Sunday 2nd February

Will Scott, on his first day here, covered quite a lot of ground and, despite the rather murky start to the day (though it improved a lot later on), has produced a nice list of sightings, beginning with a female Scaup, 3 Goldeneye, a Goosander, and a singing Mistle Thrush at Loch Skerrols, then, at Loch Gruinart, mostly seen from the hides, he had 32 Whoopers, 39 Pintail, 1100 Golden Plover, 6 Little Egret, 2 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Goldcrests, and a Grey Wagtail high up heading south. Later, near Kilchoman Distillery, he saw 220 Fieldfare, a very good number for the time of year as normally rather few winter here, a male Hen Harrier and 2 Chough. There were 46 Ringed Plover, 70 Curlew, 16 Turnstone, 5 Sanderling, 2 Purple Sandpiper, a ringtail Hen Harrier, a Peregrine and 2 Chough at Machir Bay, and, finally, there were 45 Eider, 40 Ringed Plover, Slavonian Grebe, and 5 Great Northern Divers on Loch Indaal, seen from the road round the head of the loch.

Here's a fine Gordon Langsbury photograph of a Fieldfare