Wednesday 3rd, Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December 

Wednesday was quite nice with some sunshine, Thursday had less sun and some rain, and Friday had rain and a south-east gale.

Three days without a single bird record being received is a bit depressing for your blog writer who doesn't want it to extend to four days, so has made up this entry with observations of his own. 

On Wednesday, I was out checking on Greenland White-fronted Goose flocks seeing how well they have bred this year which, thank goodness, is a little bit better than in the last few years, with the percentage of young in the flocks looked at so far averaging 13.5%. This is a considerable improvement on the last three years, which have been 3.3%, 2.3% and 3.9%, respectively, well below the level required to maintain the population numbers. The world population of this subspecies, which is only found in Scotland, Ireland and Wales (just a handful), in spring 2024 comprised just 15,043 individuals, the lowest since coordinated counts began in 1982, down by an alarming 16.6% compared to the 18,027 counted spring 2023, a reduction of 30.0% compared to spring 2019 and down 57.7% from the peak population count in spring 1999. Habitat loss, competition with other geese on the Greenland breeding grounds and climate change are all playing a part. (Thanks to Tony Fox and Ian Francis of the Greenland White-fronted Goose Study for these figures.)

Still with Greenland Whitefronts, I was pleased to read three neck collars at Carnduncan, CZJ, CZY and V3C. The first two were caught and marked at Ballinaby in winter 2018/19 and have been seen here in subsequent winters, though were not spotted last winter, so it is good to know that they both are still alive.  V3C was also not seen last winter, but this is a more interesting bird in that it was ringed at Loch Ken in Dumfries and Galloway as long ago as winter 2008/9, where it was seen in 2009/10 before moving to Islay in 2010/11 and coming here every winter since.

Finally, I spread bird seed on the small lawn in my front garden and in front of my office window. I feed a lot of House Sparrows and took this photo on Friday morning. It isn't pin sharp because taken through the window, but there are 70+ visible, plus a few Chaffinches and some more obvious Starlings.