Friday, February 4, 2011

All Quiet on the Western Front.......until Monday!

Sunday, 30th January, saw me on Jura all day, with not a lot that could be described as "inspiring". Monday, too, saw me undertaking the same journey with few expectations, all of which were confirmed when I summarised the day as being the quietest I'd experienced there!! On the way northwards from home I'd exchanged a friendly wave with RSPB colleagues who were obviously intending to undertake some survey or monitoring work on the Rinns.

Imagine, when I got home, to find a series of telephone messages advising that a Killdeer had been seen by one of the RSPB personnel I'd waved to!! Imagine further that the bird had been seen in a coastal bay a kilometre north of the house I live in and on the same farm. Imagine still further the news that the bird had flown off shortly after being photographed!! Such was incredulous news received after dark , thereby closing any opportunity to go and look for the bird!!! Worse still was that I was committed to work the following day, that involved leaving in darkness and returning late in the day, and was leaving on a ferry at 0700 hours the day after!!!

Despondency followed!

To date ( 4th February ) the bird has not been relocated, and the weather in between has been filthy with hurricane force winds on the 3rd, followed by heavy rain today. Is there just the outside chance of it being there? Hopefully so, and this weekend someone might just generate such good news following such a series of gut wrenching frustrations! I can imagine quite clearly the areas the bird might just have moved to, if it simply moved along the coast, and effort can be put into giving these a good going over next week when I return to Islay. It would be nice to say, "Watch this space, further news will follow".

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