...I know I've put a few of these up recently, but the only other contender for today's post was a cow with a spectacularly prolapsed uterus.

So instead, here's another view from the Oa reserve at dawn, looking NE towards Kintra with the Paps...

We ran our first moth trap of the year here at the Oa this week - it's taken until mid April to get a night calm enough to make it worthwhile. In the event, it was slim pickings, as we only caught 2 moths, both the same species. Here she is, going by...

Regular followers of this blog (hi mum) will know of Dave's tragicomic attempts to get a decent Golden eagle photo.  

Well, this was out on the Oa reserve very early on Tuesday morning as we finished our first round of Black guillemot surveys. I came...

Last night our long term volunteer Mandy was out walking on the reserve and heard the first corncrake of 2014! Possibly the first for Argyll this year.  Yesterday in the Woodland trail the willow warblers were out in force singing their hearts out, and...

Black Guillemot (or Tystie) survey this morning. A beautiful calm morning for carrying out this very specific survey. To count the tysties along the reserves coastline, we have to be out from 6am to 8am during the first 3 weeks of April, in calm...

I took lots of pictures of our well attended guided walk around the Oa on Sunday, but to be completely honest, the long line of people struggling through bleak conditions gave the photos a slight death march feel, so here's a cheerful picture of a Garden...

Looking east from the Oa just after sunrise on Friday morning as we were up early for a Black guillemot survey.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03zqlz6

Follow the above link to find full-time media celebrity and part-time Oa site manager David Wood talking about the fantastic Marsh fritillary butterfly. It's only available on the iPlayer for another 15 hours though...

Maggie Browns' little lamb Angus here, just after getting his bottle.  Angus was one of a set of triplets, and his mother didn't have enough milk for all three. Once the rest of the lambing is underway, he will likely be 'twinned on' to a new mother...

Calving is well underway at Loch Gruinart. All our cows calf indoors, where the farm staff can keep a close eye on them. Once the calf is on its feet, it is promptly shifted outside with its mother to grow in the Scottish sunshine.  At Loch Gruinart, we...

Nice to see some early spring flowers whilst out and about today.

Primsose and...

scurvygrass, amidst some stunning coastal scenery on a lovely sunny day.

The tip of my little finger is 13mm wide, which gives you some idea of how small these Marsh fritillary caterpillars still are. Hard to believe that they will soon be pupating to emerge as adults at the end of next month.

Elsewhere around the Oa reserve...

The weather took a turn for the slightly warmer yesterday, in the afternoon I was down to just the 4 layers. The sunshine brought out some of the smaller creatures at the Oa, including these fantastic Marsh fritillary caterpillars.

Last summer seemed...

Hard to see, I know, but if you look in the centre of the shot just behind the heather there is our first calf of the year at the Oa, cunningly trying to conceal itself as a piece of moorland shrubbery. One of our Highland cows popped this one out sometime...

More from some of the coast surveys we've been doing the last few days. I'd love to give you stunning pictures of all the incredible eagles, chough, harriers, peregrines and many others that make the Oa such a fantastic place to visit, but none of them...

Yesterday we carried out an early season survey of the coastal cliffs on the Oa, looking for early season breeding species and to monitor the feral goat population.

After a calm but wet start the sun came out, causing the land to steam!

One flowering...

We bid a fond farewell to Amy today, a big part of the team here for the winter just gone. Islay's loss is Wales's gain. We will be advertising for a replacement biscuit hoover, spider/spume enthusiast and all-round good egg shortly. Thanks Amy!...

Migration season is definitely upon us - 17 whooper swans briefly stopped in at Loch Kinnabus on The Oa yesterday, presumably on their way back to their breeding grounds in Iceland.

 

 

And here's some more of Dave's photos from earlier in the week...

Islay had its first spring visitors arrive yesterday, they must have heard the sun was shining! A wheatear was seen at Ardnave, just north of Loch Gruinart. This bird is usually the first to arrive and is on schedule. The second sighting was a very early...

Sheep gathering today on Beinn Mhor at The Oa. See if you can spot 13 RSPB sheep and 1 RSPB warden.

5 of us were out today gathering the sheep off this hill, the highest point of the Oa peninsula. Here's some of Amy's pictures from the day. ...

With lambing rapidly approaching here at The Oa, it's time to bring all our sheep in for scanning to see who is to be blessed with a visit from the stork this year.

The reserve is grazed (mainly for chough) with cattle and 800 odd sheep spread over...

A day that started with hail and sleet and general foulness...

...brightened up pretty quickly and turned into a bit of a corker, inbetween the occasional shower.

The white line you can just make out in the above picture is a memorial...

I wrote this a little while ago but couldn't post it with all the internet and blog issues I was facing! With all the news of strandings and seabirds wrecks around the UK, France and Spain it seems quite fitting to post it now.

 

Recently a team...

Mary recently put the trail camera out on the woodland trail hoping to get some perching birds. She wasn't overly hopeful but managed to get some cracking shots of a whole range of different things...I'll save the best picture til last! We're...