We were very sad to come across the remains of a raptor up on the Ormsaigbeg common grazings yesterday. There's no suggestion that it died of anything but natural causes, but we wanted to know what species it was, so asked our local expert, the Raptor. His researches led him to the identification of a female kestrel.
There have been at least one kestrel around all winter, and we photographed it hovering near the house back in October, link
here, but we've not seen one recently.
The Raptor has also sorted me out on water rails, with the news that he's seen them in Kilchoan. He says, "This one was snapped in my garden eating bread with the wee birds on 04 January 2010 during the very cold winter where we had frost for weeks on end. I also saw one running across the lane in front of the house just a couple of weeks ago."
Dave King tried to post a comment on the water rail entry but, like so many before him, was defeated by Google's comments system. He writes, "The BTO Bird Atlas 2007-2011 shows the water rail overwintering in your grid square. The nearest breeding areas appear to be Coll/Tiree, Ardgour/Glencoe and Eigg, so they are quite close.'
Many thanks to the Raptor and Dave - I obviously haven't been looking in the right places.
Water rail pictures from the Raptor.
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