All Good Things Come To An End

All good things come to an end and after five weeks it was time to leave Islay. Five weeks of fantastic weather with only two days of rain and mostly clear and sunny. Perhaps the view of Port Charlotte bay will remind us of it?

During the last week I filmed the Peregrine intensively with results usually proportionate to the time you put in. One morning I was rewarded with film never before seen let alone captured on camera. The male Peregrine brought prey to the cliff and called the female off the nest to take it off him as per usual. She returned to the three young and commenced the feed. Suddenly the male called from nearby and landed on the nesting ledge below the female. She ignored him and carried on feeding the young. He walked up to her calling lowly and she tore off some prey and fed it to him! An unique event but more was to follow. After flying off he called again and returned to the female. This time he walked up to her and took the prey from her talons and flew off with it. I have not checked the video yet but it should all be captured on film – I hope!

After five weeks of searching we finally found an Adder in the last few days. They used to be more common but Buzzards like them, so with the increase of Buzzards the Adder population has declined – much to the delight of most people.

As we were leaving Islay on Friday a pod of six to eight Dolphins provided an ideal send off being the only ones seen during our stay. Otters have also been illusive only five encounters in all

It was always going to be an anticlimax when we returned home and the first two days have proved this. One pair of Long Eared Owls have fledged young but the other site has failed. Worse was to follow with two Merlin sites failing, one a direct result of its eggs being taken by an egg collector. So my message for all you out there is that if you find the nest of a rare bird tell only the County Recorder as egg collectors are still sadly with us.- Lets hope its better news next week.