Saturday 7th December

Rather a dreich sort of a day out here, but for sure the wind has dropped, the ferries are sailing and the plane came in this morning, what else can you ask for??? On a different tack, not birds either, down at Bowmore there was a large mobile generator delivered in, possibly in readiness for a switch in the power supplies to Rockside as it is soon to get 3 phase electricity, we will just have to wait and see...Right back to the bird blog now, at Bowmore on Loch Indaal at Bunanuisg (where Islay Farmers used to trade from) there were over 40 Pale bellied Brent, hard to get an exact count as they bobbed about in the water, 10 Whoopers including 2 cygnets, a pr of Goldeneye, 7 Red breasted Merganser, several Wigeon. On the shoreline 11 Greylags rummaging around on the tideline, 3 Turnstone and a few Oystercatcher at the water's edge. Further along there were a few Mallards and the odd Redshank. Coming home down at the Coastguard cottages, a Peregrine screamed past putting everything up in panic! Nina had 4 Whitefronts with collars on, 2 HX, 3 HX, 5 HX and 3 HU, and I have passed these on to Ed who will update Nina with their history. I think that these are some of the geese that were caught and rung last Winter over at Ballinaby, but Ed can keep us right.