Friday 18th March

Another dry day, although the temperature has dropped quite a bit, I even had to go and look the jersey out, lucky it was not in the washing machine... Some highlights through from Peter and his group. Yesterday they had seen a Dipper and a pair of Grey Wagtail at The Woollen Mill with at least 8 GND off  Bunnahabhain, the Glaucous Gull was present at Machir Bay while round at Saligo/ Ballinaby, a Dabchick was on one of the flooded "ponds". Malcolm and Bob had been over on Jura  yesterday and had 25 Whitefronts at Inver and a further 4 up at Lowlandman's Bay, the best figures there this winter. They also saw the same flock of Brents as seen by Louise, but commented that they are not that common on Jura. They also saw 26 large Canada Geese and a total of 45 Greylag between Craighouse and Lowlandman's Bay. No Wheatears were seen on their travels but an Otter was at Feolin as they were waiting for the ferry back over to Islay!!! Earlier on this week, the "vols" at RSPB Gruinart had carried out the WeBS counts... The tally on Loch Gruinart was 126 Shelduck, 187 Wigeon, 271 Oystercatcher, 117 Dunlin, 109 Barwits, 91 Redshank, 17 Turnstone, 109 Golden Plover, 51 BH Gull, 194 C Gull, 2 GND, 122 Lapwing, 127 Teal, 9 Shoveler, 34 Pintail, 7 Mute Swan and 2 Whooper Swan. The tally for Ardnave was 15 Tufted Duck, 9 Goldeneye, 5 Mute, 9 Whooper, 2 Pochard and 35 Whitefronts.