Sun 8th March

The only thing missing today, weather wise, is the sun and a bit of heat. We have had rain, sleet and snow showers through the day with 2 or 3 claps of thunder thrown in. Actually James was out going round Ardnave when the thunder and lightning was rolling about. Having said that he managed to see 6 Purple Sandpipers, some Gannets fishing off Nave Island, 12 Tufted Duck on Ardnave Loch, and a female Hen Harrier out quartering her territory. This afternoon from the hide, James had 37 Redshank, a good count, 2 Whooper Swans and 1 Dunlin. Later on he saw 11 Lesser Black backed Gulls. The Lesser Black backed Gulls have just started to return last week. Another piece of information through from James is that he had news of Hen Harrier which he had rung back in 2007, the same bird had been found dead on the 10th of October 2008 on Mull. JRH