Hello everybody, this is my very first post, I’ve been wondering when I would get the dreaded nod to start posting blogs on my time out here. I’ll just give you a quick summary of me and what I’ve been up to in my first month up here in Uist and hopefully keep posting over the next 14 months as long as the interesting things keep coming.
Ok so my name is Kieren Jones and I am the shiny and new Machair apprentice. I’ll spare you the finer details of how I found myself in this position but the bottom line is I owe this opportunity to my six months volunteering with BTCV and thanks to that time I have come to wind up in the Outer Hebrides where I will be working with endangered species such as the corncrake and corn bunting.
This is my first experience of the Outer Hebrides, I had a whistle stop tour with John up here for 4 days in July to sound out accommodation and to see what would be available up here, the time quickly passed between coming home from the recon trip and the big move, I managed to fit in a lot of shopping for odds and ends I’d need and had a nice farewell booze session with my friends. I had organised a caravan for a couple weeks while I house hunted, which proved very difficult in the height of the tourist season. I left Larbert on the 1st of August fully intent on having a couple of days to explore on my own and chase up some leads I had found on accommodation.
Leaving fairly early to catch the ferry I said a tearful farewell to my mum and dad and zoomed off to Uig to make the crossing to Lochmaddy, I made great time but it was when my sat nav started chirping “Get the ferry” in Mallaig that I first noticed something was wrong. I hadn’t come this way with John the month previous and I knew there was only one ferry to get and that was in Uig. Turns out that I had foolishly trusted the sat nav and it had taken me the “quickest” way to Skye. Luckily a ferry pulled in and I made the overflow queue. I had even less time to make the Uist ferry now and it seemed like every person on the roads were pensioners crawling along. Arriving in Uig, I explained the situation to the guy collecting the tickets and he just shrugged and said I was in the overflow queue and they’d do their best. An hour later and the car in front of me got a sympathetic head shake from the queue controller and alas, I had blown it. I found a B+B for the night and made the first crossing the next morning which left me very little time to explore, instead I took the time to unpack.
Time has flown by since that hectic move. I was in the caravan for a week with the most glorious views (pics to follow), I was moved into a cottage as someone needed the caravan (who later didn’t actually use it, woohoo free upgrade!) and I was offered and took a place down on South Uist, where I will be
based anyway. There’s been some up’s and down’s. My first week we went eagle watching and I clutched at the breast feathers we found scattered in the hills, I saw the last remaining beauty of the machair before the plants start to die off in Autumn. My second week on a grass cutting survey I took a dirt track and dunted my exhaust off. My parents came up for a visit and brought me some much needed furniture but mum cried as she got on the ferry and made me a little homesick again. However I am in great spirits, I’ve joined the local dive club, I’m meeting new people and I’m working in such an important field, nothing will bring me down (please remind me of this in winter).
So the work, I suppose I should mention that. It’s been so varied that it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve been out mapping cut fields and later on those fields let uncut. I’ve gone to check if golden eagles have fledged, 3 young fledged out of 3 nests visited so far, which is great! Yesterday I completed a vegetation survey all on my own, which if you know me, is no mean feat, I have a stack of samples, unknown 1-8 though so don’t congratulate me just yet. It seems like I am doing a little bit of everything. I’ve learnt the first stage of the traditional stacking methods and there’s the second stage this coming weekend. There’s also some other work going on but I’ll update that as I progress, this introduction is going to turn into a novel otherwise.
The corn bunting has quickly become my favourite bird, that dumpy little body and their decreasing population gives them a bit of a charm and it’s great when you find a family group together and can sit and stare at them, especially when you know that you’re getting paid to do it. I have seen a corn crake but that’s them now gone for the season, I caught a very brief glimpse outside of the reserve building but it’s hard to miss their call when you’re out and about.
I’ll wrap it up here as I really only wanted to do a quick wee intro and I’ll do my best to keep you guys updated on what’s going on out here in Uist.
If you have any questions then please get in touch! I can be reached on Kieren.Jones@rspb.org.uk
Ps. Photos to follow but here’s a taster taken when the machair was in its prime, Jamie Boyle took this one
