Saturday 12th March

Good morning bird fans. Apologies for the late entry - technical issues. Saturday's birds looked something like this...

Chris Corrigan managed to get off the island, thanks very much to him for all his records. Our own Mary had 4 gannets at Frenchman's Rocks. Jeff and Rachel were at Gruinart, noting many small flocks of redshank in summer plumage, and lots of curlew bubbling the day before. At Loch Skerrols they had 4 lesser scaup, and a dipper and a grey wagtail upstream of the Woollen Mill. 

Recently arrived visitor Mark Holling had a decent first day of his Islay trip, with a 2CY Iceland gull at Uiskentuie, a WTE at the head of Loch Indaal, 3 lesser scaup (2mm, 1f) at Skerrols, and a (greater) scaup near Bowmore with c30 common scoter also present. Down at Claggain Bay Mark had 7 GND, with 12 others near Bruichladdich. 

Lots of activity at Gruinart, much of it precipitated by the 4 sub-ad WTE that seemed to be around most of the day. In the afternoon, the eldest of the group took a barnacle goose that was either recently dead or very sick from the Flats, despite the heroic efforts of one lapwing in particular, who unbelievably managed to delay the inevitable for a couple of passes. 14 whoopers were still present at the South Hide in the morning. A tawny owl and a pair of treecreepers were present in the Big Wood, with the rookery there growing and getting noisier by the day. 

That's yer lot. Thanks very much to everyone for their sightings. Keep them coming!