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...