Snow Bunting - Image courtesy of Graham Todd

April was dominated by high pressure with light northerly winds, much sunshine and very little rain. The generally cool temperatures and northerly winds held many migrant birds back with most arriving a little later than normal, whilst many residents such as Lapwings and Greylags also started breeding later.

Thousands of birds were on the move despite the head-winds and for many species, the island represents an important stop-over for refuelling on their spring migration to breeding sites further north. Some 250 Pale-bellied Brent Geese stopped to feed around the coast (from 1st), including birds that had been ringed at their wintering sites in Ireland and on staging areas in Iceland. Whooper Swan passage was noted on several dates as flocks passed north over the island or dropped in to stop for a day or two on the lochs.

More unusual was a movement of some 410 Pink-footed Geese that headed NW past Urvaig (13th), presumably pushed further south and west from their traditional mainland spring route by strong NE winds. Sadly, two Common Cranes seen flying NW over the west end of Coll on the same date appear to have just missed Tiree!

There were scattered flocks of up to 100 Black-tailed Godwits in their brick-red breeding dress feeding around the lochs all month including colour-ringed birds from The Wash in southern England and from breeding sites in SW Iceland. Golden Plover numbers built up on their main staging area at The Reef to at least 4,500 birds (17th) and were joined briefly by a lone Dotterel (18th), whilst at least 23 Whimbrel arrived (23rd).

The wintering Greenland geese departed en masse (14th), although there were 11 late Barnacle Geese at Rubha Chraiginis (30th), plus a scattering of up to 8 Pink-footed Geese and at least 15 Whooper Swans still around the island at the end of the month.

The rarest bird in April was a drake Eider of the Northern borealis race at Traigh Bhi (7th) showing the classics back sails and orange-tinged bill of birds from Western Greenland. If accepted, this will be the first record of this race from Argyll. Other rarities included two different drake Green-winged Teal at Loch a’ Phuill (16th and 27th), with a drake Garganey there on the latter date and a Green Sandpiper at Balephuil (27th). Up to two different 1st winter Glaucous Gulls and four different Iceland Gulls were seen on and off throughout the month, whilst up to three Short-eared Owls included singing males at two sites.

Other notable birds included an adult Golden Eagle at Moss (14th), a pair of Scaup at Loch a’ Phuill (19th), a Knot at Gott Bay (17th), a Coot at Loch an Eilein (10th-17th), two Woodpigeons at Balephuil (24th) with another at West Hynish (29th), two Lapland Buntings at Gott (5th), single male Snow Buntings at Baugh (10th-12th) and West Hynish (29th), three Siskins at Crossapol (21st), 5 scattered Goldfinches and a Lesser Redpoll at Balephuil (24th). Some 140 Redwings arrived (13th) and there was an unusual fall of 10 Blackcaps, 6 Chiffchaffs and a Goldcrest at Balephuil / Carnan Mor (24th), but many species were in short supply, with just one Greenland Wheatear (30th).

Further returning migrants were all a little later than normal but included 40+ White Wagtails (from 2nd), Willow Warbler (11th), Sand Martin (17th), Little Tern (17th), Sandwich Tern (17th) and Grasshopper Warbler (30th).

Lapwing chicks were observed from mid-month and were widespread by the month end, whilst Corncrakes returned from 17th with some 50 scattered males back by 30th. Despite the rather cold conditions, the very first Basking Sharks were reported back feeding around the island with large sharks noted off Milton (12th) and the Green (15th) – hopefully a sign of another busy summer here for these amazing creatures.

Many thanks to those of you who have kept me posted with your latest observations. If anyone would like to report unusual sightings of birds or other wildlife on Tiree, please contact me at the address below:

John Bowler, Pairc na Coille, Balephuil, Isle of Tiree PA77 6UE. Tel: 220748

In November 2011 the Windfall Fund awarded TCB £4000, and along with additional financial help from ACHA, TCB were able to purchase and install a new roundabout, safety matting, spring riders and upgrade the swings.

TCB has since been awarded a further £10,000 and we will be looking to install more new equipment probably for the older children in the near future.There will be an open day in An Talla on the 19th of May to discuss possible additions.

On a recent beautiful sunny April day the playpark was a particularly popular venue for local children. Grateful thanks to The Windfall Fund & ACHA for their generous funding.

Friday 16 March – Friday 27 April 2012

Ironside Farrar, on behalf of the Steering Group chaired by Argyll and Bute Council, would now like to invite you to review the ‘Draft Tiree Onshore Scenario Mapping Report’ before it is formally finalised and the study concluded with the Steering Group. The intent would be to note the comments received through draft report consultation and include and report on these within the report appendices.

The consultation period on the draft report will be from Friday 16 March – Friday 27 April 2012. The Draft report and comment forms will be available throughout this time from:

• Argyll and Bute Council website at http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/tireeconsultation
• Tiree Community Development Trust www.tireetrust.org.uk
• In hard copy from:
  • Tiree Community Development Trust, Tiree Rural Centre, Crossapol, Tiree
  • An Talla, Island Centre, Crossapol, Tiree
• Available via CD-ROM from Argyll and Bute Council, see contact below.

Please submit all responses by Friday 27 April 2012 – either online via the Argyll and Bute Council website above, or by post or email to:
Tiree Onshore Scenario Mapping Study, c/o Lisa Hardie, Development and Infrastructure Services, 1A Manse Brae, Lochgilphead, PA31 8RD; Lisa.hardie@argyll-bute.gov.uk.

Photo by Ian Sharp

Tiree now has a new community bus. After two years of fantastic support from Jane Isaacson, the Resource Club were awarded a grant to purchase a mini bus and employ an outreach worker.

Resource Club is very pleased to welcome Christine MacDonald into the post and hope she enjoys all the challenges ahead! The bus is very much a community resource and is available for all community groups to use but please bear with us over the next couple of months as we work out the best method of managing this so everyone is happy.

The club is currently looking at instigating a library run. Individuals are welcome to book the bus for appointments but we are trying to combine trips as fuel is expensive. It would be good if community groups could identify drivers within their ranks as we will require copies of clean licences for insurance purposes.

We would ask that in all instances that the ring-and-ride service is utilised before the community bus as this is the principal transport service on the island.

Anyone who wants to come to the Resource Club for a meal and good company please contact Christine on the number below and we will arrange pick up. Many thanks and we will be publishing the guidelines for usage in the next edition. Meanwhile, Christine’s contact number is 07776422476.

Community Partnership Fund

The second meeting with Tiree Community Development Trust to discuss this initiative took place on the 14th of February and the third meeting on 21st February.
A joint report on the meetings will appear in the next issue of An Tirisdeach.

Engineering Foundation Programme

A reminder that any young person interested in applying for a place on this year’s programme should contact either myself or Ralph Thornton on 0141 614 0418. Staff at Tiree High School will also be able to give prospective candidates further information and support. Obviously, places are open to both female and male applicants.

Coastal Communities Fund

Further to the item in the last update, any group seeking funds from the Highlands and Islands part of the Fund can download a prospectus from www.communities.gov.uk/documents/regen eration/pdf/2085591.pdf.

Converter Station

Preliminary research has now been completed for SPR regarding the siting of the converter station at the wind-farm end of the grid export cable route to Dalmally. Most will recall that a short-list of possible export cable routes has already been drawn up, all of which involve either a route over Mull to Oban or a completely sub-sea route to Oban, with no cable coming on to either Coll or Tiree. At the moment, SPR is minded to apply for permission to site the converter station offshore within the wind farm and not onshore in Tiree. The current position is based on feedback received through last year’s Public Information Day (PID) on Tiree, and the Scenario Mapping consultations. However, SPR has agreed with Tiree Community Development Trust to provide more information on the onshore convertor station at this summer’s Public Information Day. There are some benefits in respect of jobs and infrastructure on Tiree which would occur irrespective of the strategy for the windfarm. The island’s views will be sought at the PID in the summer, and if there is strong feedback in favour then SPR would reconsider the possibility of an onshore location.

Questions Or Comments

If anyone has any questions or comments on any of the above, or indeed any aspect of the project, please contact me at – Donnie Campbell, ScottishPower Renewables Community Liaison Officer, Machair, Kilmoluaig in the first instance. My land line telephone number is 220 352, mobile 07881 983 753 and email donnie@argyllarray.com

I felt an icy trickle down my back when I heard the news. If you can remember back that far, last month’s report that our memory starts to get worse in our forties was a bit of a wakeup call. Five out of six people who get to 80 won’t get dementia. But one in six people will. It is set to become one of the most important features of care on Tiree as the rate is going to double in the next 40 years. Indeed, it is very much in our thinking at Cùram as we plan how we could look after the next generation.

Two thirds of people with dementia have Alzheimer’s disease. This is when the brain cells get clogged up with protein sludge. Another one in five have what is called vascular dementia – lots of tiny strokes, one after the other. There are other sorts of dementia too, and it is becoming increasingly important to try and find out which sort people have. The treatment is slightly different and the dementias progress in different ways.

But can we do anything about the wearing out of what has been called the most complex thing in the universe – the human brain? We’re not sure, to be honest. Dementia is such a slow process: you would have to take a thousand people, do something to one group, nothing to another -
and wait twenty years to see what works best. But exercising mind and body seems to be the key. A lot of the evidence about this comes from the poor old laboratory mouse (look away now if you find this distasteful). There is a strain of mice now which has been bred to get dementia – at 7 months of age they are showing advanced signs. But if they are given free access to a running wheel from their first weeks they are less likely to develop dementia changes, in their behaviour and in their brains. And if you allow the same strain of pregnant mice to run as much as they want on a treadmill, their offspring have less dementia changes in their brains when they grow up too. The brain needs a lot of energy, and a lot of blood. Keeping your circulation healthy is important. On the medical side this means good blood pressure, good cholesterol and good sugar. I’m sorry to say – if you have diabetes you’re a bit more likely to get dementia in old age.

And a big study in humans this year in Texas gives a useful pointer. 17 years ago they put 60 000 people (yes, 60 000 – they don’t do things by halves in Texas!) on a treadmill and measured how fit they were. Then they looked at how many of them died from dementia over the years. The fittest two thirds in the study were half as likely to die from dementia as the least fit. Of course, that doesn’t prove it was the exercise that did it. People who keep physically fit are more likely to be healthy in other ways too. But another study found that the more muscle people have, the less likely they are to get dementia.

On the mental front, another smaller study recently found that older people who used their brains a lot when they were younger had healthier looking brain scans. And we’re not talking Einsteins here. The best way to use your brain? Talk to people – and be interested in what they say. We use huge amounts of brain power remembering who has said what, to whom. Sitting and watching television look like the worst things to be doing if you want to keep your brain active.

Dementia is not a welcoming thought and there are no guarantees. The fittest granny in the world can get dementia if that’s in her nature. But, if walking and talking can keep it at bay for a bit, I’m up for having a go!

Visual Impact: Gamesa (20 % owned by Iberdrola) a major Spanish turbine manufacturer, and supplier to Iberdrola, is currently designing a comparable 7MW turbine. SPR, to maximize Tiree Array is considering deploying 10MW turbines units. Current technical information on 10 mw units is sparse but suggests the over-all dimensions of a 10MW unit will approximate to those of the 7MW unit. Either way the visual impact of the Array basis 7MW or 10MW turbines units will be a considerable scale-up from the visualizations SPR presented in June 2011. SPR have advised NTA they have no intention of presenting the appropriate visualizations till much closer to submitting their planning application.

7 MW Turbine alongside Tilley

Foundation Issues and the Planning Application:- The last NTA update made reference to the 2 contrasting foundation types ie jacket and gravity. As the attendees to SPR’s Barrow visit established, there is a significant difference in the visual impact of the Array, depending on the foundation type. NTA’s analysis suggests jacket foundations (pictured) may be the most likely option.

The alternative, gravity foundations, would require levelling Skerryvore’s seabed to within 1m which can only be achieved by dredging (SPR agree not an option), explosives (SPR states ‘currently’ not an option), or infilling (SPR hasn’t commented). In addressing this issue with SPR it would appear that even jacket foundations pose technical issues. SPR advise ‘we need site data to design a suitable foundation solution’ This in turn suggests that SPR, currently, does not have a foundation solution, and begs the obvious question ie may SPR’s planning application be delayed until such time as a foundation solution is found? SPR advise;- “For the planning application we don’t need an engineered design”. NTA is seeking clarification from Marine Scotland.

D Trump: As reported in the National Press, Donald Trump has written to Alex Salmond accusing the First Minister of seeming “hell bent on destroying Scotland’s coastline with wind power”. Not withstanding Mr Trump’s colourful persona, or his manifest self-interest, or one’s personal opinion of him, he has awakened a much needed national debate. For more detailed information on all these topics go to NTA ‘s website:- www.no-tiree-array.org.uk

Community Partnership Fund

The second meeting with Tiree Community Development Trust to discuss this initiative took place earlier this week, on the 14th of February. A joint report of the meeting will be in the next Tirisdeach, as the meeting was held too late for it to appear in this week’s newsletter.

Marine Traffic Survey

This survey, conducted from the top of Ceann a‘Mhara, ended on Thursday 16th February. A further survey will take place during the summer.

Engineering Foundation Programme

An advertisement for this exciting opportunity appears elsewhere in this week’s newsletter. If any young person from Tiree is interested in applying for a place on this year’s programme then, in the first instance, please contact either myself or Ralph Thornton on 0141 614 0418. Staff at Tiree High School will also be able to give prospective candidates further information and support. Obviously, places are open to both female and male applicants.

Coastal Communities Fund

In the summer of 2011 the UK Government announced the setting up of the Coastal Communities Fund. This is a Fund made up of 50% of the revenues from the Crown Estates marine assets in the UK. The Crown Estates receive revenues from fish farms and off shore wind farms and a number of other sources of income. The Government has now published a Prospectus for the Fund, which invites expressions of interest for funding by the end of March, with those successful at that stage invited to submit full applications by September. This is not an SPR initiative and is completely separate from the Community Partnership Fund for Tiree which is being discussed currently. Tiree is, however, an obvious coastal community and any group interested in applying to the Highlands and Islands part of the Fund can download the prospectus from www.communities.gov.uk/documents/regeneration/pdf/2085591.pdf

Questions Or Comments

If anyone has any questions or comments on any of the above, or indeed any aspect of the project, please contact me at – Donnie Campbell, ScottishPower Renewables Community Liaison Officer, Machair, Kilmoluaig in the first instance. My land line telephone number is 220 352, mobile number 07881 983 753 and email donnie@argyllarray.com

SPR has recently given a commitment to establish a Community Partnership Fund and to discuss with the community how to set it up. It has always been a priority for Tiree Community Development Trust to find out, on behalf of the community, more about what this could be if the proposed Array went ahead.

At the first public meeting held by SPR on Tiree it was announced that if the proposed wind farm development went ahead there would be financial benefit for the local community.

The first meeting between Tiree Trust and SPR to discuss the proposed Community Partnership Fund (CPF) took place on 24th January 2012. The purpose of the meeting was to plan the process for agreement of the Fund. Points discussed, which will also be on the agenda for future meetings, were:

• How the meetings should be recorded and reported and how the community should be consulted.
• The role of Argyll and Bute Council.
• What the make up of the negotiating body planning the process should be.
• How the final Fund amount per year should be calculated.
• What the make up of the future body which would administer and distribute the Fund should be.
• How funding for skills/education/training could be used in 2012-13.
• Negotiation stages and timetables for the process.

It was agreed that the above points would be on the agenda for the first stage of the discussions. The second stage would focus on what the Fund would be used for and what its amount would be. Each stage would end with a community consultation in the form of either an open afternoon or an evening public meeting.

There will be further meetings on 14th February and 21st February with the community consultation on Stage 1 soon after. Stage 2 will then commence immediately, with the object of final approval by the community, which would be Stage 3, around April 2012.

This is a joint update from the Trust and SPR. It was agreed at the meeting that these updates should be joint and not be included in the regular SPR updates. Full minutes of the CPF meetings will be available to the public at the end of each Stage of negotiations.

Tiree Community Development Trust is neither for nor against the proposed wind farm development and this process is a continuation of the fact finding mandate given by the community at public meetings in 2009/10. If anyone has any queries regarding the above please contact Donnie Campbell or the Tiree Trust office.

Community Partnership Fund

The first meeting with Tiree Community Development Trust to discuss this initiative took place on the 24th of January.
A joint report of that meeting appears elsewhere in this issue.

Marine Traffic Survey

As I said in the last update, there are due to be two surveys of marine traffic on the wind farm site this year. The first of these has started this week.Marico are the company carrying out the survey on SPR’s behalf, for the next two weeks or so.

The main survey point will be near the top of Ceann a’Mhara to gain the best radar sweep of the wind farm site. This is difficult work, not least due to the difficulty of getting the equipment on to the hill and coping with the wind exposure. Anyone interested in seeing how the work is done and how the data is gathered is welcome to go along to visit the survey, subject to any safety restrictions that may be in force at the time. The team are based at MacKay’s Cottage in Balephuil for the duration of the survey or can be contacted through myself.

Engineering Foundation Programme

ScottishPower’s 2012 Engineering Foundation Programme is now open for applications and this is a tremendous opportunity to learn valuable skills and start off a worthwhile career in the electricity industry.

The programme is a partnership between some Scottish colleges and ScottishPower and is designed to equip school leavers with the skills and qualifications to support progression onto an Engineering Apprenticeship.

Over an academic year the individuals achieve a qualification that focuses on Electrical Engineering at Level Two. ScottishPower currently recruits for the programmes in Scotland and also in the North West of England and North Wales.

If any young person from Tiree would be interested in applying for a place on this year’s programme then, in the first instance, please contact either myself or Ralph Thornton on 0141 614 0418. Staff at Tiree High School will also be able to give prospective candidates further information and support. Obviously, places are open to both female and male applicants.

In 2011, three Engineering Foundation Students secured an apprenticeship with ScottishPower’s Energy Networks business and a further four have been offered positions with the contractor IQA.

Questions or comments

If anyone has any questions or comments on any of the above, or indeed any aspect of the project, please contact me at – Donnie Campbell, ScottishPower Renewables Community Liaison Officer, Machair, Kilmoluaig in the first instance. My land line telephone number is 220352, mobile number 07881 983 753 and email donnie@argyllarray.com