Sun 7th March

Another great day over here, perhaps a bit cold, but we had blue skies and the sun out. So, mid afternoon we went over to the hide at Gruinart and managed to get this Teal. He had been dabbling in the water and just brought his head out of the water. There was a great variety of birds to be seen, Pintail, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Heron, Redshank, 2 Greenhank, Red breasted Merganser, Mute swan, Whooper swan, Greylags, Whitefronted Geese, Barnacle Geese, and also the Little Egret. On the way over there was a male Hen Harrier on the wing, close at hand. This morning, up in the garden of Shepherd's cottage there were 39 Greylags, I had noticed droppings there yesterday, but had not realised that there were as many.

Today, James had some signs of Spring, 2 Lesser Black backed Gulls on Loch Gorm and also a Honey bee out flying.

Sat 6th March

Perhaps you do not recall an entry on the blog last month referring to 2 Mute Swans and their 5 young seen over at Blackrock. Well yesterday at around 9.30 am George had seen them below his house at Bruichladdich on Loch Indaal, and just by chance I took this image of them at about 10 am, by which time they were almost at the lighthouse at Port Charlotte. I take thito be the same family group that was at Blackrock last month as I have not heard or seen any others around.

Earlier on in the week, George had 60 Lapwing in a field at Bridgend, and 23 Pale bellied Brent on Loch Indaal as well as 70 Scoter. Down on the Oa, he had seen a Golden Eagle, 2 Chough and also 30+ pairs of Fulmar on the cliffs. He was also commenting that he was noticing more Rock Doves at Bruichladdich, especially since the pier has been "upgraded". He said that apart from perching on the structure, they were often seen on the rocks on the foreshore. On his bird table he had his first Goldfinch of the year, but has not had any Greenfinch present for some time. Whether Spring is here, but some of the Greylags appear to be pairing up!

Fri 5th March

When Malcolm was out Goose counting this week on the Rhinns of Islay at Octomore, he had 120 Fieldfare and 20 Redwing. Fiona McGillivray and Becky Williamson had been on one of the other routes at the other end of Islay, and over at Bunnahabhain had a White tailed Sea Eagle with yellow wing tags but were unable to identify it. They also had seen another 2 Sea Eagles on the same route the same day.

Louise had been in touch to say that with the longer day light, especially on her way home in the evening on Jura, that she has been noticing Short eared Owls as well as Hen Harriers. Yesterday she had seen a pair of Golden Eagles mating, and had 356 Golden Plover but not at Ballinaby! Over at Port Askaig, she saw 3 Bottle nosed Dolphins in the Sound of Islay.

Thurs 4th March

Whilst in conversation earlier on this evening with a couple of birders on mainland Argyll, and both of them were commenting on the lack of sightings of Wrens and of also Stonechats. Gordon Yates who was over on Islay for the last fortnight had not seen any Stonechats at all. I have seen one this year, but that is all. We will just have to wait and see what Spring brings, there is always the possibility that some of the birds may have moved on.

I took a quick run round past Coull and Ballinaby this morning, and there was no sign of any Lapwing or Golden Plover, in fact there no Geese either, only a couple of Buzzards. Just before we left home there was a small flock of 37 Lapwing which landed just over the dyke!

Wed 3rd March

I have just been watching an excellent program on BBC2 on the Yellowstone National Park which leads me on to Gordon Yates's DVD on Polar Bears. The footage was taken mainly last year when Gordon was up in Spitsbergen. As well as the Polar Bears, there are shots of several species of birds, and of wild flowers, Arctic Foxes, Bearded Seals. It's all there for you to admire. For more details, click on the link to Gordon's web page and then the link to Polar Bear DVD, well worth it, enjoy...

Tues 2nd March

One day last week while looking out the kitchen window I saw this odd looking goose. It was with some Greylags and a few Whitefronts and quite noticeable with having so much white. After speaking with Malcolm, it was put down to probably being a Greylag hybrid, a hybrid with a domestic goose or even possibly a partial albino. Whatever it was, I have not seen it again!

Still on Geese, and Tracey sent through the figures for last weeks' count, in total there were 37,434 Barnacle Geese and 6,515 Whitefronts. Thanks for the figures again Tracey.

This afternoon, there were 30 Greylags across in one of our fields, it is not often we get any geese here at home at all.

Mon 1st March

Another month in, a dry month for here, only 2.5"and obviously a lot colder than we normally expect! Even this afternoon we had some more snow, the tops of the hills have been really white for quite some time now. The sun was shining on Mull when we came home today and looked really nice.

With this cold snap, the other day I counted 24 Pheasants out on the front grass, we had just had a couple of big straw bales dropped off and the birds were making the most of any grains that they found. Yesterday, I saw my first Wren of the year, I just hope that there are some more around. Today there was one singing away in the wood, that was before the snow came.

The Little Egret was seen on the flats at Gruinart again today.