Ca' canny wi' the Canna Rats

Then again, maybe not, just trying to come up with a blog title that doesn't immediately make me want to put my fingers in the electric socket to see what happens.
Things are progressing with the fairly ambitious project on Canna that has been the subject of a fair few of my posts from last year.
Previous posts on the topic (main ones being here, here & here, in that order) stated my puzzlement that the figures quoted in the media were so high though varied significantly from one newspaper to the next. After contacting the National Trust for Scotland last year, I received an informative reply from the National Species Recovery Officer who it seems is overseeing the contractors in charge of the rat cull. The disputed figures were finally settled at £580,000 for the project cost and 25 tonnes for the amount of rat poison budgeted for. The biggest discrepancy was the reported media figure of 25,000 tonnes of poison which first caused a Roger Moore-esque raising of an eyebrow. That was clearly a case of fat finger syndrome or suchlike in the errant journo.
Having settled that, it was with a slight sense of deja vu that I read the leading letter in today's Dundee Courer. A disgruntled ratcatcher claims that the homegrown rodent controllers were denied the chance to tender for the contract. An interesting claim that certainly merits further investigation. Not that this blog shall be carrying any of that out for quite frankly the story as it stands has had it's day, as no doubt have the Canna rats.
To sign off on a slightly odd note, I recall at some point over the previous few months reading of the skipper of a cargo vessel recounting his tale of having warning shots fired across his bows by a warship from the US Navy. This took place off the west coast of Scotland during naval excercises and it seems that the ultra-sensitive US Captain thought that perhaps the much feared al-Qaeda, Mull of Kintyre Division were about to strike. Nothing quite as exotic although if the cargo ship had been hit a lot of rats on Canna would be no doubt scurrying about and eating seabird eggs with their famed gusto. It turns out that the cargo on the boat in question was some of the rat poison destined for Canna. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), I cannot find a link to the story so for now I shall have to retire for the evening pondering whether or not I have made the whole damn thing up.