Thursday, 19 October 2023

Thursday 19th October

It's been a much busier, birdier day than I was expecting even though everything ought to be hunkering down or being blown away in this weather. We start with a lovely flock of 50 Fieldfares at Balaclava reported by Ed Burrell.

In raptor news, we had a White-Tailed Eagle snacking on a hare at Loch Finlaggan, spotted by Neil McMahon, who spotted an another one at Bridgend at lunchtime. Two White-Tailed Eagles were also hanging around Loch Gruinart this morning, spotted by Lucy Atkinson.  Also at Gruinart, Julie Meikle had a Merlin by the visitor centre. Last – but definitely not least – Billy Stitchell had two Red Kite over Ballygrant Inn.

There were lots of Divers around today, four (two sets of two) Red-Throated Divers flying over Loch Gruinart this morning. Neil McMahon saw three more Red-Throated at Loch Indaal, as well as two Black-Throated Divers and two Great Northern Divers. Neil’s other sightings today include: 30 Whooper Swans, a flock of Pale-Bellied Brents, the local Glaucus Gull, a drake Long-Tailed Duck, seven Common Scoters, three Scaup, three Slavonian Grebes, and a Lesser Grey Shrike that just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Paul Disken shared this photo of the Red-Breasted Goose looking very bold this afternoon – from this picture you could be fooled into thinking that it’s even a little bit easy to spot.



 

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