Thursday 20 January

It still comparably warm here, there is a green colour to the fields with signs of fresh grass. The geese will be in fine fettle on departure if this keeps up.  The scanner was on the Island this week for the first round of livestock scanning. A case of counting your chickens before they hatch, (or your lambs before lambing) and feeding them accordingly. I got a shock with 3 sets of triplets forecast in my modest flock of sheep! But Scan-man Ryan noted that most farms he has been to are up 10% compared to last years scanning. 30% in mine! A sure sign of good sheep condition, in turn reflecting the grass condition.  The geese on Spain might not have needed to detour so far for the mild weather! (see Mondays blog).

Nothing to report on the bird front today, luckily I saved some sightings in from Peters last contribution with his birding group on Monday:

"My birding group had a very productive last day that they all thoroughly enjoyed, starting with an Otter just outside the Port Charlotte Hotel where they are staying. We first went to Bolsa Track outside Port Charlotte where we got a brief glimpse of Red Grouse plus a young male Hen Harrier and a pair of reed Buntings. At Portnahaven we counted 190 Grey Seals and 25 Ringed Plovers on the offshore islands and some good Red Deer stags along the way. Up at Loch Gorm there are still 3 Pochard - now on their own as most of the accompanying Tufties have disappeared. Machir Bay produced the first distant Choughs and a flock of 35 Ringed Plovers. By the time we got to the Viewing Platform overlooking the S. hide in the afternoon it was glorious sunshine that stayed with us for the remainder of the day. Nothing unusual from the platform, but masses of the expected geese and ducks looking fine in the sunlight. Up at Ardnave we connected properly with the Choughs - the flock of 40 or so giving some fine fly-by and feeding views in bright sunshine. Turning our attention to the mouth of Loch Gruinart we scoped a couple of sub-adult White-tailedEagles that eventually flew over and spooked the masses of Barnies on the flats. A 3rd bird joined them, then a 4th from the direction of Ardnave Point. During this excitement one of the group spotted a Golden Eagle perched up, first on the dunes then briefly on a fence-line and in flight, giving some very reasonable views of a bird they'll not be seeing back home in the SE of England."