Late news for yesterday is a count from George Jackson of c.25 Pintail at Gruinart.
It was a much better day’s weather today – at least in the morning, with calm, bright, sunny conditions. The afternoon went greyer with light rain at times.
Visitor Phil Edwards noted a lovely but quiet day at the hides seeing a ringtail Hen Harrier in the morning and then perched very close to North Hide at dusk; two adult WTE; 2 Little Egrets, 71 Pintail; 1,000+ Golden Plover and a Goldcrest in the woods. Also, 2 GN Divers at Sanaigmore - one catching crabs (see his photo below).
Rather more worrying is his sighting of a dead Barnacle Goose which may possibly be a bird flu victim. The bird was near the North Hide, head down in the water, completely untouched, not a feather out of place, looking like it had just keeled over.
I was out in the sunshine this morning checking Loch Skerrols and Loch Gorm. The former held 12 Mute Swans, 120 Teal, 13 Wigeon, 37 Mallard, 3 lovely drake Goosanders and one remaining Lesser Scaup with 22 Tufted Ducks. On Loch Gorm were a further 61 Tufted Ducks with 3 Pochard remaining in their midst. Also there were 42 Mallard, 12 Teal, 6 Goldeneye and 4 Whooper Swans.
Offshore at Blackrock were 6 Slavonian Grebes a lone Greater Scaup
plenty of RB Mergansers and 9 Long-tailed Ducks.
(Peter Roberts)
1 comment:
We (RSPB) are monitoring the geese on the reserves closely. So far we have not seen excess deaths, in fact there are rather fewer dead and injured geese than is usual for the time of year. However, this is a developing picture and we have to be vigilant and ready to respond if things change. It is usual for us to leave birds where they are unless they become a hazard or number become high.
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