Friday 1st April

As predicted last night, the rain came through, and as I write this entry at around 7pm, the rain has now stopped and the sun is streaming in the windows...Luckily, I have still got some sightings from earlier this week. Visitors Val Wilson & David Clugston had seen a Sandwich Tern off Bruichladdich and then the Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay back on Wednesday. Forgot to mention last night that Gary had also seen a Grey Wagtail, a Dipper and also a fleeting glimpse of a Kingfisher while we were all there looking patiently for the Mandarin duck... Later on, after that excitement Richard had gone over to the hides at Gruinart where he saw a Swallow and then 2 Sand Martins fly past, out in front of the hides Richard saw 3 Pintails. 2 Pintails were spotted from the Jura ferry by Dougal the skipper on Wednesday... Yesterday Peter Gill had seen a Golden Eagle and then a Peregrine on the Oa. Later on, he had seen a White tailed Eagle at Ballyvicar while off  Kintra, the 4 Long tailed Ducks were still present. Off  Port Charlotte Peter saw a Black throated Diver and near flat calm condition, a count of 20 GNDs was made out on Loch Indaal. Today the only sighting was from a rather wet Richard How (James' brother) who had seen the Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay.
Bob Swann sent some info on the 2 Greylags that Margaret had seen on Thursday evening, both geese had been initially caught, and collared at Gortanchuirn up behind Bruichladdich back in January 2015, and no doubt paired up now, being seen together several times. Peter had got some info through on a dead Guillemot found by Val Peacock the other day, it was originally rung on the Shiant Islands on the 25th of June2012, a mere 1374 day ago.... Meanwhile, I await the report back about Michal's Redshank, wonder how long that will take ...