Friday 20th December

Lesley was out a couple of days back and there must have been approx 250 Lapwing from the North  hide at Gruinart and also watched a flock of 750-800 Golden Plover making fantastic patterns over the head of the loch. They didn't come very close but were entrancing.

Earlier on in the week, Morven and team from SNH carried out the December International Goose count  on the 17th and the 18th. Their tallies came to 32,017 Barnies, 6,325 Whitefronts and also 1,056 Greylags. The count for Dec 2018 came in at 31,623 for the Barnies (+394), 5,843 geese counted for Whitefronts ( +491) with the figure for Greylags was  1,177 (-121). Many thanks as ever to Morven and her team of counters for these figures about the geese, much appreciated...

Mark, today, had seen the following birds at Gruinart, 3 immature  White tailed Eagles creating absolute havoc around the flats and floods, a single Golden Eagle, 2 Woodcock, Barn Owl, Hen Harrier, Little Egret and a Goldcrest as well.