BY HILL AND SHORE
Angus Martin
I’ve never seen a BARN OWL on Ben Gullion, but, coming down the trail in darkness on 22 September, Bella, George, and I heard familiar loud hissings from a nearby crag. On every subsequent night that we passed below that crag, we heard the hissing noise, which sounded exactly like barn owl chicks. But, a pair of barn owls rearing young on Ben Gullion? George and I decided, therefore, to investigate the crag, which we did on Monday 10 November about 8 pm. We approached it stealthily from above, heard the hissings on a concealed lower ledge and then saw, quite distinctly, the ghostly form of a barn owl glide off towards the forest. About half-a-minute later, another bird - or the same bird returned - let out a sharp cry and we saw it head away. I wrote that night to Neil Brown, the ornithologist, and he called on me the following evening to discuss what I’d described to him. When George and I returned on the 14th for another look, there was neither sight nor sound of the birds, and neither pellets nor excrement visible on the ledges, which, however, we were only able to examine by torchlight. Neil thoroughly examined the crag by daylight on Sunday 16th and he too found no trace of owls, let alone a nest. He allows, however, that the fledglings, though hatched elsewhere in the vicinity, could have been frequenting the crag. While undergoing, in December, a check-up with Donald Barr, local optometrist, he began to describe a curious experience he and his dog, George, had one night on the Ben Gullion trail earlier that winter. I at once anticipated his story - he too had heard the owls!
HAZELNUTS don’t normally figure in my seasonal concerns - in recent decades they have seemed poorly developed and quite bland whenever I’ve picked them on chance - but Bella and I saw them hanging thick beside Peninver Brae in August and prospects seemed good. On 12 October, while George McSporran and I were on the Knockbay farm-track, we took a notion and checked the hazel trees in the Valley below Crosshill Dam, a gathering haunt of past years. We could have filled our pockets with fallen nuts alone and there was an unusually high proportion of big nuts with unusually sweet kernels.
I didn’t get back to the Valley until 23 October, following a family holiday near the Black Forest, but there were still plenty of nuts to lift. It was a clear, calm and sunny day and I heard, for the first time in Kintyre, the rat-tat-tat of a WOODPECKER. The bird was in the same small wood as I, but I was unable to see it. During the previous week’s walks, I’d seen/heard three species of woodpecker in Germany - Grey-headed Picus canus, Green P viridis and Great spotted Dendrocopus major - so it was odd to come home and hear one straightaway here. Many years ago, I had a close look at a Great spotted as I drove by one of the big trees near Limecraigs House, but that was my only sighting in Kintyre and I know of older local ramblers who have never seen or heard one.
Among my second haul of nuts, I found a double - two shells joined - and kept it for luck, remembering that Willie ‘Baillie’ Jackson, a notable Tarbert ring-net skipper, kept one in his purse. It was given to him by his father-in-law, Neil Kennedy, who farmed Barfad, and he had it for many years until it darkened with age and was finally lost.
On the brae up from Glenahanty to Largybaan, Sid Gallagher, who was with a teaching colleague, Stuart McQuaker, had a fine haul of quality nuts on 11 October. The nutting district par excellence was, of course, Laggan in Glenlussa. The late Alex Colville, who was born in Mill Street in 1903, went every year, as a boy, to gather on the Calliburn side of the river and would fill a pillowslip. The nuts would be spread on the bare wood under the two double beds at home - the rest of the flooring was covered by ‘waxcloth’ - and left there until Hallowe’en, when the ‘husks’ (or calyxes) would be broken off. Can any reader add to the following fragment of verse, which Rhona Kelly, Drumlemble, heard from a maternal aunt, Jenny Thomson nee McCallum: ‘Laggan Water’s wide and deep/That’s the place tae wash yer feet/Wash yer feet an clean yer taes/Gatherin nuts on Laggan Braes’?
George McSporran saw - and photographed to great effect - a RED DEER stag at Borgadale on 1 October, and Frances Hood saw one at Largiebaan in 2001. An escapee, or escapees, no doubt. I’ve yet to log the species.
Teddy Lafferty was back in the Inans on Thursday 16 October, his first visit there in two years. He needed a half-hour soak in a bathtub to recover from the hike, but considering he was approaching his 70th birthday, the indulgence may be overlooked! His first thought, upon arrival in the bay, was to carry fresh stones from the beach and lay them around the Sailor’s Grave, which he did, watched by about 18 GOATS from a distance of just 40 or 50 feet. Their fearlessness surprised him - not so many years ago, they’d have fled as soon as he appeared. A couple of days’ later, Neil Brown was also in the Inans to repaint the cross, which he fashioned and erected in 1981.
The HAREBELL at Black Rock, Baraskomel shore (no 53, p 24), was again in flower in November, but had died off by the 16th.
During one of my early winter Sunday walks from Knock Scalbert to Smerby, I was surprised to see an artificial loch in the hollow between Norway and Greenland.
In mid-November, 2003, Lily Cregeen, Ballochgair, heard a raucous bird-call, repeated at long intervals, coming from high in the trees at Saddell. She was puzzled as to what it could be, but several days later the answer appeared: ‘Two JAYS rose from the thick layer of beech leaves and flew away from me up into dense woodland, giving me a fine sight of their handsome plumage.’ On 26 October, near Tayinloan ferry-slip, Lily identified, in excellent conditions of visibility, a LITTLE AUK swimming strongly offshore. I can’t resist quoting her poetic description: ‘The sea was like a mirror. Gigha and Cara seemed “undercut” and boats at sea seemed to be floating in the air.’ Duncan McDougall, Tayinloan, rescued a little auk from the main road near the village. It appeared to be in good shape, but soon afterwards died.
More next time
No 55 Spring 2004