Fri 25th May 07

The first of our swallows have hatched their clutch of eggs which is early for Islay. Yesterday,
over at Gruinart we were fortunate to see the Green winged teal again, a pair of Moorhen with chicks at foot and Heron fishing for eel. Later on there was a heron being mobbed by 3 Lapwing for being in the wrong place! Another Heron in flight was being mobbed by 2 gulls in the hope of the Heron dropping its food! A pair of Shoveller and also some Shelduck were also observed. The Mallard that hatched eggs in early April was spotted with her 3 large ducklings swimming along behind, no doubt the predators had not noticed them before now! Later on, in the evening, there were a couple of Red Deer Stags coming down off the hill.
In the early hours of Friday we were out doing the first of the corncrake counts, but we will let you know the figures once we collate them together next week. A Water Rail was heard and also 3 Spotted Crakes over at Gruinart. M.A.B., J.R.H.
3 Barn Owls and 2 Tawny Owls were also heard whilst out doing the Corncrake count in the wee small hours. M.S.