Wild Weather!

Well- last Friday I was faced with a dilema! The weather forecast for the weekend was dire - gale force winds, rain - the gales had arrived on Friday and were pretty hairy! I'm still missing 2 bird feeders from the garden. On Saturday I was due to on on a geology field trip to Iona - having done the theory we are still outstanding two field visits - one to Iona and one to Carsaig. Also on Saturday was the Bird Club Bird Race. I had never taken part in the bird race and wondered what it was like. I had also started decorating our hall. Oh dear - what should I do? Then late Friday afternoon, the geology trip was called off due to bad weather and the ferry running a limited service due to maintenance work on the slip way. Oh dear - what do I do? well it was soon decided - hubby said - go to the bird race otherwise you will be wittering all day you wished you had gone - simple! So at 8.30 Saturday morning, set off for Dervaig in half light wondering what was in store. I passed a couple of cars along Salen Bay, but then all the way to Dervaig all I saw was the silhouette of a buzzard. Arrived at Pam and Arthur's who have a garden festooned with feeders - surely we would get some garden birds! At 9.30 the race started - we looked out and the feeders were swinging like billyoh - not a bird in sight! Then something flew past - was it a leaf? - we were looking everywhere - then we spotted a great tit, then a chaffinch - gradually we got most of the garden birds - we were off! the light was still awful as we drove through Dervaig - greenshank, redshank, teal added to our list round the bay - as we drove through Dervaig, a treecreeper was spotted - our list was steadily growing - round to Salen Bay - a dipper at Aros - on to Loch Na Keal - the squalls were really blasting through here - but a ringed bill gull was spotted - onto to the end of Loch Ba and some great spotting of a sea eagle hunkered down in a tree by Pam - we did a quick drive back through Salen through Fishnish, Garmony and to Lochdon where we were beaten by the clock and the light at 3.30. Our final tally was 52 which was fantastic - the weather was awful all day but it just goes to show you can still find the birds if you know where to look. Added to a great day out - great company. The decorating is still waiting to be done - oh well!