Monday 1st June

A wee cracker of a day, not full of sunshine I hasten to add... quite a lot of rain and just after 4 o 'clock this afternoon, the wind peaked at just short of 60 mph, needless to say the ferries are safely tied up at Kennacraig, rather than attempting to come and not being up to berth. The rainfall here for the month of May came through at 4.3", slightly drier than later year, and a lot drier than 2011 when we had 6 inches. Not much on the bird front, although Margaret did see one of the hen pheasants sheltering in the nettles with her 4 youngsters, and Margaret managed to give her some food. I was in touch with Bob Swann from Tain regarding the Greylag with the orange neck collar. Bob informed me that it had been fitted with the neck collar in January here on Islay back in January by Carl Mitchell, one of the WWT team members. It was also seen mid May by the RAFOS team, and again last week by the Teme valley Birders. This evening, the rain has passed through with the sun streaming in through the windows although the wind is still quite noisy...