Wednesday 24 June 2009

Loch Linnhe & The Alternative Beaver Blog



Tuesday 23 June, a stunningly beautiful evening so off to Loch Linnhe for a spot of fishing. Lochgilphead Angling Club has rowing boats for hire for fly fishing on Loch Coille Bharr, Loch Linnhe and Loch Barnluasgan - available from Seafield Farm. Loch Linnhe is about 3 miles from Seafield but you could be a million miles from anywhere. It is a beautiful loch surrounded by woodland and forest; a heavenly spot. At the moment the water lilies are just coming into bloom and on the eastern arm of the loch there are smaller yellow water lilies. The surface of the loch was occasionally disturbed by skating sedge flies, a favourite food for trout but on this evening they floated undisturbed. Loch Linnhe is another one of the lochs chosen for the beaver introduction and two of them were swimming about. They seemed fairly oblivious to the boat as we rowed past. One of them swam to the bank and proceeded to gnaw very noisily on an ash branch. There was no sign of the other two but we hear that of the eleven beavers released, one has died, one has disappeared, one was in the canal and one is in the Fairy Isles. The official beaver blog is remarkably lacking in information and the information board in Barnluasgan asserts that they are all still where they were put.

About twenty swallows flew overhead and Daubenton bats swooped over the water picking off insects.

Stable Cottage is still available for one week from 3 - 10 July and Kirkland Lodge from 12 - 18 July. Visit our lovely area and discover that we have a lot more to offer than imported Norwegian beavers. They are supposed to be good for biodiversity but it would be hard to create more biodiversity than already exists here in Knapdale forest.

1 comment:

Calico Kate said...

Long may the water lillies bloom. If they weren't such a pest or were an otter or seal I'd bet you'd be thrilled to get up so close to a beaver!