Thursday 19th November

The Whitefronted geese that we had seen yesterday over at Ballinaby were some of the geese caught and rung back in December 2012 by Larry and Carl. They are over again on Islay at present and managed to catch, ring and fit neck collars on a further 29 Whitefronts... Equally important was a catch up with Ed earlier this evening, good to see you Ed! Yesterday while carrying out the International Goose count, Mandy and Fiona had seen a Snow Bunting up at Ardnave. Here at home yesterday, a Merlin sped through the garden and kept going, no birds nobbled! Gary last night saw a Barn Owl down towards The Woollen Mill. Today, he had a Lesser Redpoll feeding on a seed head on the road leading to Finlaggan, later on, he too had a Merlin fly though his garden as he was knocking down his garden wall... This morning, I counted a total of 33 Goldfinches in the garden, between those on the feeders and the ones over on the willows, resting up.