On leaving the island, the ferry took a quick jaunt to Canna where we encountered a very habituated seal. It seems like it understands the ferry and waits for it to kick up the sea bed as it enters the harbour. Once home finally I had a quick day to turn around my kit and pack for Edinburgh and the Tattoo! I'll admit there was a little bit of culture shock with the noise and bustle of people, but I soon settled into city life, although the drunks of the Grassmarket do tend to wake me.

The Canna harbour seal.

I'll be back to Rum I'm sure. The swimming on Kilmory beach, catching sea trout at the burn, walking over Sgaorishal in search of antlers and the brilliant population of deer will draw me back before long. I haven't even explored half the island yet either, or been into the castle, or climbed the Rum Cuillins!
The Rum Red Deer Research Project is incredible, the sheer volume of data, work and information back across the years is staggering and I am very thankful to have been involved in even just a small part of the work.
Thanks for reading my entries.

Farewell Rum, I'll be back

Summer arrives...

Calving Team 2013: (From Left) Professor Josephine Pemberton, Laura Mears, Dr Katie Stopher, Head Field Assistant Martyn Baker, Bruce Boatman, Jisca Huisman. (Not in the picture is Dan, as he arrived later on)

 The calving season is pretty much over now, with a few hinds still to be checked to see if they have come back to the research site with monster calves, or nothing. 2 more local hinds are still to calve, including "Ripply" who lives pretty much around the house.

The house at Kilmory.

 There have been many odd jobs to do in the wake of the calving season; the tents brought back in and dried, the skull beams in the Laundry to be fixed and collars to be made up for next year.

East peak of Sgaorishal, seen from the top of Mam Tuath at sunset.

The view north from Kilmory at 23:30 hrs

 The long summer evening have been a brilliant spectacle on the clearer nights. Torches aren't required as the eternal sunset provides ample light through the night, especially if the moon helps out .

The swell and waves hitting at low tide.

 The photo above shows what the weather has become recently unfortunately. The lovely May into June weather has vanished, replaced by rain and wind. Somewhere beneath the raging sea in this photo is the lobster creel, which we haven't had much luck with so far. A few large swimmer crabs are about all we have brought up from the deep.

Hendrix13

 Its been great to see the calves, born so small, grow to quite a decent size in so little time. They play and run about, falling in the burn and investigating new things in their environment. Hendrix13 above discovered the Highland cattle (in the picture below) to be a strange sight and briskly ran off when one snorted at him.

The Highland Cattle and the Fank.

 The Highland Cows appeared in the glen for a few days, keeping to the south around the abandoned sheep fank. They complete the islands large mammal range, along with the ponies, goats and of course the deer. Huge lumbering beasts, they put flight to all the deer in the fank area when they arrived.

Talus, in summer coat

 The long, cold spring  had delayed the coat change in the deer, moving from thick winter coats to their summer coat, which is where they get the name 'red deer' from as the summer coat is very vibrant. Some of the study animals are still in winter coat, as sign of poorer condition but also a sign on those hinds who have perhaps invested too much in their yearling or calf.

Martyn working on the incapacitated Cheyenne.

 The high input into odd-jobs after calving has given us more time to spend on darting, but as soon as we get the kit together and spends days preparing, the weather turns and a weeks worth of darting has been blown out by the wind. On the first day we did manage to get two on our 'wish-list'. Cheyenne and Edam are 2 unmarked hinds without calves which make them prime targets to dart and mark. Cheyenne was especially good to get as she is a very rare visitor to the greens in front of the house. Both hinds recovered fine and have been seen since sporting their new cattle collars, tags and flashes.

The Hebridean Princess in Kilmory bay.

 Towards the end of last week in the poor weather, the large shape of the Hebridean Princess appeared out the gloom. She dropped anchor off Kilmory and a small motor boat ferried passengers to a specially built pier that the crew set up on the beach. Those passengers who braved the weather then walked round to Kinloch. I was fishing at the time quite far out from the house, so was a little taken aback to disturbed by boat plowing through the swell and rain.

Dinner! 4lbs gutted weight Siath (Pollack)

The fishing has improved markedly since I last fished in April, the gloomier evenings and high tides has been very useful. Dan (the calving volunteer) had never fished the sea before so I taught him what I could. We lost a couple of absolute monster fish on he first few nights, but Dan managed to land a decent sized eating fish after we  put back a few smaller ones. This we had as part of lunch the next day. After a few more smaller fish in the next few nights I landed the one in the picture and decided dinner was on the cards. The next night we had fish and chips Kilmory style: The fish was seared skin down for a few brief minutes, then baked in the rayburn with olive oil and lemon juice. The chips were potato and sweet potato wedges, all in all a very nice dinner. Since then we have had a pretty large beef wellington, which may or may not have probably maxed out the daily calorie allowance on its own...

The Madness of Calving Season

 Hello again!
I would have updated sooner however calving season hasn't left much time for any other activities apart from spotting deer, eating, and sleeping (which there has been few hours of!).
As of today (08/06/13) we have caught 66 calves, most of which were within a 15 day period in late May, which included 4, 5, 9 and 6 calves in 4 days back to back. As usual there have been a few monsters that have escaped our efforts, which are calves that have eluded our spotters or have been born in the periphery of the study area. Once they reach 5 or more days of age they become much more confident and larger so run instead of trying to hide from the catchers, which makes them a huge cost in terms of time and attention. The peak of calving has passed and now the challenge becomes finding the few hinds still pregnant amongst the population of hinds with marked calves.

Sunset over the outer Hebrides.

 The day lengths are stretching longer, with there being plenty of light long into the late evening and night. Thanks to some very pleasant weather it never gets fully dark with light silhouetting  the Cuillins of Skye.
After what seemed like a long reprieve, the midges have finally returned with a vengeance making the evenings beautiful in sunset as long as you have a bugjacket and gloves to be able to enjoy the scene without being eaten alive. I had been keeping a running total of the number of ticks I have found feeding on me but it has passed into triple figures so I don't think it's really relevant any more!

The long sunset moving behind Skye

 Calving data changes every year and it is very interesting to see how things have changed, no doubt the cold spring must have had some impact, possibly lowering the birth weights on average. However the most striking things to emerge is the 1st recorded pregnancy of a 2 year old hind on Rum! In farmed deer this is common because of much better conditions and supported feeding but such a thing has never been observed in the history of the project on Rum. Normally very good condition 3 year old hinds might have a calf, but this is most unusual and we'll have to see how the hind progresses.

Zephyr13 meeting the ponies

Golden Eagle

The wildlife has really returned to Rum with multitudes of ducks, waders and little songbirds singing all day. The eagles have been really hunting hard, being an almost common sight in the glen. The 1st sighting of a minke whale off Kilmory was also recorded recently, we can only hope that the warmer weather will bring in a basking shark to the bay!The deer are beginning to change into summer coat, where they get their name of "Red Deer". The coat change has been very late this year, possibly down to the very cold but dry spring weather.

Hopefully we will break more records this year, possibly threatening the 83% capture rate record!

The Forbidden Isle

Golden Eagle with what remains of a hooded crow.

Thought I’d make a small mention of some history as the island had quite a colourful past.

There have been many owners of Rum in the past, changing hand between family lines and gentry. The Bullochs are one of the more famous owners of the island. When they took over in 1888, they built a rather impressive house for themselves in the form of Kinloch Castle in 1897. The red sandstone used to build the whole thing was quarried and shipped here from the Isle of Arran to the south at what must have been immense expense! The materials aside, Kinloch Castle was the first place outside Glasgow to have electricity, generated amazingly through a hydroelectric system.  But that isn’t the only thing that money was invested in. The island became their private holiday resort, it is reported that the roads to Kilmory and Harris Glens were once so well maintained that a racecar could be driven to the beach of Harris in 15 minutes, which considering the condition of the roads today is quite a feat! The island became known as the “Forbidden Isle” during the ruling of the Bullochs, with outsiders not allowed to set foot on the private estate. Rum was retitled “Rhum” at this time also, to move away from any connotations associated with alcohol. Hard times eventually settled upon the Bullochs and the life of grandeur and private excess fell into the history of mixed fortunes, but not without leaving a few large marks on the island.

The north west coastline, looking east.

The coastline of the island also adds some perspective to the title of “Forbidden Isle”. Much of the coastline of the island is in the form of impressive cliffs rising like barrier walls above the sea. This provides great sanctuary for many nesting seabirds, including shearwaters, as well as a home for the population of feral goats that seem to be getting everywhere at the moment.

The Jack Abry II, a French fishing boat that ran aground only 2 years ago

 The Jack Abry II is a little spooky to come across. When it ran aground it was a relatively new vessel, which is partly why it has survived in such good condition. At first glance it almost looks like it was wrecked yesterday.

 This week we have been pressing on with work in spite of the weather. The task themselves vary greatly in time consumption and weather dependency but we are already working into the weekend days. I’m very much enjoying being part of all this, seeing tasks completed, and getting out into the research site. As I’ve said before, where has the time gone? The first calf of 2013 could be born within the next week! This heralds the arrival and madness of calving season, where the day lengths permit us to be working until midnight (There have been calves caught after midnight!). Your body clock adjusts to the weird timings of things, breakfast at 08:00, lunch (on the hill) around 15-17:00, and dinner when you come back off the hill at anything between 22-01:00.

Feral goat

Belle08, a rather habituated stag

This week also saw the decision on new hind names for the next year (starting from May). Hinds once they reach 3 years of age receive and name and code sequence for future reference as they are capable of having calves of their own. Names generally try to follow on to a theme set with their mothers name. As a result there are certain groups of related animals that all share a common theme in their names, such as American Indian tribes, nuts, gemstones, tree species, wave forms, musical instruments etc. Joining the hind list this year are such names as Boomslang, Areca, Bouzouki, Zion and Kelpie.

Looking at Canna over Kilmory Bay

The weather lately has been pretty damn poor, which has really limited what we can do. On Friday (3/5/13) I took a new route into Glen Guirdhil to look for antlers, for the first hour or so the rain stayed off, and the only complaint was a very bitter wind. However once I reached the top of Fionchra overlooking the glen, cloud-base suddenly fell around me. The next wee while was a great adventure of 15 metre visibility until I found my way off the mountain. Although I ended up soaked, I had decent luck and returned with 5 antlers.

Hooded Crow

 The crows are a real annoyance at the moment. They are a good indicator of a carcass in the area when you see them hopping through long grass. However at the moment they are gathering nesting materials so continually fool you into investigating a patch of long grass or hidden gully where there's nothing to find.

Calving season is here, with some very fat hinds grazing hard even through the poor weather. This marks the beginning of a very busy period so my next updates will probably be a little erratic in timing. Joining Martyn and I soon will be 2 volunteers from the University of Central Lancaster to help with the calving season as well as a Head Professor and post-doc Scientist from the University of Edinburgh.

Skye in late evening