It seems rather strange completing a Blog entry before the end of the day but, the truth is , as will become obvious from the comments below, there's precious little bird news likely to arise from the remaining hours of today!!!! I'm intending to be away from early tomorrow until the very end of May and so will be closing the Blog down unless I can discover a way to "register" entries en-route. I'm in Central Scotland, South Yorkshire, Norfolk, Poland, Berkshire, South Yorkshire and , then, return!! More news later.
Today was a bit frenetic with various counts, Raven work, a couple of discussions about Ravens and some other survey work squashed in prior to returning home to make final preparations ( read one-off preparations !! ) for being away. In between, managed to see the male Ring-necked Duck down on The Oa, but missed the Shorelark that had been there yesterday, the first in Argyll for 32 years!!! The very early WeBS counts on Loch Indaal showed some Great northern Divers still hanging on, and in pristine condition too, but the majority of species being reduced. The reliable favourites of the moment, Whimbrel , are still passing through but their passage northwards will no doubt have come to an end by the time I return.
Whilst Goldfinches are still around , their passage through appears to have reduced being replaced by ever obvious numbers of Linnet that have arrived back in numbers over the past few days and are now very widespread.
Doing a repeat survey ( for a comparison to last year ) of a stretch of beach where Ringed Plover
breed, I was surprised to find only two ( yes, 2 ) birds present where there had been many pairs last spring. Perhaps "ours" are late in returning this year? It poses the question of how best to determine survey dates across the UK when, clearly, things can prove to be so different along a south to north axis!!
Given I shall be birding most of the time I'm away I hope I can sort out the means to post updates of what is happening to an Islay itinerant!! Will be in touch.
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