Sunday 8 September 2013

Dazzling, ghosts, pufflings and flush toilets.


Alex, Charlotte and Nicola Connor have been coming to stay in the Lowlight with their parents to monitor bird mogration ever since they were born and so have clocked up more visits that many of the birders to the Bird Observatory. This is how they found the new building on their last visit:
"After our not-so-calm-but-better-than-last-year crossing we arrived on the island and found ourselves facing conflicting emotions. The Lowlight had undergone some improvement building works since our last visit and although we had seen some pictures we didn't know quite what to expect! So feeling slightly nostalgic we entered the Lowlight and stopped almost immediately thinking to ourselves....finally after all these years a toilet that flushes.
Soon after settling in it became clear that the Lowlight was already marked territory after a juvenile gull (later named Alfreddo) sauntered through the front door and left us a nice present to clean up.

The next night Dad set off geared up and torch at the ready to dazzle some waders. With the pudding made and the fire going we settled down to await his return. Once the 2 purple sandpipers, the 2 turnstone and one rather feisty redshank were ringed we headed down to Rona to let them go.After a lot of scrambling and clambering we saw the birds safely off. Windswept we trudged back up the path towards a nice cup of tea, stumbling across a puffling (one of the last of the year) heading down to the sea on the way. Dads dazzling success continued throughout the week adding a curlew, another purple sandpiper and 2 more turnstone onto our totals.
Purple Sandpipers

The weekend is the lighthouse open day on the island which has meant that for the first time in our many visits to the island we got to have a climb up the lighthouse tower at the Lowlight as well as a look inside the Beacon while they were being tidied up, ready for visitors. Apparently they are haunted, however we have yet to see any ghosts"

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