31st March - 2nd April, yet more galavanting

.......on another seabird survey training trip to Islay. It's a long drive down from Aberdeen to Kennacraig, but it wasn't uneventful, as I finally scored my first summer migrant of the year, and not a bad one at that. As we trundled along the side of Loch Earn, my attention was drawn to a large shape drifting over the loch. Bugger me, I thought, that looks like an Osprey. There was good reason for this, as it was an Osprey. My first migs are usually wheatears or sand martins, so this was a notable change and made the rest of the journey far more tolerable.

The surveys themselves were a little hit and miss. The misses came on the westward journeys on the 1st.....the sharp eyed among you may have noticed that it was a bit windy on Tuesday. Well, It was gusting up to 70 mph for most of the day, straight into the faces of anyone stupid enough to try and count seabirds in those conditions. Needless to say, that makes it quite difficult to, for example, hold a clipboard, or keep your eyes open, which were both essential to the survey. To compound things, every so often a big wave would come along and crash against the bow of the boat, making it rise up in a wall of water. Quite spectacular until it crashes down on top of you, soaking you and filling any waterproof pockets.

The eastward journies were much more pleasant. On Tuesday the sea was still pretty rough, but the shelter afforded by the boat made it possible to at least try and count some birdies. The highlight of that trip were 5 Bottlenose dolphins just out of Port Askaig.

The final trip, returning from Islay to the mainland was an absolute dream. The kind of dream when you chug along sedately on a nice big boat and count lots of great northern divers (about 30 of them from one side of the boat), and then see an otter in west loch tarbert.

In between the surveys we had a night on Islay and bummed around a little, seeing the inevitable Greenland whiterfronts and Barnacle geese, a few PB brents, and the odd raven. We would have had a more thorough look around but the weather was fucking horrendous, so we went to drink whisky instead.

Greenland WF geese, from an unusual angle. ie underneath. Which, I suppose is not that unusual considering that many of them can fly