Wednesday 11th March

The wind has dropped now with ferry travel resuming returning to "normal" at lunchtime...Yesterday on the reserve at Gruinart, James noted plenty of frogspawn around, on the bird front he had seen 3 Greenshank, 3 Gadwall and a couple of Mistle Thrushes. Rob and his friends had headed over for a visit to Jura yesterday... Going over on the ferry on the Sound of Islay they had Black Guillemot along with 2 small rafts of 5 Eiders. Just past Feolin on Jura, as they headed towards Craighouse, 2 GND and a pr of Wigeon were out on the water. On Small Isles Bay at Craighouse, 3 GND and a possible distant RTD were seen. Then a pair of Red breasted Merganser flew in. Further up the road and a pair of Stonechats were present. Finally, back down at Feolin while waiting on the ferry to come over from Port Askaig, a distant Golden Eagle was seen out above Coal Ils Distillery.