Monday 4th February

Yes, the Fulmars must be a sign of impeding bad weather, as today it has been something else. I know it has windy, a gust of 63mph was recorded on Mike weather station at 06.53, and even now the wind is rolling around, fortunately no damage done. We are not alone as Calmac, our ferry operator on the West coast of Scotland, have got 10 ferry crossings cancelled out, including our service to Islay, there is one ferry sailing "normally" and the rest of the fleet on "amber alert", not that I would really want to go on the ferry when the wind is what it is like at present!!! Michal at the weekend had found a dead Little Auk on the shore close to Killinallan. I thought that the figures for the big garden birdwatch that we had were big, well today I think that we have had even more birds present including 3 Dunnock, 2 Robin and 12 Goldfinches. The Chaffinches and Greenfinches just kept rotating around and proved too difficult to count. The female Brambling was seen as well, nice to see it especially on the feeders close to the kitchen window!