Sunday 18th November

Paul and Jill Harris before they left yesterday on the ferry had seen 3 White tailed Eagles, out to the East of Port Ellen. Mark and Sally Johnson have returned back over for another week on Islay. On the way to their holiday cottage, they had seen 4 Whitefronts with orange neck collars fitted and another fitted with what I believe to be a radio transponder fitted. They were all in a group together over at Gruinart on the reserve. I have sent the details, and once I hear back from Tony I will let you know their history.
Armin had been up until the wee small hours trying to get some images of the meteors over Islay, but commented on hearing the geese taking off from Machir Bay around 4 am.... He was down there later on for a walk and saw the large amount of goose droppings on the shore... This afternoon, just after he got up to the North hide (new hide) at Gruinart, there was a bit of a very brief encounter, a small raptor flew past the hide, and a moment later Armin had another visitor in the hide beside him, a Wren, so Armin wondered whether the Wren came in though the open window to evade being caught by the said bird of prey...
Another piece of news is that I read in today's edition of "Scotland on Sunday" newspaper, an interesting 4 page article about "Islay's battle of the Barnacle geese". There are several mistakes in it, but all the same, it makes some interesting reading... Just wish these journalists would get somebody to proof read their articles before going to press. I know that I can and often make blunders often enough, but that is me, a blundering old idiot!!!