Starlings gathering nest material now, can't remember last time saw them in garden. Roll on the juvies! Song thrush and more Starlings feeding young now. Hirundine still proving to be elusive.

More from the Highlands and Islands.

I was very lucky to be the Scottish support, mainland and islands, for the RSPB Countryside Management System (CMS) computer package back in the late 90's. Horrible package it was but the benefit for me was travelling around Scottish reserves to install and train wardens. This was an amazing time getting out to the likes of Tiree and the Uists with the bonus of being paid to do so, albeit minimally! A planned trip to South Uist had an element of excitement as on arrival at the airport, Benbecula - amazing flying onto there, the warden (cannot remember her name) said come on we are on a twitch - Little Egret. Nowadays of course widespread especially in Cheshire but back then very rare indeed. I will always love the Hebrides and only left as my wife was very unhappy there, especially in winter. I was at work 7 days a week, not work of course as a vocation and love, she had to suffer the winter weather with horizontal rain and wind. Of course she forgets the wonderful evenings in Spring when we were out walking at 23:00 in daylight! All I had to do was pop out and spend the day counting geese in the winter. Or sit in the Land-rover for hours surveying Hen Harriers (we had 11 nests) and Short-eared Owls, horrible job - not. Happy days but just recently tinged with sadness as one of my colleagues passed away, I knew he was poorly but not that bad. As hard as we worked in hours and days we played very hard as well, luckily Islay is blessed with the amber nectar that we were all very partial to and I still am. Our house was upside down with the lounge upstairs and was exceptional for birding, swallows on the power cable into the house, Stonechat rattling pebbles in the garden. Olga's frustration and kindness feeding her plants to the deer, not that she saw it that way. But one of the overriding memories was the skies, especially on Autumn nights. The stars were literally like a  carpet. A friend and I stood outside leaning on our 5 bar gate one evening just watching in awe, no light pollution of course, whilst demolishing a bottle of the amber nectar, happy days. For Islay whisky aficionado's I can recommend the Aldi one, very pleasant indeed, oh and that reminds me I need a drink.