Thursday 7th April

Sand martin was spotted above one of the hides at Gruinart during the guided walk. From the hides dozens of waders and ducks were seen. Displaying lapwing and redshank, one bar-tailed godwit, curlew, several shovelers, pintails, wigeon, teal and mallard. Pair of mute swans, couple hundred barnacle geese and a dozen whitefronts. Good views of goldcrest and wren singing along the woodland trail.

Wednesday 6th April

A lot of rain today with few sunny spells. Mary went out and saw another wheatear at Claddach and lots of gannets off the coast. At Gruinart six redwings were seen early in the morning.

Tuesday 5th April

At Loch Gruinart reserve there was a goose count today with total of 4550 barnacle geese, 177 whitefronts and 10 greylags. Chiffchaff was heard further up the reserve as well. Female sparowhawk was seen today and a visitor reported seeing a female merlin yesterday. Several pintails and shovelers were seen from the hide as well as loads of displaying lapwings, redshanks and calling curlews and snipe on the flats and Floods. Dave saw two swallows and chiffchaff on the Oa as well as couple of wheatears.

Monday 4th April

Yesterday Richard Belter had a red-throated diver, peregrine, two wheatears and six choughs at Sanaigmore. Later on 6 gannets and 4 eiders at Frenchman's Rock. Chiffchaff was seen and heard on Woodland Trail at Gruinart. Barn owl was spotted on Gruinart Flats this morning, chiffchaff was heard just outside the RSPB office together with singing goldcrest. Down on the Oa in a forestry plantation at Frachdale two buzzards were spotted, five redpolls, also a singing mistle thrush and song thrush in the same location. Mary had a sand martin and wheatear at Claddach, two wheatears at Tormisdale and 7 redwings at Gearach woods. Graham Newton had 3 great northern divers, 2 mergansers and 2 eiders at Kilnaughton. Also 2 merganser at Loch a Chnuic, 200 barnacle geese at Kilnaughton and 150 at Kintra.

Sunday 3rd April

Yesterday, Peter Gill had heard and then saw a Chiffchaff at Gruinart. Later on, outside the "new hide", 2 Greenshank and 3 large Canada Geese were present. Up at Ardnave, Peter saw a White tailed Eagle fly past and on the loch, 2 female  Goldeneye were there. Today, here at home there were a pair of Siskins on the feeders. Gary had been down to the Woollen Mill and reports through to say that he had seen the Mandarin Duck, a Dipper and also a Grey Wagtail there on Friday.

Saturday 2nd April

Forgot to mention last night that the March rainfall tally was 3.6 inches, today it remained dry all day, although there is a dampness outside at present, not rain I hasten to add!! Peter Gill had seen the Sandwich Tern, and also 6 Purple Sandpiper down at Bruichladdich on Thursday. Yesterday, he went up to The Woollen Mill in the hope that the Mandarin Duck was still present, but the river levels were quite high, probably the reason for it not being seen. On the feeders , there was a Siskin along with the regular Chaffinches, Great &  Blue Tits... Between Bridgend and Bowmore, Peter saw 25 Barwits out on the estuary. Richard Belter yesterday had heard Snipe drumming with Redshank displaying out from the old hide. Out on the "floods", there was a pair of Dabchick and also 10 Pintail. A single Wheatear was also seen from the hide by Richard

Friday 1st April

As predicted last night, the rain came through, and as I write this entry at around 7pm, the rain has now stopped and the sun is streaming in the windows...Luckily, I have still got some sightings from earlier this week. Visitors Val Wilson & David Clugston had seen a Sandwich Tern off Bruichladdich and then the Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay back on Wednesday. Forgot to mention last night that Gary had also seen a Grey Wagtail, a Dipper and also a fleeting glimpse of a Kingfisher while we were all there looking patiently for the Mandarin duck... Later on, after that excitement Richard had gone over to the hides at Gruinart where he saw a Swallow and then 2 Sand Martins fly past, out in front of the hides Richard saw 3 Pintails. 2 Pintails were spotted from the Jura ferry by Dougal the skipper on Wednesday... Yesterday Peter Gill had seen a Golden Eagle and then a Peregrine on the Oa. Later on, he had seen a White tailed Eagle at Ballyvicar while off  Kintra, the 4 Long tailed Ducks were still present. Off  Port Charlotte Peter saw a Black throated Diver and near flat calm condition, a count of 20 GNDs was made out on Loch Indaal. Today the only sighting was from a rather wet Richard How (James' brother) who had seen the Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay.
Bob Swann sent some info on the 2 Greylags that Margaret had seen on Thursday evening, both geese had been initially caught, and collared at Gortanchuirn up behind Bruichladdich back in January 2015, and no doubt paired up now, being seen together several times. Peter had got some info through on a dead Guillemot found by Val Peacock the other day, it was originally rung on the Shiant Islands on the 25th of June2012, a mere 1374 day ago.... Meanwhile, I await the report back about Michal's Redshank, wonder how long that will take ...