Monday 28th May

Before I forget, there will not be a meeting of the Bird nerds tomorrow night, some of us are away, others have visitors staying, so next meet will be at the end of June! This morning James had seen that the Mute Swan in front of the hide at Gruinart was out, proudly presenting her 6 cygnets! When he was doing his survey work this morning, he heard a Red Grouse calling up on the moor, a couple of Water Rails calling too on the reserve, 2 Grasshopper Warblers calling away, saw 6 Redpolls and also a Common Hawker dragonfly. The temperature is still warm but slipping down to 23 degrees according to Mike's weather station!

Tues 1st Sept

Just to keep you all in the loop, the rainfall in August certainly proved to be the wettest month over at the Airport since they started recording in 2001, with almost 9", a bit more than here! Thanks for the info Malcolm.

James had been able to escape the office work yesterday, and had seen a Corncrake at his road end, a Peregrine eating a Rock dove and also 125 Linnets on the "game crop" at Grainel. There were plenty of Common Hawker Dragonflies on the wing too. In the evening, he had a Barn Owl out hunting, and later on James heard his first stags of the year roaring. Today, James managed a quick scan round Loch Gruinart and his highlights included 120 Curlew, 122 Bar tailed Godwits, 55 Redshank, 179 Oystercatcher, 6 Greenshank, 326 Sanderling, 74 Knot, 965 Dunlin, 64 Ringed Plover, a single juvenile Spotted Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper and a pair of adult Peregrine together. The count for the Sanderling was a good count.