The latest contribution from our favourite columnist
The local election is now over and those elected have a lot of work ahead of them. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of so much party politics discussed during local elections; I was so happy to see that our two stood independently. After all, their constituents are from different parties so surely the councillors should be independent.
John and Brenda come to Kyles every year and stay in the Bramble’s house. Over the years I’ve got to know them really well and every year they bring me something nice. This time they brought me the most beautiful walking stick. John made it himself. The leg is made of hazel and the hand grip out of beech and shaped like a goose head. The hazel leg has three twists in it which are there naturally and the whole stick is varnished. His own signature is in the wood and a silver stag’s head is below the handle grip. It really is a piece of art, so attractive and unusual. When people come to visit me they see the stick before they see me!!
On the first page of The Scottish Farmer dated May 14th, there was a story about a sea eagle. A farmer on Mull witnessed one attack one of his lambs. First of all he saw two peregrines attacking a sea eagle and the farmer was admiring the defensive skills of the eagle as it went on its’ back and used its’ talons to protect and defend its’ body. The peregrines gave up and the eagle flew away. Then it dived below the cliff obviously seeing a tasty meal. When it reappeared it had a healthy lamb in its’ talons and he could hear the lamb crying. The eagle then landed, obviously to kill the lamb; the farmer had dogs and ran towards it, startling it and making it fly another 50 metres away. The farmer and dogs continued running towards it and when it landed the second time and spotted the farmer, it was distracted and the poor lamb, or lucky lamb, wriggled free and the eagle had to fly away without its’ dinner. The farmer was delighted because the lamb lived and its’ mother, who was nearby and crying for her lamb rushed to it for a very happy reunion. The lamb did have a gash on its’ neck but it was not life threatening. It was so cruel of SNH to reintroduce these birds. Mind you their first reintroduction was in Rhum in the 70s and they came to Uist by themselves. Of course, for ages, SNH tried to convince crofters and farmers that sea eagles would only take dead lambs but now they have to admit that they do take healthy and live ones. On Vallay, three calves have been taken over the years; two white and one red. Some shepherds have lost 50 lambs in a year. You read about the management of sea eagles and compensation for losses; some shepherds have even built sheds for lambing and there has been some money for that. No doubt, in a few years, when the sea eagle population has increased, NatureScot (the new SNH) will probably stop all grants and concentrate on some other species. By then some will have given up sheep altogether and many waders etc will be extinct. It is the same that happened with the geese and now there are thousands too many here.
The calving is doing well, though slowed down a little now with about twenty left to calve. There have been two sets of twins, unfortunately a calf was dead in one set but the other set is fine, the mother has plenty of milk and she loves the two of them. One of them is a male and the other a female; very often the female won’t breed and are called freemartins but about 5% of them will. Anyway, she will be kept and get a chance to breed. Once calving starts, Angus leaves a cattle trailer over on Vallay so that if there is something wrong a cow can be taken home quickly. Carianne was over there and two of the cows had mixed up their calves. Shona was the quietest one so Carianne put her and her calf into a small field and then attached the trailer behind the pick-up. She knew that there was a mistake as she tags them as soon as they are born and each tag is uniquely numbered and after checking knew that she had put the correct calf with Shona. She then had to catch the calf, put it into the trailer so that Shona followed it in and then drive them both back to Kyles. The cows trust Carianne and she has a good way with the animals, Michelle calls her the “cow whisperer”. When she got to Kyles, she got the young ones to help her put Shona in the crush at the pens to allow her correct calf to suck its’ real mother. It took a few days to get mother and calf reunited properly by putting them in the crush twice a day. Carianne and Ryan took the other cow and calf home and the same had to be done for them. Now both cows and calves are perfectly matched and we still don’t know how the mix up happened. We are all so proud of Carianne. She noticed that there was a problem and got the quiet one home first all on her own, knowing that all the men were busy and that the cow would trust her.
Ukrainians are still fighting against the Russians; it’s heartbreaking to watch what is shown on the news. All we can do is pray and give whatever we can afford to them.
I so hope that the weather will get better soon and that the crops will have a good yield.
The Psalms that I choose are 80 and 84 for this month’s reading.
