It may well be the holiday season for us humans, but the sheep and cattle of The Oa don't seem to give a hoot, apparently preferring instead to continue standing in a field and eating it. So this means two of the reserve staff spend a bracing couple of hours each morning driving around the reserve on quad bikes, counting, checking and feeding them and trying to find the ultimate clothing combination to best keep some of the rain out. We may cover this last point in greater detail at a later date, as I believe Alasdair set a new world record for the most items of clothing ever worn simultaneously this morning, and I'd like to see him get the recognition he deserves for this.
It's been too foul to get any photos out and about on the reserve recently, so here's a nice shot of some of the island's Barnacle geese by Richard Gibbs.
Richard's fabulous account of his time spent volunteering with us on Islay recently can be found at the link below and is highly recommended.
http://www.richardpgibbs.org/2013/12/islay-2-christmas-carol.html