A good week

Here we are on Islay and after rain last Sunday we have had four fantastic sunny days with temperature up to 22c and no midgies yet!

I spent some time filming a colony of Herons on Jura and with small young in the nest it indicates what a late season it is this year

A female Otter and her young were watched for two and a half hours until they climbed into their holt for a well earned sleep

I have spent two days filming a Peregrine on four eggs on a cliff face and now await the hatch but this pair have had infertile eggs for the past two years and this may not happen.

We have walked through woods with a magnificent carpet of primroses and bluebells looking for Woodcock but it appears we are out of luck again. Our ground nesting Tawny Owls have laid eggs in a different site this year and for some reason have left them just when they were about to hatch.

One day we saw seven male Hen Harriers during the day and on one occasion even watched a pair copulate and another male doing display flight.

Best of all have been the Corncrake with good numbers now arriving and one night I filmed one feeding and preening from only twelve feet away for ten minutes! It can’t possibly get any better than this, can it?