Tuesday 22 April 2014

Slow spring, scarce migrants.

Little to report from the NW - the air temperature is still way down and 'spring' migrants are few and far between- a few sand martins, the occasional willow warbler, chiffchaff and wheatear, a very occasional swallow and a single singing tree pipit. With white-winged gulls still sticking around at Achnahaird it still seems rather wintery, although one or two of the resident great-northern divers are starting to look good in their summer plumages. A pair of merlin sat on the salt marsh was a bonus as was a fly-over white-tailed eagle. Today the first white wagtails tipped up so it is very much a transitional period at the moment. Hopefully we will get a good twitchable migrant before too long- preferably on the mainland or else I'm gonna have to go for the serin…………

glaucous gull
Iceland gull
great northern diver
merlin
white wagtail
white-tailed eagle