Thursday 2nd November

Today, Mark had seen 7 Whoopers and 5 Greenshank from the North hide at Gruinart. James had carried a "wee" count on the reserve and his tally came to 18,440 Barnies, 722 Whitefronts, 44 Greylags, 1,945 Golden Plover, 700 Lapwing, 72 Twite, 55 Linnet, 3 Brambling and a Peregrine.today Mike Bell had a Brambling at Kilchoman, and then a Hen Harrier along Rockside. Over at Craigens, he counted a flock of 90 Mipits, which is a good count for this time of the year, as well as 80 Redwing. Further on, up at Killinallan, a Hen Harrier, 3 Chough and 3 Twite were seen, On the estuary of Loch Gruinart, 66 Shelduck, 167 Wigeon, 11 Rb Merganser, 57 Ringed Plover, 2,240 Golden Plover, 690 Lapwing, 2 Knot, 13 Sanderling and Curlew were there. On Ardnave Loch, 10 Whoopers were seen along with 2 Goldeneye, out on Ardnave Point 35 Chough were present and on the cover crop coming down from Ardnave, 180 Linnet and a Peregrine were counted. Down on the floods at Gruinart Mike saw 510 Teal, 29 Pintail, a Blackwit and also 5 Greenshank.