Saturday 9th September

A drier day out here, but possibly not for long.. So some of us been making the most of it!!

Gary this morning had an Osprey out from Gartmain, Carl had seen a couple of Brent Geese down at Port Charlotte. This afternoon Jim Dickson had a couple of Brent Geese at Gruinart, but no sign of the possible Little Stints. Jim also had 2 Slavonian Grebes at Gortan, out from the coal yard on Loch Indaal. This morning, Distillery Dave and myself made use of Jim Dickson and so the 3 of us did the WeBS count in the absence of Bob and Lesley. It was raining at the start, but after a few minutes it dried up and off  we set towards Gartbreck... Our birds seen included 144 Greylags, a Red throated Diver, 2 Cormorant, 35 Shag, 22 Oystercatcher, 82 Curlew, 1 Whimbrel, 7 Redshank, 19 Ringed Plover, 21 Lapwing, 37 Dunlin, 7 Barwits, 2 Snipe, 1 Ruff, 7 Heron, 10 Black headed Gulls, 322 Herring Gulls,12 CommonGulls, 2 Lbb Guls, 9 Gbb Gulls, 5 Kittiwake, 5 Razorbill, 1 Guillemot, 2 Red breasted Merganser, 7 Mallard, 1 Long tailed  Duck, 42 Eider. We also saw a Sparrowhawk, a Buzzard, a ringtail Hen Harrier . We saw many Rock Pipits on the shore, as well as some small flocks of Goldfinches and a few Linnets enjoying the shoreline seed heads!!!