Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd May 2025

A bit of drizzle Friday morning, then becoming sunny again, but rather spoilt by the cold northerly wind.

Friday was a quiet day for birds, but Alan and Karami found a Golden Eagle, a male Blackcap and a Grasshopper Warbler at Loch Skerrols. On Saturday, their last day, they had some more nice sightings, including another Golden Eagle, this time at Ardnave, where they also saw a Turnstone and watched a Great Skua off the NW side of the peninsula, and there were still some Whooper Swans on the Gruinart Flats. Their best sighting, though, was in the afternoon of 2 Ospreys fishing in Loch Skerrols. There's been one around for a while, but 2 together is unusual, but maybe promising for the future. It is surely only a matter of time before this species breeds here, but they need to arrive in March if they are going to, but there's no harm in prospecting a year or two beforehand!

More Whimbrels were seen on Saturday, including 74 by Ed at Cornabus and 30 on the golf course seen by Mark Cubitt.

Thank you to Alan and Karami for your daily contributions to the blog.

Here's a Gordon Langsbury photo of an Osprey. I think a fish maybe about to be caught!