Friday 7th August

Back on Tuesday, a visitor reported through to Mandy at the visitor centre at Gruinart to say that they had seen an Osprey fishing on Loch Gorm. Last night, while we were outside watching the International Space Station pass by, we were fortunate to heart a Corncrake calling away! Bob at lunchtime yesterday had been in at Loch Skerrols where he had a Bullfinch, a female Sparrowhawk, 15 Mute Swans, 9 Tufted Ducks, a Dabchick, and also a juv Great spotted Woodpecker. Bob also pointed out a typo from me the other day, relating to him seeing Godwits at Gartmain, it should have read 13 Blackwits and 59 Barwits, not the way I had it, oops... This morning, down at Loch Gorm there were 2 groups of Greylags gathering, one on the lochans, the other on the heather on the edge of the Loch itself, with at least 30 in each group. This afternoon, Dave saw 2 Arctic Skuas, 3 Bonxies and over 400 Manx Shearwaters offshore going past the Oa