Thursday 17th November

James saw 16 whooper swans, peregrine and a water rail on the reserve and pochard on Ardnave Loch. 7 whooper swans were seen flying over Loch Indaal heading south. Yesterday Mandy saw 7 red-legged partridges at Carrabus, male hen harrier at Ballimartin, dubchick at Loch Skerrols and 5 whooper swans at Gartmain.

Tues 14th Sept

The strong winds persisted today, the waves round at Saligo and those crashing in on Machir Bay were great to watch, but yet again, the camera was left at home, never learn! Coming back there was a Red legged Partridge down near the coal yard, while nearer to home there was a single Wheatear, and no sign of any Greylags while we were out! It was the first Partridge that I have seen for quite some time.

Sun 14th March

One gets the feeling that the weather is going to break down, we certainly have had a tremendous spell, but going by the long range weather forecast, we are going to get some rain!

James had been down at the hide this morning at Gruinart and had 2 Greenshank, 9 Whooper Swan and 12 Shoveler. The Shoveler numbers as with Wigeon and Teal as down on what we would normally expect at this time of year, but due to the prolonged cold spell earlier on, we suspect that most of them did move South. The lesser Canada Goose, hutchinsii, was seen on the flats at Gruinart, while the Swans are still present on Loch Gorm, and here at home we had a couple of Red legged Partridge, the first I have seen this year, but I am not sure whether many were released last year.

Sat14th- Mon 16th July 07

This image of 9 young Red-legged Partridge was taken along the roadside, just last week, so rather a late brood. Partridges here on Islay do not breed very sucessfully , mainly due to our high rainfall! The young House Martins whose nest fell down the other week, who we rehoused into another nestbox have been quite lucky, with 3 of the young still surviving. Another nest, fell down after the heavy rain on Friday night, but the young did not survive the drop from such a height. After the good day on Sunday, during the evening, the Swallows and the House Martins were noticeable swooping over the wood outside the house catching food on the wing. I.K.B.