Positive Imaginings

October 19, 2023November 15, 2023 / rangerservice / 1 Comment

At the end of September the ranger service teamed up with Rowanbank Environmental Arts and Education to bring their Positive Imaginings Climate Circus to the woodlands of Mull!

Undaunted by the (at times challenging) weather, the team began to set up and rehearse at Aros Park and Tiroran Community Forest.

We worked with children and staff from all 6 Mull primary schools on interactive workshops about climate change. Sadly Iona school were unable to join in due to weather cancelling ferries.

A series of games and demonstrations helped to explain the science and causes of global warming, how it links to climate change, then we heard about situations around the world where many people had been inspired to become involved in solutions when just one person voiced their idea and started taking action in their own small way. People such as Wangari Maathai planting trees in Africa, or Afroz Shah cleaning beaches in India – their individual actions have built into global environmental movements.

The children used natural materials to make pictures of the positive futures they would like to see, featuring water-powered cars, solar panels, communities that grow their own food, and lots of trees.

Later in the week everyone had a chance to experience a colourful and exciting outdoor performance through the joy and wonder of storytelling, circus and connecting with nature. As the audience arrive at the forest, they are met by Flow, the forest dreamer, and Jay, the planter of oak trees, who introduce them to all the plants and animals living there.

However, as the story unfolds, Flow starts finding black bags in the forest, which represent real environmental problems, and becomes weighed down with anxiety and despair. Jay and the audience must seek help from Anam the Dreamweaver.

Anam empowers people to make their dreams a reality, and weaves the children’s dreams into a bright cloth representing collective action.

At first Flow cannot see the colours, but Anam helps Flow understand that what is needed is a new perspective, to use our imagination to find new ways of thinking and doing. Flow learns how to live with her climate worries and manage these complex emotions: by working with others to take climate action; and by remembering to notice the natural beauty that exists all around us.

The performance ends with a ceremony in which everyone has a chance for their dreams to be heard, the first step towards living in a kinder way for all who share this planet.

Thanks to our fundraising efforts, the work with schools and an additional public performance were supported by The Waterfall Fund, Argyll and Bute Council Supporting Communities Fund, The National Lottery Community Fund and partners An Tobar and Mull Theatre, Forestry and Land Scotland, Mull & Iona Community Trust and South West Mull & Iona Development.

We need to change the pattern, to see things from a different perspective. How do you imagine a positive future here on our islands? What one action could you start taking for our shared environment and communities?

Photos by Ranger Service and Rowanbank staff and volunteers

Spring walk around Tiroran Forest nature trail

May 8, 2020May 8, 2020 / rangerservice / 1 Comment

Join me on a little walk around the nature trail set up by Bunessan Primary School’s Class 1 last autumn, to look at the changes now it’s spring.

Can you spot the differences between November and May in the photos below?

The fungi we found have all disappeared or dried up, but instead there’s lots of spring flowers. Can you spot primrose with yellow pimpernel, violet, dandelion, tormentil, bluebell, wood anemone and willow? Click on the pictures to zoom in.

There’s lots of fresh green leaves as well…beech and larch trees, spruce tree buds opening, ferns, young hazel tree, birch tree, rowan tree seedling, bilberry. Again, click on the pictures to zoom in.

It’s been a really dry spring. The burn beside the path has completely dried up.

The sphagnum moss which was so colourful in the autumn has dried out and turned pale, and all the water in the little pond below the fallen tree roots has gone, can you see the pondweed leaves sticking to the mud?

The puddles along the track where we saw lots of creatures have dried up, just last year’s cones now lying on the ground.

Some things have stayed the same though: our markers with painted numbers, the little bridge and evidence of deer!

Autumnal adventures

December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

Working with our local primary schools has been a real highlight for the ranger service this autumn. Click here to see Ulva primary’s report of their Woodland Workshop with Jan.

Down on the Ross Emily has been helping Class 1 at Bunessan primary with their topic about designing a nature trail.

First some research on habitats and the wildlife living there:

Followed by a couple of visits to Tiroran Community Forest to test out the route of our new trail with help from Community Forester Philip Yielder who marked the route with posts.

The new trail begins by following the river upstream.

The class produced their own maps, poetry and drawings which went into a leaflet and a beautiful wall display.

Finally it was opening day – the children gave a speech and guided their guests around. Well done everyone!

Soon you’ll be able to pick up a leaflet from the bridge next time you visit the forest and try the route for yourself – wellies recommended!

Also in the forest, the main Woollen Woods display has been taken down, but a few creatures made of natural wool have been moved to the Giant Heads area, see if you can spot them!

Meanwhile Bunessan’s afterschool nature club have been exploring colour and pattern in nature, playing some eco board games and learning about the night sky.

How many star constellations can you recognise?

We seem to have escaped most of the floods and experienced a lot of dry sunny weather this autumn as these photos from Burg last week demonstrate:

Autumn in the air

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

Bright rowan berries, bracken changing colour…although mixed with a lovely splash of purple from scabious, knapweed and heather flowers, it definitely feels like autumn is approaching, especially with the wild weather we’ve been experiencing lately. Our recent guided walk to Shiaba discovered the burn (usually easily fordable) to be a raging torrent so we had to be content with viewing most of the buildings in the distance! Luckily as we stopped for lunch the clouds started to clear allowing views of Carsaig Arches and Colonsay too.

Here on Iona and Staffa we’ve just hosted the National Trust for Scotland’s footpath repair team, and also a hardy group of Thistle Camp workparty volunteers, who’ve been out in all weathers making improvements to our well-used paths. With tens of thousands of visitors a year our footpaths need constant maintenance to counteract the impact of all those feet. So enjoy our new stepping stones and a slightly less muddy experience next time you are walking to Columba’s Bay, the Hermit’s Cell or Staffa’s puffin colony! Thistle Campers also worked on repairs to drystone walls and collected rubbish from a number of Iona’s beaches. The footpath team will be back next spring when they will also be carrying out repair work to the landslide-affected path at Burg.

In my last blog post I told you about our first Nature Adventure Day along with Headland Explorations, well the programme continued with a group exploring St Martin’s Caves on Iona, foraging for seaweed and cooking it on a beach fire lit using flint and steel and natural tinder (dried bog cotton and grasses). We had seaweed soup, seaweed-flavoured popcorn, fried seaweed and a carragheen pudding! Thanks to Miek Zwamborn for sharing her expertise.

The last day involved an adventurous sail on Mark Jardine’s B.Marie, high winds causing us to abandon our original plans to travel around the south coast of the Ross of Mull for climbing and beach cleaning, in favour of heading around the north of Iona to sheltered Port Ban. Everyone enjoyed having a go at climbing and investigating the plant life of the bay with a game of wildflower name pictionary. Many thanks to the Dutch family from Erraid who kindly used their own boats to collect the beach rubbish from Traigh Gheal a few days later.

Other successful summer days included Woodland Tribe at Tiroran Community Forest where children and young people got to create their own adventure playground which should last up to 5 years. Feel free to use it next time you’re there, and if you haven’t already seen the Woollen Woods, most of it is still in place too. I’m now busy helping Bunessan Class 1 with their nature trail topic, along with Philip Yielder (Community Forester at Tiroran) so look out for a new trail to follow in the forest this autumn!

I also really enjoyed the opening celebrations for the Loch Pottie path, standing in the rain 10 minutes before the agreed time I was wondering whether anyone would turn up, but a last-minute rush saw over 100 people led by the pipe band and children on bikes all walking the path together to declare it open. It’s since been great to see it well-used and appreciated by everyone from visitors on an evening stroll, to locals walking their dogs and children cycling to the shop. Look out for new interpretation signage in due course.

The last of our wildlife surveys for the year saw me joined by some volunteers with a head for heights as we checked up on the spread of bracken at Burg and counted our population of the rare Iceland Purslane plant. Work also continues on the bothy renovations at Burg, and on the Fingal’s Cave walkway on Staffa which is nearing completion.

As some of you will be aware through our displays at the agricultural shows we were covering endangered species, one of which may well be YOUR ranger service. The Ranger Service is a partnership made of National Trust for Scotland (NTS), Forest and Land Scotland (FLS)and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and we are managed by Mull and Iona Community Trust. Unfortunately, FLS cease to fund us totally at the beginning of April next year and SNH have cut their support by 50% so our ranger team may well be under threat unless we find alternative funding. If you have time to drop us a supportive email (to mfinch@mict.co.uk) about an event you have enjoyed, what your children thought about one of the school trips we have organised, the benefits of volunteering or the difference made by our co-ordination of community access projects, beach cleans or any other aspect of our work we’d be glad to hear from you as we can use any positive comments as evidence for potential funders! We will keep you up to date as things develop but any support for our service would be much appreciated.

thanks for reading,

Emily

A Summer on Mull

August 16, 2019August 17, 2019 / rangerservice / 1 Comment

They say that all good things must come to an end, and my summer volunteering with the Ranger Service is no exception. I can hardly believe it’s already been two months since I arrived on this beautiful island and I’ll soon be heading back to the mainland and home to Yorkshire.

My final week on Mull started at the Tiroran Community Woodland outreach day, where visitors ate delicious cakes while watching eagles and crossbills (so I’m told….) soaring over the trees. We held our own event, planned by yours truly, later in the week. Armed with jumbo pavement chalk, we invited anyone and everyone to come and decorate the newly completed Loch Pottie Path, which joins the villages of Fionnphort and Creich. It was great to see visiting children playing hopscotch just metres away from local poets who had written special pieces for the event.

A classic game, easier to play when you’re a child (trust me)

Translation: what a light and a great view. I’m told it rhymes in Dutch!

A contribution from one of our local poets

We did a lot of survey work this week, too. Since June I’ve regularly been out to monitor a shag colony nesting on the cliffs of Iona and my final visit on Tuesday revealed two chicks I hadn’t seen previously. Good news for a colony that was completely washed away last year!

Towards the end of the week, Emily (Ranger for South Mull, Iona, Burg and Staffa) and I were fortunate enough to spend a morning with the exceptional botanist Lynne Farrell, who has scoured Mull (and various other islands) on a mission to record the plants that live there. What I lack in botanical skill I make up for in powers of observation: we found a total of 110 different species in the small area we surveyed, more than when Lynne surveyed the same plot over twenty years ago.

Lynne and I putting our binoculars to good use to zoom in on the plants over the stream

This week is a good representation of my time here; I don’t think many people will have had a summer as varied as mine. Assisting Emily, I’ve been everything from facepainter to wildlife tour guide to researcher to photographer to teaching assistant.

‘Going Wild’ at Fionnphort beach

Taking a well-earned break while surveying the plants on Burg

I’ve listened for corncrakes under a midnight sun, wild camped with the feral goats of Burg, stood top-deck on a tour boat looking for cliff-side nests and watched a sheepdog herd ducks at my first ever agricultural show.

From left: Lizzy, Emily and me at Bunessan Show

Wild camping on Burg – before the rain came

I’ve surveyed more species than I can count, (including the endemic slender scotch burnet moth and the extremely rare Iceland purslane), and my plant ID repertoire has expanded from daisy or dandelion to include such things as selfheal, butterwort and northern marsh orchid. I’ve watched dolphins playing in the sound of Iona, photographed puffins crash landing on Staffa and laughed at my own naivety for thinking a buzzard could possibly be a sea eagle.

Can’t visit Staffa without photographing a puffin

Bottlenose dolphins are regular visitors to the Sound of Iona

Outside of work I’ve explored the white sandy beaches of Ardalanish, Uisken and Kilvickeon, climbed Ben More, Mull’s only Munro, and eaten a life-changingly delicious cheesecake at Dervaig Artisan Bakery (not in the same day, though that would have been the perfect reward). I’ve also seen one or two absolutely stunning sunsets and views to islands I can barely point out on a map.

Kilvickeon beach, one of my favourites

An incredible sunset seen from Bunessan

I’m sure I’ll be back, but for now I’ll bid a fond farewell to the island and its people. I’m particularly grateful to Emily for her patience, guidance and conversation, which has helped make this summer an unforgettable experience.

Emilie

My favourite time of year

July 4, 2019July 4, 2019 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

With the long hours of daylight, many sunny days and plenty of wildlife action, May and June have to be my favourite time of year, so lots of highlights to tell you about this time.

Our Woollen Woods launched at the end of May and is still on display so do pop in and visit next time you are passing Tiroran Community Forest: https://www.facebook.com/pg/mullionarangerservice/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1941534295893873

It provided the perfect backdrop for Bunessan nursery’s visit with their topic of Fairytales (particularly the giant mushrooms and the knitted Gruffalo). The other classes from Bunessan primary also visited the forest that week to help with tree planting, investigate the ruined buildings, think about plans for a visitor centre and learn about the parts of a plant.

forest school trip may 2019

Meanwhile on Iona we enjoyed Outdoor Classroom Day on the beach, and a series of afterschool nature club sessions where the children set us a challenge by choosing the themes they would like to cover – culminating in a finale of studying grasshoppers combined with making a fire for hot chocolate and marshmallows!

Another hardworking Thistle Camp got to grips with some drainage work and beachcleaning, among other tasks, during a hot sunny week on Iona, and were rewarded for their efforts by taking part in several days of kayaking. Meanwhile Emilie and I completed the 3rd and final midnight corncrake count of the season, witnessing a spectacular red sunset and a lovely display of noctilucent (night-shining) clouds.

We’re all looking forward to adventure playground building with Woodland Tribe on the 7th, 8th and 9th July (no need to book, just turn up at Tiroran Community Forest between 11am and 6pm, or contact pyielder@swmid.co.uk for community transport information) and in advance of that Emilie led a beachcombing session for items to add to the construction.

Now that the school holidays have started, we are running several Nature Adventure Days with our local teenagers, and the first day saw us taking an old path through the Mull hills from Teanga Bridge over to Knock via Loch Ba, stopping to admire views, take hundreds of photos, climb trees and cool our feet in the clear streams. Next up it’s exploring St Martin’s caves and seaweed cooking on the beaches of Iona!

Today we had our first Magnificent Meadows event, thanks to those who kindly let us visit to admire their beautiful flowery fields, provided refreshments or drove the community bus – a dull day weather wise but thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless!

Lots more exciting events coming up so hope to see you soon!

Emily

Out and about this autumn

November 23, 2018November 23, 2018 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

As autumn turns to winter, time for a look back at what the ranger service has been up to. While Jan has been busy on Tobermory lighthouse path and at Calgary bay, and Mull Eagle Watch won another award, here’s what’s been happening in the south of the island:

Specialist path workers have stabilised the slope below the ladder at Burg, reducing erosion and improving access to the beach. Unfortunately the day after they left heavy rain caused a spectacular landslide further back along the coast which completely buried the path (at grid reference NM 411 263), so if you’re planning to go the fossil tree any time soon you will need to be prepared to scramble around the bouldery beach below it, and judge for yourself the risk of falling rocks from above.

Upper figure shows where the path used to cross the slope!

Depending on weather conditions it may be better to turn back at this point, but it’s still a lovely walk giving a taste of our dramatic coastal scenery and wildlife. On my visit this week we were bathed in lovely winter light and enjoyed watching an otter fishing just offshore.

November sunlight at Burg showing the iron age site of Dun Bhuirg

I’ve been helping out with beach school sessions with the younger children from Iona primary school and nursery. Investigating rockpool life, trying out seaweed recipes and playing wildlife-related games on the sand doesn’t have to be a summer-only activity!

How many tracks can you spot in the sand?

At Bunessan primary, afterschool nature clubs have been investigating seed dispersal and making hedgehog hibernation homes for our gardens. Argyll and Bute council also featured our Lost Words project as a good example of raising educational attainment.

Back at the end of August, a group of Thistle Camp working holiday volunteers on Iona not only did a great job painting bridges and noticeboards, digging ditches, making stepping stones, pulling bracken and beachcleaning, but also inadvertently caused a bomb scare with this mystery object, which turned out to be the propellant canister used to launch a missile from a WWII US Navy ship! Never a dull moment!

Photo by Graham Arnold

I’m very grateful for everyone who gives their time and skills to volunteer throughout the year, in particular some of our younger volunteers during this Year of Young People.

Finally, here’s a sneak peek at a new project for next year. We are going to be hosting Woollen Woods at Tiroran Community Forest. We’ll be asking everyone to get involved by creating woolly woodland creatures (animals, plants or fungi and knitted, felted, crocheted, pom-poms, any technique you like!) to go on display at the forest next year. Look out for more information coming soon, or if you can’t wait to get started, you can post any contributions to: Mull and Iona Ranger Service, c/o Tigh na Rois, Millbrae Cottage, Bunessan, Isle of Mull, PA67 6DA. We won’t be able to return any of your creatures but we can promise them a starring role in our outdoor exhibition next summer! Some mice have already got in on the act!

These two mice have been busy nibbling hazelnuts from their stash

Emily

After the storms…

March 9, 2018March 9, 2018 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

Hello from the snow-free Ross of Mull! While much of the mainland was buried under snow drifts, here we saw hardly a snowflake apart from on the hills, although it was very cold and dry in that harsh east wind. Spray from Burg’s waterfalls froze solid on the cliffs, and in Bunessan even the beach was frozen at low tide!

Snow-capped Bearraich

Clear frosty view with snowy Ben More

Ice on the beaches at Bunessan

We haven’t escaped winter storm damage though. Unfortunately part of the walkway into Fingal’s Cave on Staffa has been washed away. Wave erosion formed the island’s famous caves and is an ongoing process, as water pressure acts on the cracks between the basalt columns. This means that there is currently no access to Fingal’s cave on foot, although it can still be viewed from a boat. We have a team of specialist engineers working on a solution, and meanwhile the rest of the island including the puffin colony remains accessible.

Wintery view from Staffa

The path now ends here!

View from Staffa on a winter’s day

Engineer at work

Other winter tasks include regular checks on our visitor counters and infrastructure such as the ladder at Burg. It means carrying a laptop to some out-of-the-way places, but a good reason for a walk on a bright winter day. Thanks to Terry Ward for the photos.

Now that birdsong and catkins are giving hints of spring, afterschool nature clubs have restarted. This term involves activities related to forests, investigating trees and the wildlife that lives amongst them. Last week we made some woolly flowers for an installation at Tiroran Community Forest later this month. (It was also World Book Day which explains the costumes and face paint!) Well done to Monica Haddock for organising this. If it goes well we may consider a full Woollen Woods experience for gala fortnight, asking folk to make all sorts of woodland plants and creatures for display. Meanwhile, come along and picnic amongst the woollen meadow on Saturday 24th March!

There’s still time to apply for our summer volunteer assistant ranger position, as the closing date is Wednesday 14th March at 9am. See previous blog post for details.

Emily

Bringing you up to date

September 27, 2017September 27, 2017 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

Hello! Thought it was time for an update of news from my patch over the last couple of months.

Our summer events programme finished earlier than usual as I was off to Edinburgh to begin a part-time postgraduate course in Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education. I enjoyed the company of some great people from all over the world, and perhaps I’ll share some of my learning with you as the course progresses over the next few years, as we are very much encouraged to reflect on our own practice. Of course it was also good to come home to one of my favourite Mull views!

Anyway, before I went there was plenty of time to fit in some great outdoor days with both visitors and locals, including another lovely walk to the tidal island of Erraid, always a popular event in our guided walks programme. It was hard to drag everyone away from the beautiful beach at Balfour’s Bay!

Kate and I led another successful visit to Tiroran Community Forest with Bunessan Primary class 1, learning all about our sea eagles with Meryl at the hide, and finding out about dinosaurs and fossils. We made plaster casts of footprints, played games about camouflage and designed dinosaurs which might survive in a forest habitat, out of natural materials.

Our final NTS Thistle Camp of the year worked hard to improve access around Iona and Staffa with lots of very muddy pathwork including building stone steps, repairing stiles and bridges, and replacing a section of boardwalk. They also cleared a huge bramble patch from an area behind Iona school, and had a go at scything. This year the week included 2 days on Mull where the group helped Highland Renewal replace a bridge at Tireragan nature reserve and teamed up with local volunteers on a large-scale beachclean. Great effort everyone!

aird fada beachclean 2017 1.JPG

While the Thistle Camp were working on Staffa we had the expert help of Nan Morris from our path repair team, and we also had a visit from the structural engineer. This is required to help us monitor and plan for future repair or replacement work of all of our built infrastructure that helps people access the island, for example the pier, ladders and handrails.

The following week I headed over to Mar Lodge estate in Aberdeenshire for some valuable catch-up time with colleagues and to see how various land management projects there are progressing. Woodland restoration is coming on very well. On the way I dropped off Kate for a couple of days experience of working in mountain habitats at NTS Ben Lawers where she was well looked after by the team there. A long way to travel but our early start was rewarded with a spectacular sunrise.

Kate’s last day was spent finishing off a plant survey on the Ross, along with local volunteer Peter Upton. Wishing Kate all the best as she moves onto pastures new.

Our final survey of the season involved walking the coast of the Ardmeanach peninsula on our annual goat count which helps us work out grazing levels. 100 goats were happily spread around the beach boulders sunbathing! What a hard life!

Last week I escorted a few cruise ship passengers around the coastal path at Burg on a perfectly clear sunny day and we spotted some pure white harebells.

Bunessan afterschool nature club has now restarted – our first event this autumn was a local walk finding plants which had animals in their names – how many can you think of?

Enjoy your autumn!

Emily

Sunny highlights

June 2, 2016June 2, 2016 / rangerservice / Leave a comment

We’re enjoying weeks of almost unbroken warm sunshine here, time to give you a snapshot of what we’re up to in south Mull and Iona…

Thanks very much to the cheery NTS Thistle Camp volunteers, what a good-natured bunch of hard-working folk. They are seen here checking out the results of all their efforts shifting boulders by giving the new stepping stones the ‘prancing test’!

Next a great group of students from George Watsons college in Edinburgh, on Mull for a John Muir Award week, who helped us out with a seaweed survey, Marine Conservation Society litter survey and beach clean up at Carsaig.

Iona and Bunessan primary schools teamed up for a visit to Tiroran Community Forest and Mull Eagle Watch, learning about our nesting sea eagles, measuring and identifying trees and minibeasts and having plenty of time to explore.

Not to be outdone, afterschool nature clubs at both schools have been collecting wool caught on fences and brambles, which was then washed and mordanted. They also collected a selection of plants to produce their own dyes, and have carded the dyed wool reading for felting into pictures. Can you guess some of the plants we used from the photos?