Amazing story in the latest edition of An Tirisdeach.

This young turtle was found freshly dead on 9th December, the day after the big storm, and was originally identified as a Loggerhead. However, experts have now re-identified it as Britain’s 36th record of Kemp’s Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii). A few days later, a second individual was found on a beach in Ceredigion, West Wales.

Kemp’s Ridley Turtles are a warm water species, and the rarest of the marine turtles. They are considered critically endangered, nesting only on a few beaches in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr Peter Richardson of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) says these recent turtle strandings suggest there may be more turtles out there that could wash up on UK beaches. “Our advice isthat under no circumstances should stranded turtlesbe thrown back in the sea. While they may appear to be dead, they may in fact be comatose due to the cold conditions, and can be nursed back to health if immediately rescued and given expert care. If they are dead, it is important that they are collected and stored for post-mortem examination.”
MCS has a produced a UK Turtle Code, which can be downloaded at www.mcsuk.org and gives information on how to identify turtle species found in the UK and who to call if you find one. In addition, all dead or alive stranded turtles should be reported to Marine Environmental Monitoring (MEM) on 01348 875000.
MEM organises the rescue and rehabilitation of live stranded turtles; collection and post-mortem of dead animals and maintains a national database of turtlereports.

From An Tirisdeach: huge storm that hit Scotland on Thursday 8th December left more than 150,000 homes without power during the day on Thursday and more than 70,000 were still off overnight. At least 10,000 homes in Scotland were still without power on the Saturday.

Here on Tiree it took until lunchtime on Sunday before power was restored to all homes! The hurricane-force storm has been described as a ‘weather bomb’, which in meteorological terms is defined as an ‘explosive deepening’.
According to catastrophe modelling specialists, Windstorm Friedhelm “began as a depression over the northern Atlantic, but as it approached the British Isles, it experienced a rapid drop of pressure that caused its wind speeds to soar”. This phenomenon occurs when cold air meets warm air and is characterised by a decrease in atmospheric pressure of at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. The lower the pressure, the stronger the winds become. Thursday’s storm was accompanied by a drop of 44mb!
By 9.50am ‘Windstorm Friedhelm’ officially became a hurricane as winds of 76mph were recorded at Tiree Airport – winds over 74mph are classified as hurricane strength. It was to get worse, with the maximum gust on Tiree being 91mph (146kmh). The mean wind speed for the day was 61mph. At Aonach Mor, just outside Fort William, there was a gust of 130mph (209kmh), whilst winds at Cairngorm Summit reached 165mph (264kmh).
Thanks to Sophie Isaacson for the photograph and to all the hydro boys for restoring our power in such horrendous conditions.

Well, it’s that time of year again! After the excitement of last week’s wind and weather, Christmas is upon us again and thoughts turn to holidays, and being with family. It’s been a fantastic year for the cottage with more people passing through than ever before, leaving some very welcome and kind comments in our cottage guestbook. What’s more many of you are booked again for next year, with 2012 selling out very fast indeed! Repeat business is great for us, but it’s also wonderful to see so many people enjoying Tiree and the cottage itself. We’d like to wish every one of our past, present and future guests a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

With some nice panaromas of Tiree as it is today.

Get into the festive spirit at An Talla on Saturday 17th December 2011. 7.30pm for 8pm . Bring your own bottle. £25 a head. Enjoy your dinner and complimentary wine and then dance the night away to Cornaig Ceilidh Band.