A truly foul day! We thought the weather of the past week was bad at times, but today surpassed all worst expectations with winds from the east, cold and at times torrential rain and flooding.
But if you're here on holiday you make the best of a bad job - so I pass the narrative over to the intrepid Phil Edwards:
"On a seriously foul day, we eventually decided to venture out in early afternoon, but only as far as the South Hide at Gruinart. There were about 1,500 Barnacles on the fields at Smaull (the first we have seen here this trip) and another 500 or so were on the fields at Ballinaby along with c.800 Greenland Whitefronts, c.30 Fieldfare and c. 20 Redwing, and a Buzzard. On the approach to the Hide we had an immature WTE glide over the Loch and Flats and later an adult do the same in the opposite direction which made the outing worthwhile. Both landed out-of-sight on various banks. Otherwise there were lots of Pintail and Teal, a few Shoveler and Mallard, 10 ad and 6 imm Whooper Swans, two Little Egrets, c. 40 Lapwing, 6 GWFs and a Moorhen. Just as we left in yet another downpour, c.32 Chough flew over calling and heading north. The poor light and heavy rain made photography virtually impossible.".
I did try to get out, and went up to Ardnave but the intense rain meant I saw 12 Whooper Swans on the loch and never got out of the car - truly horrible weather!
Fiona McGillivray saw a Barn Owl out hunting at 10 this morning at Portnahaven - in this weather I imagine many species are finding feeding and shelter tricky?
No comments:
Post a Comment