18th January, 2010.

An Islay day of the sort which makes it good to be alive! Elevated temperatures and golden sun bathing the landscape throughout! Lovely.

A check for the Gyr Falcon early in the morning, but without success. Sadly other local interest later failed to locate the bird either.

The image opposite was kindly provided by a friend, Keith Betton, who was birding on the island with his colleague, Nigel Peace. After locating it on Saturday I managed to contact them, ( not always the easiest task given mobile telephone reception on Islay! ), a consequence being that they established the land speed record between Port Askaig and Portnahaven and then secured the above image! Many thanks.

Much later in the day I again went down to view the small offshore island where the bird had first been seen, but the hope of it coming in to roost was in vain. It's appropriate to mention that none of this would have emerged had Portnahaven "locals", Ian and Jean, not reported the presence of a large white raptor in the above vicinity late on the Friday. Thanks to them too!