Thursday 18th October

Sorry folks, should have done the blog before going out, so here goes, some will be "Extra" on Friday's entry!!! Carl, earlier this week seen a male Hen Harrier at Coull with another round at Ballinaby. At the weekend he had a fall of Goldcrests in his garden at Port Charlotte. This evening he had a couple of Red throated Divers at Gortan with 6  Whoopers out over Loch Indaal. This afternoon we counted  57 Whoopers at Rockside, a Merlin screamed past there too with a further 38 Whoopers along at Sunderland. Coming home, the Sunderland swans remained but the Rockside Swans were all gone, all in about 90 minutes!! The Bolton birders are back, and just before teatime, they had 78 Golden Plover, 20 Ringed Plover, 1 Sanderling and 4 Turnstone down on Machir Bay. Coming over on the ferry on Tuesday, just off MacArthur's Head they saw a pod of  8 Bottle nosed Dolphins out round one of the local fishing boats out checking the lobster pots! Yesterday they had a Dipper on the Sorn with a ringtail Hen Harrier on the reserve at Gruinart, and there today, they had a female Merlin fly up from a fence post post beside the road up and then perch on a telegraph pole.Yesterday the Stewartry SOC team had been out, some up the East side of Gruinart where they had 2 Greenshank, over 70 Redshank, a flock of over 100 Twite. South of Port Charlotte a ringtail Hen Harrier was spotted. The others in the group had seen a "very old (mature)" Golden Eagle out towards Bunnahabhain, several Redwing on their travels, a Grey Wagtail at Bridgend and a male Hen Harrier at Cluanach. Gavin had been over to Jura yesterday with an Otter being the highlight, especially for his 2 young sons! Birds seen included 4 Hen Harriers (2 male and 2 ringtail), a total of 6 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel, 8 Ringed Plover and 3 Red breasted Merganser.  Have kept the Leigh birders entry on as an "extra" for tomorrow as the clock is ticking away and this will almost be Friday by the time it is posted...whoops...