A foul day of blustery SW winds and almost constant, often quite heavy rain showers. However, this didn't stop Jim Dickson from spending much of the day birding - albeit a lot of the time from the shelter of his car. The 2 Glossy Ibis were still present in the same area at Craigens this morning and Jim counted 11 Black-tailed Godwits, 5 Ruff, 1 Greenshank, 65 Redshank, 7 Little Egrets and 2 Arctic Terns in the Loch Gruinart area at about the same time. Later on Loch Indaal close to Blackrock he found a juv Little Stint and juv Curlew Sandpiper and dozens of "alba" - mostly White - Wagtails. There were 2 more juv Little Stints and a Greenland Wheatear further up Loch Indaal at Carnain.
Later, back at Loch Gruinart Clive McK. noted 30 Black-tailed Godwits flying into the loch against a strong headwind and Jim returned there finding a very high count of 17 Curlew Sandpipers, a couple of golden Plover with a possible American ?Golden Plover which moved on before it could be confirmed. There were also 13 Pintails, 6 Greenshanks and a final tally of 66 Brent Geese for the day.
Being more of a "fair weather birder" myself, I stayed indoors today - no such options for this male Sparrowhawk sat on my lawn outside, photographed by Jim as he visited to dry out late in the afternoon.
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