Thursday 29th May

Only a couple of days and that will be another month in... On Wednesday morning, early on, we carried out the Corncrake count on our patch, conditions were ideal, no wind and hardly any noise being heard from the sea, net result was 11 calling males, Michal covered the Ardnave section and he heard 9 birds calling, so that's a good start, must try and speak with Mary tomorrow and heard what the others heard. Yesterday morning James had being carrying out some survey work on the reserve at Gruinart where he saw a Marsh Frit, newly hatched from its' pupa, James' first for the year. He also saw 2 Golden winged Dragonflies, 4 Spotted chasers, 4 Whinchats and a Gropper while he was out. Yesterday, Michal heard 2 Cuckoos at Avinlussa and another one Kildalton. Yesterday evening there were 100 Greylags on one of the barley fields at Rockside. Today, here at home some of the young Starlings must be out of their nests as they were making one hell of a racket in the wood early afternoon!