Friday 20 January 2012

Friday 20th January

Today the weather has not been great, rain and more rain.... Last night I had an e mail from a friend who lives close to Cambridge, well they have a hose pipe ban in place, I ask you... Should I feel sorry and send them water down?? The burn is well up, with the ground fairly saturated already, and rain just runs off. The other day I noticed that in the dunes behind Machir Bay, there was water in "ponds" in places that I do not recall being there before, usually the dunes are free draining because of the sandy soils!!! This morning there were 8 Fulmars in at the crag, and the sea was roaring away, so as you can gather not really much bird watching done today... Yesterday afternoon, I was down at Gartmain briefly and different birds present to the other day plus the wind was up too, so I only saw the Glaucous Gull, 1 Oystercatcher, 6 Wigeon and 4 Mallard. Further on towards Bowmore and the rock in Loch Indaal below the Gaelic college held about 70 Oystercatcher in the lee of the wind. From the generator station as one enters Bowmore, looking back towards the college, there were 14 Pale bellied Brent and 2 Wigeon, and at Bunanuisg, where Islay Farmers once had a store, there were a further 13 Brent and a solitary Oystercatcher. Coming home, there were some more Brent at Blackrock, but as I was driving, I did not get a count of them! The 2 "regular" Glaucous Gulls were on Loch Indaal past Uiskentuie.

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