4th December,2009.

A somewhat more targeted day! Fine until the evening when heavy rain ensued and temperatures felt lower!!

The 1st November, 2009 saw the commencement of the third year of the BTO Atlas survey, which has been detailed before. The surveys, in both winter and summer, involve two visits to each tetrad selected and the requisite records being collected. Whilst we're doing reasonably well on Islay, Jura and Colonsay, my discovery that a Regional Representative elsewhere in the UK had 320 people on his list of Atlas contacts came as a bit of a shock! I admit the fact that we're struggling to exceed double figures of resident helpers, but extend heartfelt thanks to those who have helped whilst on holidays to add records into what is a region with 26 10km. squares and 377 tetrads to cover. A challenge worthy of reality TV!

Anyway yesterday's efforts helped contribute to the pool of data, but didn't generate much of interest given the nature of the areas I'd selected, which were almost bereft of birds. Sometimes it's difficult to be convinced of how some birds, e.g. Stonechat, manage to eke a living out in the midst of such "hostile" terrain!