Saturday 20th August

A moderate, blustery, westerly/south-westerly breeze with sunshine until late afternoon when it clouded up.

The Argyll Bird Club had a Field Trip today led by Jim Dickson et al  which involved sailing from Kennacraig to Islay and then back again – a sort of moving 4+ hour sea-watch. They got lucky with choosing the date as their tally of sightings illustrates:

The journey out to Islay included 3 Balearic Shearwaters, 7 Sooty Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Terns.

The journey back from Islay included: 5 Sooty shearwaters, 2,000+ Manxies, 1,650 Kittiwakes, 100+ Gannets, 1 Bonxie, 8 Arctic Terns, 2 Commic Terns, 3 Sandwich Terns, 350+ Guillemots, 2 Red-throated Divers,

Jim sent us this camera-back shot of one of the Sooties:

Here on Terra Firma Mary Redman watched an Osprey fly over Portnahaven village hall in the morning. I did a check on the hides at Gruinart in the afternoon and found a Little Egret. More interesting (to me at least) was a group of 6 crows – 3 Hoodies and 3 Carrions. On closer scrutiny the Carrion Crows appeared to have a very few duller, slightly paler feathers on their upper flanks. I wonder if they were hybrids?