Our longed-for days of endless sunshine have been dashed this August. The ground is so saturated that Ranger Tom had to issue a warning that the paths are very wet and muddy. A plus side to all this rain has been a great month for our gardens. The hydrangeas have had a bumper year with large colourful blooms popping up everywhere. The honeysuckle is late but is providing a welcome bit of colour and scent later in the season.
We very much enjoyed a day visit to Muck for the Small Isles Games! Canna came 3rd overall; a big improvement on last year when only 2 of us managed to get across to Rum. We had a good turn out from Canna this year with some of the conservator students from the Canna House Project coming along to boost our numbers. It turns out that Canna women are really good at throwing heavy stuff. Many thanks to everyone in Muck for organising such a great day; it was good to spend time and chat to our neighbours!
We were delighted to learn that we have a new bird visitor to Canna. A water rail was spotted in Sanday on one of the trail cameras. This rather beautiful, elusive bird was seen in the marsh area happily going about its business.
Ranger Tom organised a day clearing out the Canna Primary School grounds ahead of a visit by Highland Council. We are very passionate about our little school and many members of the community came together to strim, cut, mow and tidy up the grounds. Our NTS Operations Manager, Angus, even joined in. The grounds now look fantastic. We had to wait for a visiting Corncrake to finish its breeding season before we could carry out the tidy up. Unfortunately, the bad weather postponed the visit from Highland Council but we look forward to welcoming them to Canna very soon!
On the very last day of August, the Small Isles Community Council launched the Small Isles Snorkel Trail in Muck. For the past 2 years, representatives from each of the Small Isles have been meeting with Scottish Wildlife Trust to create the trail. The snorkel trail showcases the amazing diversity of Scotland’s seas and highlights the wonder beneath the waves. It was incredibly satisfying to finally do the launch in Muck. The weather gods organised blazing sunshine for us and we spent a happy day rock pooling, snorkelling and having a beach picnic in Gallanach Bay. There are 6 trails in total across all 4 islands and each trail has a beginners and an intermediate section for those wanting to explore our living seas. Small Isles Snorkel Trail leaflets will be available online to download and there will be printed copies on each island. A huge thanks to Elouise Dalziel at Scottish Wildlife Trust for all her help in setting up the trail and also to Ruth in Muck for hosting such a great day. Thanks also to Arisaig Marine who have been very helpful with boat scheduling and advertising.
It was really great that myself (Canna), Ruth (Muck), Fliss (Rum) and Norah (Eigg) were all able to snorkel together in the same place for the first time since we started the project.
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