Sunday 17 October 2010

Sun 17th October



One of our visitors in the cottages came over this morning to say that there was a rather odd bird on the feeders outside their cottage. So here it is for any suggestions, a definite Greenfinch, yes, but what was the cause of the growth around its beak? The same folk also had 24 Ravens in a group up at Ardnave later on.
James had carried out another goose count on the reserve at Gruinart today, and he reckons it is as large a count on the reserve that he has ever had. There were 28,072 Barnies, 1 Pale bellied Brent, 1 Pink foot and 6 Canada comprising of 2 parvipes sp., 3 Hutchinsii sp. and probably 1 minima sp. He hopes to get a head count of the Whitefronts tomorrow. He also saw 2 Gadwall, a Peregrine and a Hen Harrier.
Down amongst the geese at the head of Loch Indaal today, Bob saw a Pale bellied Brent, 1 Pink foot and a large Canada, but he was not 100% sure of which species.
Yesterday Peter had been down on the Oa and had a count of over 260 Twite which were active on the seed crop just below the car park. On his travels he had seen a pair of Golden Eagles, initially doing aerial displays and then later on the ground. He also had seen a Peregrine flying up and down and perching close by the Monument. He finally saw 5 Chough dive bombing a Buzzard in the bright sunshine. On Friday,up at Ardnave he had a total of 46 Whoopers, some on Ardnave Loch and the others flying past.

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