Saturday 4th October

A big change in the weather today, a bit cooler with squally showers coming in off the sea. One of the showers even had hailstones and quite big ones too. We even saw several rainbows too.. it will not be long before the clocks change, only about 3 weeks away, yes, the nights are drawing in for sure... Yesterday down at Claddach at Portnahaven, Mary had a Merlin on the coast, she also saw a Wheatear close to Portnahaven itself, with a male Hen Harrer between Portnahaven and Port Wemyss. This morning Bob had 2 Redwings and also 2 Wheatears down at "The Hedges" at Sunderland. We saw 2 groups of Barnies on Loch Gorm, one of around 25, the other with about 45 Geese. There were also around 50 Tufted Ducks and a large number of Greylags on the water as well. James had a count of 1490 Barnies, 90 Pale bellied Brent Geese, 1 Canada Goose (parvipes sp.), 7 Whooper Swans, 18 Pintail and a Peregrine all over at Gruinart today.