Tuesday 12th August

Another miserable sort of a day out here, but on the positive side of events it has given James and myself time to double check that we (hopefully) have got everything in place for the trip down to the British Birdfair in Rutland. We set out tomorrow morning and catch the ferry from Port Ellen, and then pick up Andy my co driver at Balloch and then head on down to Whissendine to our accomodation, all going well we should be there in time for some food, great, and yes the van is already packed with all our goodies for folk to come along and share some of our famous hospitality. As ever we are having a "free draw" for a holiday cottage for up to 4 folk to come to visit for a week and see Islay through the winter months and see our geese, courtesy of Kilchoman House cottages . Calmac, our ferry operator will provide the lucky winner with ferry tickets. Our stand is a joint venture between the Islay and Jura Tourism and Marketing Group along with RSPB Islay reserves along with help from the Islay Natural History Trust, Calmac and all the Distilleries on Islay and Jura. So if you you manage to attend the Birdfair, come along to marquee 1, stand 14 and meet up with some of the folk behind the blog, better still, somebody has to win the competition! The long and the short is that the blog may well be light of sightings over the next few days as most of our contributors will be down at Rutland!