A difficult day on Barra due to a strong, blustery wind and sometimes heavy drizzle, but we still managed more views of Arctic warbler and Swainson's thrush and found a yellow-browed warbler. Supporting cast included long-tailed ducks, nine glossy ibis, three species of diver plus sooty and Manx shearwaters. 51 brents were on Traigh Mhor and others moving south.
This is the top end of Ardmhor plantation which is about 200m from our cottage and is currently home to an Arctic warbler. Today as I watched, it followed pretty much the same routine as it did on Monday, flycatching and flitting around quickly from tree to tree, I could almost predict its movements.
We pulled into a layby at Allasdale bay and did a short sea watch, which produced four long-tailed ducks including two stunning drakes, also 27 eiders and three species of diver. Further out gannets were passing by, a few Manx shearwaters and a handful of brent geese, all heading south.
There's been a steady build up of pale-bellied brent geese over the past few days, with 51 now on Traigh Mhor and we've seen at least 13 heading south on the west coast.
A juvenile scaup was on Loch an Duin reservoir. This appears to be a different bird to that we saw on Loch Tangasdail last week.
Highlight of the day though was finding a yellow-browed warbler in the back garden of the cottage at the end of the road at Eoligarry. For a couple of seconds it dropped down onto the ground, looked at me and then flew back into the canopy where it returned to type and offered only fleeting glimpses.
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