Sunday 23rd April

A cloudier day today, but still dry and quite sunny for much of the time.

My comment about nest-boxes for Barn Owls in yesterday's blog prompted the following interesting comment from Malcolm Ogilvie:

"In the 1990s, when Mike Peacock and I were monitoring up to 20 Barn Owl nest sites each year, we put up several boxes hoping to prolong the use of derelict buildings or to provide alternatives close by.. I think I even got a small grant from SNH to buy some sheets of plywood. Some were used immediately, but one or two were commandeered by Jackdaws. Our study stopped in 2001, so there's certainly scope to try this again."

A few birds noted today included a Grasshopper Warbler from Ed Burrell at Balaclava, a Cuckoo at Kilchoman from Margaret Brooke and 4 Arctic Terns seen by Mary-Ann Feathrstone at Kildalton.

David Dinsley noted the lone Pink-footed Goose lingering at Kinnabus and saw on Facebook that someone had heard a Corncrake near the Water Treatment Works at Port Charlotte.

I took a look at Gruinart this morning and found 17 Black-tailed Godwits out on the flats, one Little Egret in residence and more lingering geese - this time a group of 8 Barnacle Geese flying over at Craigens.