Silage time has come again at Gruinart - we cut late every year, after the 1st August, to allow for the late breeding corncrakes to make full use of the crop as cover for young chicks as well as a safe area to feed.
This photo from early Monday morning shows the flats of Loch Gruinart before the cutting started later that evening.
This was taken from Louise's tractor-spotting hide later on Tuesday. The grass is first mown, then picked up with special machinery that fills up trailers, which are driven alongside.
This was taken yesterday evening, once the harvest had largely finished. It looks quite yellow at first, but soon returns back to itself. Soon we will turn the livestock out to graze the flats; this helps the grass to grow back so that in mid-October conditions are perfect for the arrival of 30,000 hungry geese!