I had hoped to be able to unveil our top secret prospect by now but it seems to have hit a stumbling block. Not to worry there is still plenty of time left.
Anyway things have started getting into a much more regular format, a lot of my time has been spent in a field, in my car, conducting a corn bunting experiment. This has pretty much been my aim since I went to University, I am getting paid to do some serious and important research. This is some of the most important stuff being done with Corn Buntings since there’s just simply not enough population strongholds left to do the studies.
One scientist says CB prefer grass seeds while another says they prefer crop seed but unfortunately the experiment is not quite going to plan. I have put down 2 identical trays and spread different seed on each to do comparisons. The birds are just not keen on the trays at all. They aren’t brightly coloured, they aren’t very high off the ground but for some reason the birds would rather forage for seed spilt from the trays than actually hop onto the tray.
I’ve tried moving them, spending more time down there (2 hour watches, groooan) and I’ve tried putting just a little bit of cover over the trays. The birds are just not keen at all and it’s not just the CB either, Reed Buntings aren’t a fan either.
CB aren’t daft birds, people have been out trying to ring them in the past. They fire a huge net over a field to catch a flock and the birds crawled along the ground to the edges of the net and flew off meaning they caught everything but CB.
Another interesting strategy is when a bird of prey comes into the area. Nearly every bird can sense the bird of prey before I can see it, everything in the area flies up into the air except for the CB. They will hunker down and wait for trouble to pass. I like that strategy and I can see why it works. There has been a lot of times down at the stacks where I have seen 3 CB, I’ve made all my notes for the 2 hour watch and then at dusk 20 CB will fly out from the stacks and disappear over the horizon. They just are that good at hiding in the stacks and corn fields. I don’t suppose they got their name for nothing!
The rest of my time will be spent on SRDP applications. It’s pretty important to get people into schemes out here because half of the time the crofters don’t know what’s available.
I’ve taken on 3 plans to do by the 10th on January. It’ll be a bit of a struggle but one of the crofters has had 3 corncrake living on his croft this year. Not just living in his area or near his machair, the marks on the map are in his fields. That should give him a right good chance of getting in.
I paid a quick visit home last weekend and took the ferry from right outside my door (seriously it’s that close) to Oban. There is one that runs 11pm – 6am which I hoped would mean I could get some sleep. Unfortunately not! Some guy snored the entire trip while another family played a film on their laptop full blast for a good chunk of the journey.
That paled in comparison to the return trip. That one was 3pm to 9:30pm but the weather was terrible so the boat was rocking all over the place. Still it was nice to get home to see everyone before Christmas.
Gutted I’m going to miss out on the apprentice meet up but I’m looking to get some of you guys over here for a bit of a nosey around, more to come!
