Wednesday 11th May

Another glorious day out here today, earlier this morning Carol Kirkwood on the BBC weather forecast  stated that at that point Islay was hottest place in the UK, and that was before 8am... Possibly all contributors have gone sunbathing today as not a lot to report so far. Last night when we down watching the Hawfinch, there were also 3 Siskins present along with Chaffinches, Goldfinches and a couple of Greenfinches as well. Here at home today, there was a Lesser Redpoll and a couple of Greenfinches apart from our usual Goldfinches etc. This evening along at Rockside on the barley fields were 38 Greylags while at Ballinaby, 10 Golden Plover and 4 Dunlin were seen. Speaking with Bob last night, we were both of the same opinion that we thought that there were more Cuckoos around this year...  The Bowland birders today had seen the Garganey drake on the left hand flood in front of the viewing platform. Also there were 2 Whoopers. Along at the North hide/new hide/ Taigh Tuath, 3 Ruff were spotted along with a Snipe and a Mistle Thrush. A walk round Ardnave Point produced 5 Little Terns & 2 Sandwich Terns. There was also a steady movement of Arctic Terns, around 1 flew past every minute for over an hour. Other birds seen included 60 Barwits, 30 Ringed Plover, 25 Sanderling, 7 Dunlin and 6 Whimbrel. Back at the steading , 2 different Corncrakes were heard with a pair of Tufties seen on the Loch