Monday 30th May

Cool northerly winds, but basically bright and sunny.

Mary Redman reports 3 Great Skuas at Claddach Loch last night.

John Miles sent in the following interesting account:

“Been involved in a seabird survey training course on both Saturday and Sunday. Main highlights were 2 Minke Whales off the Sound of Islay.on 28th May. At least 3 Harbour Porpoise. 3 Great Northern Divers coming into summer plumage.on 29th May in the mouth of West Loch Tarbert. 11 Red throated Divers.on 29th May in the mouth of West Loch Tarbert. Several flocks of Manx Shearwaters with the highest count of 36 birds in one flock..Mixed seabirds with one flurry of 46 Gannets feeding possible where the whales had pushed up the fish bait ball.”

I took an afternoon peek from both the Hides at Gruinart. There were a lot of very flighty Dunlin and Ringed Plover feeding on the floods – probably 50 of the former and 25 of the latter. A sub-adult White-tailed Eagle sauntered over producing a useful bit of pandemonium by putting up a total of 120 drake Mallard from the floods. Previously I could see 5-10 hidden in the luxuriant emergent vegetation so it was a bit of a surprise to see how many were lurking there out of sight.