Thursday 17th May

Yesterday must have been the day of the geese, as James saw 10 Pink footed Geese on Loch Gruinart, we had 6 Pale bellied Brent down at Blackrock while the RAFOS team had a total of 20 Pale bellied Brent on Loch Indaal. Also later on, the RAFOS team had a Wood Pigeon down at "the hedges" at Sunderland and another at The Woolen Mill, a tick for their list for the week! Today over at The Woolen Mill, they had a Dipper as well as a Grey Wagtail and also the pair of Siskins on the feeders there! To cap it all late this afternoon, there was a phone message from a visiting birder who had seen 10 Dotterel on a ploughed field over at Ballinaby, next to where the stream comes out of Loch Gorm, boy were they difficult to pick out when they got hunkered down in the ploughing, thanks Andrew! We also heard a Corncrake calling there too, another new site for Crystal, and we are claiming it was on our patch as it sounded to be on the far side of the stream!!!