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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andrew Whitehouse" data-source="post: 301344" data-attributes="member: 3550">Day Two: 29th MarchIn the morning I headed up the road to Ardnave, a sandy peninsula that lies adjacent to the mouth of Loch Gruinart.  There were plenty of Wheatears about in the dunes and along the beach and they seemed to be enjoying the sunny conditions.  On the shallow loch were a few Tufted Ducks and Goldeneye and Lapwings, Redshanks and Oystercatchers were calling and displaying around the shoreline.  Ardnave is a good place for one of Islay's specialities, the Chough, and a few pairs were drifting about the old farm buildings calling.  On the dunes large flocks of Barnacle Geese were sheltering and these harboured a single small Canada Goose.  This was a particularly small and rather dark bird, somewhat smaller than most of the Barnacles.  A loud bugling alerted me to two Whooper Swans flying north.  On the walk back a Merlin darted about the roadside before flying off and perching on the moor with a prey item, probably a Meadow Pipit, which it proceeded to pick to pieces on the heather.Over lunch, another first winter Iceland Gull was seen, drifting over the fields in front of the house.The afternoon saw me back down at the Gruinart floods where I was amazed to find that the closest Teal to the hide was the drake Green-winged, which performed incredibly well for some time, chasing about with a female, before flying further away.  Later we took a speculative drive over to Machir Bay, a beautiful area of beach and dunes on the far west coast of Islay.  There were plenty of Wheatears here too, and a few Twite feeding amongst the spilled silage.  This is perhaps the best place to see large numbers of Chough and several were around, picking through the cow dung (see picture).  Five years ago I'd seen a Ring-billed Gull here and one has been quite regular since then, although not so far this winter.  That was all to change when I managed to pick a fine adult out from amongst the gull flock loafing on the shallow pool at the southern end of the dunes.  We watched it here for some time before it flew back towards the car park.  There we were able to watch it at close range as it strutted about a field with Common Gulls.  I was really struck by how thick-set and heavy-chested it looked, almost pear-shaped from front on.  A couple who were camping on the beach were so impressed they even made us a cup of tea on their campfire.We drove back very happy with our find and checked through the huge flocks of geese that were scattered through the fields to the north of Loch Gorm.</blockquote>

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