Given things are fairly quiet the day had two objectives. One was to check out access etc to a couple of new seawatching sites ( for cetaceans) and the other was to do some brood counts of Grey lag Geese. Whilst the geese were obvious on some waters they appeared to have disappeared at others, with some figures clearly needing to be chased!!
The first Northern Wheatear and Stonechat broods were in evidence and lots of other young birds are being fed suggesting the breeding season has not been too bad. At several places the anguished calls of Curlew and Common Sandpiper caused me to move away from their nearby broods! Outer Loch Indaal's calm, sun-dappled, shimmering surface yielded little other than a Guillemot and a few scruffy male Eiders commencing moult. A visit to a Heronry saw young birds present, and adults entering to feed others. I thought they'd been deterred from using this location due to the usual Ravens moving, this year, into the very centre of the herons' preferred nesting area. Whilst Ravens have always used this site their own nesting location has usually been on the periphery.
Finally , who says birds don't adapt? The sight of a male Hen Harrier repeatedly visiting an isolated garden, swooping in over a large hedge and producing tight loop like turns in pursuit of its quarry, all witnessed whilst we were "taking afternoon tea", was mind blowing. The accompanying chorus from a group of panic stricken House Sparrows goading it on from the confines of the hedge were equally as entertaining!!
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