Sun 5th July

The reason for no entry yesterday was really quite simple, it was Saturday, which means for me at least, changeover day in the cottages and this week in particular, all the cottages had to be cleaned and got ready for another set of visitors, some new ones as well as some that have been before. The net result is that not much chance of any birding getting done by myself anyway! Today, has not been much better as I was helping a friend with his sheep this morning, a bit of a barter as he often helps out with ours! After lunch, as it was still dry, it was out with the flymo and cutting some grass for a couple of hours, you see I am a believer in doing jobs when I am in the mood for doing it and it does not seem so hard to do it. What about the birds then, well after cutting the grass and watching some earlier games of the Tennis, we went up round the crag and saw the Buzzard out soaring on the thermals, as well as some Fulmars too. Returning back down and there were about 20 lbjs on the new trees, but as I did not have my bins with me I was not 100% sure of an id, but fairly confident that they were some young Stonechats that had recently fledged. Later on, while going down to Bruichladdich for the papers, Friday's and Saturday's I hasten to add, we had a male Hen Harrier down below Rockside, close to the road, and then at Woodside a Ringtail. Coming home there was a Sparrowhawk perched on a rock.