User talk:Suisnish

Hi Suisnish, and welcome to Wikipedia. As you can see I amended your input at Raasay, partly to retain the historical inforation and also to tidy up the excellent reference you left there. (It can be very tricky to get the hang of Wiki-reference systems at first). I am dismayed to hear that Pine Martens may no longer be on the island - assuming they ever were of course. If you have a reference for island's fauna I'd appreciate knowing of it. You can reply here or on my talk page if you prefer. Ben  Mac  Dui  07:43, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I have no wish to become an expert Wikipedian. As a long term resident of Raasay and the BSBI Recorder for Skye, Rassay & the Small Isles, I simply wish to avoid errors being promulgated on the Raasay page. (BSBI is the Botanical Society of the British Isles)

Mammals - Nobody on Raasay knows of this supposed introduction of pine martens. I checked when I first saw this in the Haswell-Smith books - he keeps on repeating it. I also checked with SNH - the person compiling the Highland Mammal Atlas - who knows of no record of pine martens for Raasay - ever. It is difficult to give a reference for this negative.

Flora - There are no records ever of Carlina on Raasay - I am the holder of the vice-county database. I have also double-checked the Vascular Plants Database for the British Isles.

In passing there is a slightly silly remark in Haswell Smith about Sea Aster being below Dun Caan. Well of course everything on Raasay is below Dun Caan in a sense as it is the highest point. Sea Aster is where you would expect it to be - by the sea (at Oskaig).

Link to Flora of Raasay and Rona - I am happy with what you have done with that.Suisnish (talk) 11:20, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

As a further thought you might wish to add The Botanist in Skye and Adjacent Islands C. W. Murray & H. J. B. Birks 3rd Edition 2005, ISBN 0-9548971-0-2 to the further reading list.

I suggest you make these changes rather than us entering into the sort of fight that is said to be degrading Wikipedia's usefulness because new editors find that their changes are changed back and so they give up. Suisnish (talk) 11:37, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

While we are at it, I know of no water shrew records and none are shown on the Highland Mammal Atlas (and I set bait for them a few years ago as part of a Scotland-wide survey but no evidence for them turned up). We do have stoat and weasel in very small numbers but no mole, squirrel or hedgehog. Highland Mammal Atlas maps are available at http://www.hbrg.org.uk Suisnish (talk) 11:47, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

And another thing! If you have also written the Rum page I would suggest a reference to The Flora of Rum by D A Pearman, C D Preston, G P Rothero and K J Walker 2008. ISBN978-0-9538111-3-7. Suisnish (talk) 17:16, 19 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Good to have the input from a knowledgeable person.


 * Re the Carlina, this is poorly referenced. It is actually a section by Alf White Slack who states that it grows on Skye, Rum, Raasay, Eigg and Skye but not on the mainland. Does the vice-county database go back to the sixties? If so, if you can provide a proper reference I'd be happy to take your word for it.


 * Pine Marten: Interestingly H-Smith probably took this from Murray (1973). The latter says: "The pine marten, which has been absent from the Hebrides for a hundred years, reappeared on Raasay in [page break] 1971, when a single specimen was identified beyond doubt. (My emphasis.) He attributes this to a 1972 report in The Scotsman by Alison Lambie. I will amend the article asap.


 * I will reply to the rest of your comments soon too. If you are so inspired I'd appreciate it if you could take a look at Flora of Scotland. It was compiled by a well-meaning amateur and I am concerned it may contain errors or important omissions. Regards, Ben   Mac  Dui  18:45, 19 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I've added Pearman et al and Murray and Birks. For the former, I have assumed it is self-published.
 * Murray is quite clear that "water shrews are recorded only from Mull, Skye, and Raasay", although it was a long time ago. I will look into this also.


 * I dare say that if you want to edit matters relating to "Lost" episodes and the like you will soon encounter various alternative points of view, but the islands are generally quieter (unless you express strong opinions about Gaelic etmyologies). Ben   Mac  Dui  19:14, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Pine martens - what can I say? Pearman et al. Yes, self-publshed. Water shrews - fair enough though this was treated as dubious for the recent survey. Carlina - interesting, Alf Slack was usually reliable. I have copies of his old record cards and will see if I can shed any light on this. However, why mention it at all when there are so many excellent species definitely here? e.g. Hammarbya paludosa, Epipactis atrorubens, Dryas octopetala etc etc etc. The earliest records in my database are from 1771 but not all records reach me. For reference use Murray & Birks, or better, my web-based flora. Suisnish (talk) 20:58, 19 August 2009 (UTC)