Friday 31st January

Well in a few hours time that will be the end of January, so I wonder how much rain that we have had in comparison to previous tallies for January, as ever, you will just have to wait in suspense until the blog tomorrow, when all will be revealed..

Gary had faced up to the cooler winds today and in at Finlaggan, he had 7 Crossbills. And then shortly after that he saw a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2 Bullfinches and also a further 5 Crossbills along the track up behind Bunnahabhain.

Up here at home the ringtail was present today, again having a meal.. The Barn Owl was seen last night staying there for over 3 hours and has been in already for the best part of an hour so far. No need for the winter watch series on the TV!!!

Thursday 30th January

Well, the winds certainly picked up with the midday ferry and also the evening ferry from Kennacraig cancelled out.. The sea out over Coull Point has been boiling for the best part of the last 2 days...

Up here at home we have been watching that Hen Harrier making the most of the remains of the Hare. This evening, we have been watching the antics of another "regular", the Barn Owl...All from the comfort of the house, honest, getting a bit  like Winter Watch on the TV!!!

Gary had braved the elements today... Down on the shoreline at Gartbreck, he counted 190 Wigeon, 150 Teal, 33 Mallard and over 100 Dunlin. Between the shore and the refuse tip , he saw 10 G b b Gulls, 89 H. Gulls, 21 C. Gulls, 45 B h Gulls and also 2 Glaucous Gulls.

Wednesday 29th January

Morven was in touch today with the figures from last week's International Goose count which took place on Tuesday and also on Thursday last week... Wednesday had been cancelled because of the poor visibility.. The tally came to...34,795 Barnies, 5,588 Whitefronts and 730 Greylags. Many thanks to Morven and the team from SNH in sharing these figures with us.

Above is an image of 2 of our garden birds, taken this morning before the rain set in !!! Wonder what comment we would have received back from the BTO, if we had sent in on the their big garden bird watch???

Tuesday 28th January

This is an image of a rather hungry Hen Harrier taken out on the grass today, it was tearing into a dead Hare that I had placed there around a fortnight ago... oddly enough the other day some of the Jackdaws had been in for the odd piece of Hare before but not as much as the Harrier who must have been there for at least 3 hours!!!! There was also a Jackdaw and also a Raven in but neither ventured too close. Finally, a Buzzard came and sat on top of of one of the fence posts.. The image is not that great as the windows were covered in rain...

Monday 27th January

It was dry again today, but a bit on the cool side with the mercury never getting much of a shift in the thermometer...

Not much to report apart from the hooded crow out on the grass again today, later on there was a       buzzard down on the fence line watching what was going on... The pheasants which we have, have taken a great liking to eating into a small bucket of feed, which includes some aniseed...

Sunday 26th January

The weather has been a bit cooler today, in fact at one point this afternoon, we were glad to be inside, as there was a right dirty shower of hailstones, clattering against the windows, rather noisy, to put it politely..

On the bird front today, James had seen a couple of Bullfinches over at Bunnahabhain this morning. This afternoon, James was over for a cuppa and we were proud to show him some footage on our cameras of a pair of Barn Owls, and also some footage from a visiting Chough. I know it is early days but here is hoping that either bird would be looking for a prospective nest site... Earlier on, Margaret saw a couple of Hooded Crows out on the edge of the garden. 

Saturday 25th January

A much better day with the weather, no mists rolling around, possibly the odd spot of rain, but we did manage to see Ireland out on the sky line, the first sighting of Ireland for some time!!!

Mandy was in for a cuppa today, and she told me that she had seen a Barn Owl down at Foreland as she drove home the other night.