Ming the Merciless - June 2004

Its been a long time, that is since image uploads seemed to work on the blog, so I have been quietly cogitating. My territory is now full of noise and activity, corncrake(s), sedge and grasshopper warblers making the most noise but not always in that order of annoyance. I still havn’t caught a bird this year, which is good news to many but the fledgelings are yet to peak!
So in the mean time, a few snaps from my cat-cam of Barra, somewhere my humans rant on about (God, does one of um ever rant !), taken the other evening from the south end of Hough Bay.

In the other direction, at the road side lochs, RTD’s can be regularly seen preparing for their brood to hatch. I’ve no chance of getting them, cats and water and all that…. But here’s one that made me drool..

And meanwhile back at home that damn sedge warbler is still telling me exactly where I might find him. He is a handsome bird though and I think I’ll leave him alone. It’s a pitty I can’t upload sound files, the noise of Uig is devastaing, probably because there are no other noises to compete with the suround sound of tens of crakes in the twilight. I’ve never heard a skylark at 3am before or the volume of numbers of drumming and chipping snipe. This is a kool place for a cat.

I ventured out with cat-cam Saturday and here are a few of the crazy bipeds I spotted going past my pad at Uig. My humans still hold the Coll half marathon record (for slowness) coming in joint last at 2hr 45 mins, last year. Hard luck Ron (this year’s last) who only managed 2hr 31 mins…………. Or have I got that the wrong way around? Anyway first the winner, Terry, flying through the ‘bents’ - congrats on a fine run.


This is Ken BT, Colls guru on communications, just as stomach cramps set in. Painful but you must remember, it is self inflicted. A biped of his age should know better wouldn't you have thought? Well done, next year perhaps you'll break the 2 hr barrier.


Above is Simon et al. The little-est said about Simon, probably the better. He collapsed 30 yds from the finish. What a bummer. It was probably the lack of guinness.


Yum yum, a fine collection, much prettier than Simon. This pic is here just to prove the cat-cam shows no sexual bias and I am always available for cat-cuddles, any time - please.

And finally Ian (left) and Kenny. Wonderful effort and they raised £500 for the kiddies of Coll playground thingies.
For full results click here

Well, cat-cam will be back to normality next blog with more titbits to tantalise your taste buds.
Meow

Cat-cam, Winno and I went on a long trundle the other day. The humans have been away so we had great fun doing all those things we normally get told off for doing... cat-heaven.
Anyways, after some setting up Winno (my feline mate) took this pic of me and cat-cam.

First we went to the beach and found a nest…. yum yum.

If one waits long enough, eventually two lovely dinners might appear… two very tasty oyster catchers

On another beach we glimpsed another Coll delicacy – Little Terns. Now don’t be tempted to do this yourselve as you need a special licence from SNH and if you are found near/disturbing their nest without a licence you could be fined, and quite rightly so:-

And all this was on-route to the find of the year, spotted rock rose Tuberaria Guttata, a not-so-exciting-looking plant except this is the first record of it in Scotland. Simon the birdyman and one of his friends Alison found it simultaneously (and you need to ask them to explain that one) in the far NE reaches of Coll, a long hike for us with cat-cam on back. And here it is below. Until now it was believed to only grow in Anglesey, the Lleyn Peninsula, the Channel Islands and western Ireland.

Meow to you all and hope you enjoyed my trip
Ming