Thursday 21st March

Not the warmest of days over here with a lazy wind going straight through you rather than going round you! Tracey e mailed the count from the International Goose Count carried out on 19th & 20th March, the tally was 44,854 Barnies and 5,449 Whitefronts. Thanks to Tracey and the team from SNH for providing us with these figures. Looking back to last year , the Barnies are down from 46,412 while the Whitefronts are up from 4,309.... Over at Loch Gruinart this morning, Wally and Jude had a Kestrel put up a few Sanderling. Along the flats, they had a count of over 700 Golden Plover, initially in 2 flocks but merging into one large flock. Over at Bunnahabhain, the Iceland Gull was still present, 15 Pale bellied Brent Geese were seen at Bruichladdich, and also a Dark bellied Brent was spotted amongst the Barnies. Yesterday, Malcolm had counted 19 Whoopers at Gartbreck flying low up Loch Indaal, but no news of them being seen at Gruinart. This morning, we had 10 Whoopers resting up down in  the wee lochans at Rockside roadend. The Bolton birders today had a Stonechat at Braigo, up at Sanaigmore there was a GND in the bay and a Gannet flew in really close in the bay at the same time. Down at the "phone box" back down towards Loch Gorm, a Sparrowhawk was sitting on a fence post eyeing up the finch flock in the adjacent field! Coming back round Loch Gorm, at Ballinaby, there were 20 Golden Plover , 62 Lapwing and 20 Starling present. In the afternoon they had 2 Dippers on the River Sorn and a Goldcrest in the trees in Bridgend. At the top of Loch Indaal there were 2 Buzzards picking away at a carcase! As I write this entry, the wind is starting to pick up with the wind starting howl a bit....