Tuesday 23rd December

The weather has been a lot calmer today, the wind has dropped a lot and hardly any rain to speak of either... Mary had seen a Mistle Thrush along with many Wrens while walking the Woodland trail at Gruinart, there had even been a Wren in the kitchen at Bushmills as well!!! From the old hide, she had a count of 73 Pintail along with a large mixed group of Shoveler, Teal and Mallard, but only saw one Wigeon and one Merganser there! From the North hide (new hide) there was a large flock of around 400 Lapwings, with around 100 Dunlin and some Golden Plovers seen there too. Down on the strand at Uiskentuie, Mary had seen 2 Snow Buntings, 1 Cormorant, 2 Rock Pipits, 3 Meadow Pipits, a Stonechat and 4 Oystercatcher. Along at Carn out of Port Charlotte, on Loch Indaal 7 GND and 2 Eiders were added to her sightings. Finally, down at Ellister she saw a large Peregrine sitting on the turf before it took off and flew off over the house. Today as well, Peter had been out with visiting birders/ friends who are over here for a few days. Out from Bowmore on Loch Indaal, 4 Long tailed Ducks were seen while from the pier at Bruichladdich they had a count of 95 Eider and on the rocks, there were 7 Purple Sandpipers were present.