The wind got up today and the cloud came and it rained, that's more like it, more as it should be otherwise our reputation will be damaged. I didn't really intend to go birding much but ended up going to Howaback mid morning, having been awoken by nearby fusillades and incessant Greylag calls, yes the "hunters" were in the fields below the house with their toy geese and their camouflage.
Anyway down to Howaback and a quick scan of the loch found the Whooper family on the far shore, as I was watching a familiar call came to ear and a quick investigate produced a Yellow-browed Warbler in the Water Treatment site willows. Two more groups of Whoopers were found and a couple of Stonechats were on the fence lines.
Back to the house for the heating engineer, as the central heating had conked out, quickly fixed but a consult on our leaking mains water source led to a bit of serious hole and trench digging. The thing has been leaking for a while and the back lawn is becoming a quagmire to be negotiated with every trip to the shed or washing line. The sun shone briefly and the sycamore next to my now growing hole echoed with a loud and much repeated Yellow-browed call. Grabbing the bins I dived under the tree for some excellent yellow-green stripey views. (No pix tho.)
From the garden pics
There were nice bird surprises the rest of the day too. A couple of Kestrels, a very late Bonxie over the garden, a super female Merlin by The Shunan and at dusk a Swallow hawking swiftly around the house.
Now the wind is really up, the rain horizontal from SSE, maybe a bit of promise for the morn.
