2nd January

With the weather turning near apocolyptic over the next few days this was maybe our final chance to get some birding done for a couple of days.
It seemed the birds had read the weather and decided to stay tucked away out of sight. The long staying Green-winged Teal finally re-surfaced on Gretchen with 63 Wigeon and 17 Teal.
Bewan was uncharecteristally quiet with just the usual suspects. The year list additions for the day were a drake Red-breasted Merganser at Brides, 36 Twite in East Loch Park, 8 Grey Heron at Westness, a Black Gulliemot off the pier and a Meadow Pipit in Loch Park.

On another note I'm supposed to be off island for a few days so there won't be any further updates until 12th January.

Common Gull

1st January

Happy New Year!
Our first foray out into the wilderness of 2020 was quite productive.
Much of the usual stuff was accomapnied by a few unusal bits that we wouldn't perhaps expect to have on the year list at this early stage.
A 1st Winter Glaucous Gull was present in the small flock of Gulls sheltering from the wind at Bewan, the loch was otherwise playing host to its usual suspects. Small groups of Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Teal and Wigeon were also sheltering on the loch as were a pair of Goldeneye.
The beach at Brides was fairly busy with Wigeon, Goldeneye and Common Gulls all feeding in the surf, the loch was less busy but did have a lone Little Grebe in one of the small bays and the Mute Swan from the previous day had seemingly found its way from Bewan. Other birds of note were 2 Red-throated Diver, 4 Great Northern Diver, 4 Long-tailed Duck, 16 Redwing and 13 Fieldfare.

Goldeneye

Eider