Tuesday 22nd March

Easily the warmest day of 2022 so far, with hazy blue skies all day and a good SE breeze. As predicted, this brought a flood of migrant sightings, with, erm, 2 chiffchaffs heard at Gruinart this morning by James. 

Gruinart was a great place to be today, with 2 peacock butterflies on the wing and either 3 or 4 adders freshly emerged from their hibernaculum (I had to google that one) and basking in the sun in a slowly writhing ball. The gentle sound of bees as they buzzed around the willow and hazel catkins was a joy after a long Islay winter of gales and rain. 

A male and ringtail hen harrier were interacting around some deep heather areas, but no skydancing yet. An immature golden eagle briefly circled overhead, before the now standard sight of a young WTE appearing to spook the geese. 

Elsewhere around the island the notorious RBG was re-located by Larry Griffin in a barnie flock at Octomore.