Saturday 11th February

Another great day, what a tremendous view wasseen of the moon last night and this evening, a wee cracker of a sunset to finish the day off... Yesterday Michal and the "vols" had carried out the WeBs count on the Floods and also out on Loch Gruinart itself. The tally for the "floods" was 304 Lapwing, 77 Mallard, 336 Teal, 12 Mute Swan, 42 Pintail, 6 Shoveler, with the count out on the Loch being 121 Shelduck, 40 Mallard, 10 Rb Merganser, 193 Wigeon, 219 Oystercatcher, 82 Ringed Plover, 60 Lapwing, 72 Sanderling, 91 Dunlin, 142 Barwits, 117 Curlew, 53 Redshank, 30 Turnstone and 30 Common Gull. Yesterday afternoon while  coming over on the ferry, in the Sound of Islay visitor Kevin McCormick had a white winged Gull, but too far to make a positive id. This morning, Martin Armstrong had been down in the woods below Bridgend  where he saw a pr of Bullfinches and a Treecreeper as well as a Kingfisher at the mouth of the River Sorn. Today, visitor Kevin had 4 Goldeneye, a raft of 24 Eider with 12 Wigeon close to the shore as he came out of Bowmore. Along past the Gaelic College, he had 6 Shelduck, lots of Barnies out resting up, more Wigeon, some Mallard, some Oystercatcher and 8 Curlew. A distant male Hen Harrier was seen over Bridgend and another seen back at Glenegedale where Kevin is staying. here at home, late afternoon, there was a Blue Tit on the nut feeder which had only been erected, a bird that is not that common to us.