Monday 3 December 2018

Monday 3rd December

I received through an e mail from Steve Percival, this morning,  about the 5 Barnies which Mark and Sally Johnson had seen when they were over here the other week. They were all fitted with Steve's darvic leg rings. 4 of them had been fitted by Steve, in fact one had been fitted back in 2006 and had not been seen since February 2014. The other goose had been fitted with its darvic ring on Tiree by John Bowler, so it may be that it "overshot" Tiree, and just down here for a change of scenery...
James today had counted 14,040 Barnies on the reserve at Gruinart. He also saw 407 Greenland Whitefronts, 12 Greylags, a single Pale bellied Brent, 7 Blackwits, 6 Whoopers and the first reported sighting of a Green winged Teal at Gruinart this winter.
Up here at home, the wee birds have been eating  all the food provided, a great sight to see, especially as the 2 Brambling are still present amongst the Chaffinch flock. I wonder whether the birds know that there is some colder weather coming this way over the next few days... Coming back from our pond, needless to say, I did not  have my camera, as I walked past a Redwing less than 6 feet away from me. It was perched on top of the dyke. Also mid morning, 4 Whoopers flew overhead, high up and out to sea before heading down South. Early afternoon, and 8 Whoopers came in from the sea and onto to the wee lochans at Rockside, and then they came up on to the barley stubbles. There was only the one cygnet in their group.

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