Trickling through

Yet another early morning wander resulted in nothing much. Swallows continue to pass through in small bunches (no more than five birds at a time) whilst the male Wheatear is still in situ around the school car park. The Sky Lark remains, for it's second day, singing high above the fallow potato field, directly behind our garden. A male Willow Warbler flitted along the garden hedgerow, stopping occasionally to deliver a burst of song before continuing ever northwards. Linnets, Greenfinches and those, very puzzling, Meadow Pipits remain the dominant/most interesting species around the farm tracks and hedges.

Not a particularly good image - just a photo to accompany this mundane post.

At 11.30 hrs the gulls went up as a Common Buzzard drifted slowly north above the estate, only for it to reappear, some thirty minutes, later drifting back south before spiralling up to an incredible height and setting of west in a very purposeful manner. The local Sparrowhawks were displaying over St. Lukes and a pair of Chaffinches put in a surprise visit to the garden - an unusual date for these birds at our feeding station.
Preparations for our Loch Awe trip are nearing completion, my reels are loaded with 40 lbs b.s. braid and two rods are already made up, in my hard case, ready for immediate use when we arrive. We always get a couple of rods in the water before we make any attempt at erecting bivvies and getting our stuff in order. The weather forecast looks quite good, although predicting weather in the Scottish highlands is a very tricky business.