Saturday 3rd March

Sorry folks, but I have no Islay reports through tonight.. but down here  in residence in our wee bolt  hole, I have been kept out of mischief as I have been busy clearing the snow away. It has been quite bad, and luckily there has not been much wind otherwise we could have had problems with snow drifts.. Having said that, the snow that I have been shifting was at least 16 inches of level snow, quite tiring work when all I had was an "Armstrong loader" and a shovel. On the Bird front in at the feeders, we have had 2 Yellowhamers,  5 Brambling, around a dozen Long tailed Tits, several Coal Tits, several Dunnocks, 3 Bullfinch, as well as other species, including a pair of Tree Sparrows. No sign so far of the Greater spotted Woodpecker that we had seen in previous visits. There were 16 Woodpigeon scoffing the food outside this afternoon, and this morning Margaret saw a Magpie out in the garden!