Thurs 9th July

The birds on the island have been quiet and hence the reason for no entry since Monday. I was taken aback last night in an article that I had been reading about Hen Harriers. I know that here on Islay that we have quite a good strong breeding population of around 50 pairs, compared with only a total in the high teens in the whole of England, that was last year. This article stated that by mid June of this year, there were only 9 nesting attempts, a decline of more than 50%. On the RSPB guided walk at Gruinart this morning, we saw 2 separate Harriers out hunting, it is not surprising how we "locals" take them for granted while many of our visitors watch them for a long time and comment on actually seeing one.