Dear Reader

Rummaging through the chaos of our barn to find where the hens were hiding eggs, we discovered a beautiful, but dead, barn owl. The speckled belly and under wing indicated it was a female. As rigor mortis had not yet set in, she had only died that night. At this time of year, with prey thin on the ground, these birds are often victims of starvation.
When Arthur the Owl Man, who doubles up as Postie in his spare time, arrived with the mail he pointed to the ring on the owl’s leg and thought it might be one he had caught and ringed some years ago. This proved the case. The number indicated that it had been ringed at Eric Roy’s on 3 June 2001. She had been a breeding adult at that time so had died when at least eight or nine years old.
Barn owl numbers have been decreasing as there are fewer abandoned buildings or hollow stumps for them to nest in. Argyll is just outwith their main breeding range, barn owls being more common in Dumfrieshire and South Ayrshire.
Arthur said this was the second recent death in the area. He had discovered another at Glen Lean. Sad and solemn, he bore the bird away to be stuffed and mounted.
Judging from the carnage at our bird feeder, the local sparrow hawk is having no such problems.

Michael Kaufmann

Dear Reader

Those living on the route of the water pipeline laid to supply Kilmodan School with chemically treated water from Rothesay, were recently written to by Scottish Water in unambiguous terms. The letter promised free connection to the supply and heralded a public meeting to explain. It was described as an open evening implying that folk could drop in any time and be informed. It turned out to be a formal affair with officials at the head table and rows of seats for the audience. This became farce as officials kept returning to square one for latecomers.

It slowly became clear that ’free’ meant no such thing. The minimum cost of connection was to be £750 and rising, plus substantial ongoing charges. The man who commissioned the letter admitted to not checking it before mailing.

We were told that if all those on the route did not sign up, the water pressure would be irrevocably reduced thus rendering future connection impossible.

However, it turns out that some on the shore road have already been connected by a cowboy councillor without Scottish Water’s knowledge. Mr McCall, the grandly titled Manager of Strategic Accounts, Corporate Affairs, said he was there to rescue SW’s reputation. Aye, that’ll be right. Good job. Watch this space.

Michael Kaufmann

BBC Radio 4 recently hosted a debate between various worthies on the measures required to reduce our impact on global climate change. One green expert declared the urgent need to hike petrol prices up by £5 a litre. Another suggested taxing 4WD vehicles at treble the rate of ‘more sensible’ modes of transport.    (more…)

We would like to express our continuing gratitude to the Wind Farm Trust for their ongoing support of this newsletter which makes it possible to distribute free throughout the community and to remain independent of advertisers.
The task of producing the newsletter would be easier with more contributions from the community. As we are based in the Glen, there exists the danger of bias. So we would particuarly appreciate any contributions from Colintraive. Write a letter, have a rant, bang a drum, send a picture or tell us about folk and events. We cannot guarantee to publish everything but we will try.