A different day.

With the tides being quite high at the moment the wading birds get pushed a bit closer to the road - a Greenshank didn't mind a close approach.

I managed to get my first photograph of a spring migrant - you could probably guess that it was a Northern Wheatear.

A different request on a tour produced a different day - not that bothered about seeing the big stuff as they had seen plenty before. We started the day with 2 new birds, on Mull, for the guests in the shape of Little Grebe and Red-throated Diver.

There were plenty of GN Diver on view at the same location.

The next stop produced a male Hen Harrier, Black Guillemot and a Turnstone. The weather was a bit poor but it was supposed to improve so we headed to an area that was clearer. The first discovery was 6 Barnacle Geese...

...we looked for where the birds had landed and got the rest of the flock to boost the numbers to about 80 birds. Three Mountain Hares were seen, a couple of Reed Bunting, a single Common Snipe and a cracking male Northern Wheatear.

Redshank were noticeable by the noise they were making and a couple were seen in flight but the bird that dropped into a field close to us was worth pointing the camera at.

A little bit of mass hallucination occurred at the next stop when a small finch was spotted sitting on some wires. We decided that it was probably a Redpoll or Twite. The bird flew around and looked small again but when it landed we used the scope to get a better view...the bird had a heavy bill and a dark area around the eye so it wasn't a small finch at all but a Greenfinch. It was hard to believe we had all been fooled so we renamed the bird...Mull Pygmy Greenfinch;-) Three Razorbill were parading around in the bay and I'm sure I could hear them laughing! More sign of migrating at the next stop with singles of both Fieldfare and Redwing.

A distant Short-eared Owl was seen but a closer view would be appreciated by the guests. While looking for closer SE Owl a couple of male Hen Harrier were seen.

Our last stop of the day produced both male and female Hen Harrier but best of all were two Short-eared Owl that put on quite a display including wing-clapping. One of the birds gave us some superb views as it hunted the marsh.