Tuesday 1st April

A bright sunny and dry day with a strong SE breeze.

The wind is now favourable for our winter geese to head directly to Iceland en route to their breeding grounds in Greenland and there were several observations of exactly that, with confirmation from Steve Percival that the first Barnacle Geese had arrived in Iceland this evening. Clive McK. was videoing thousands of Barnacle Geese (5,000+) setting off early this morning with smaller numbers of White-fronted Geese and 4 Whooper Swans. However, not all the geese have yet departed, and still lingering are the two star attractions: Red-breasted Goose and Cackling Goose found by Marc Eden at Craigens and near the RSPB Visitor Centre, who, earlier, had also been watching the geese disappearing north fast at Sanaigmore along with a flock of 12 Whooper Swans, while a pair of our resident Peregrines were busy copulating!

Other bird news includes mating Wigeon at Cornabus reported by Ed B. That would be a great breeding record for Islay if it comes to anything. Gary Turnbull had a Kingfisher up at Bridgend Merse and a Barn Owl on the fence between Esknish and Eorrabus. Valerie Wilson counted 40 Sand Martins at Easter Ellister and 12 Whooper Swans flying NW over Kilchiaran this afternoon. Clive McK. had a Chiffchaff up at Creag Mhor this morning while Andrew Whitehouse found our first Willow Warbler at Gruinart this afternoon.

A search for the Pied Crow down at Portnahaven yesterday and today didn't find the bird - perhaps it has moved on or is lurking elsewhere on the island.

Monday 31st March

Fairly cloudy, but only light winds and no rain.

Lots of discussion on the WhatsApp group today about migrating Greenland White-fronted Geese as small groups were noted headed NW more or less into the wind. The discussion revolved around whether they'd be better off waiting for the wind to swing round in their favour, with tales of tracked groups going north before that had to just island-hop or return from whence they came when setting off with the wind against them.

Ed Burrell  noted Lapwings incubating eggs on nests, Pied Wagtails nest building and Grey Wagtails nest prospecting at Cornabus. Val Wilson spotted a Pink-footed Goose with White-fronts on the High Road and Mary R. had 20 Brent Geese at Blackrock and a pair of Bullfinches at Carnain.

Andrew Whitehouse was birding in various locations on the Rhinns with the following results:  Loch Gorm - 1 Slavonian Grebe (unusual to find this species on freshwater lochs on Islay), Loch Gruinart - 6 Black-tailed Godwits and single White-tailed Eagle and Little Grebe, Blackrock - 6 Slavonian Grebes, 7 Long-tailed Duck, 27 Red-breasted Mergansers, 5 Great Northern Divers, Bridgend - 4 Sandwich Terns, Loch Skerrols - 50 Sand Martins.

Sunday 30th March

A fine, dry, quite calm day, with more of the same in the offing, with a substantial high pressure system over the UK for much of the coming week.

There were 4 Pink-footed Geese at the top of Loch Indaal seen by Andrew Whitehouse and Valerie Wilson, both of whom noted 2-3 Sandwich Terns there. Later Valerie found the Hoopoe still with us up the Ardnave road north of RSPB Gruinart offices. Andrew later noted Great Spotted Woodpecker calling and Chiffchaff singing at Loch Skerrols and 2 White Wagtails at Ardilistry.

Mary R. down at Claddach scored Islay's first Swallow of summer - well done Mary!

Clive was out birding on a flat calm Loch Indaal this evening finding that a lot of the species more associated with winter are still with us: 52 Great Northern Divers, 41 Eider, 26 Long-tailed Ducks and 23 SDalvonian Grebe - many of the latter now in their lovely breeding plumage.

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Saturday 29th March

A quite cloudy, windy day, starting out dryish, but increasingly with squally rain showers blowing in.

There were several of us heading down to the Portnahaven area this morning to see the Pied Crow. Mary Redman was watching it early on, when it had moved over to Port Wemyss, where I found it a little later. Still very approachable, but being bothered at times by gulls and Hooded Crows. However, it was still managing to scavenge food from back gardens and was seen by others right through the day. Below are a couple of photos that I took on my visit.

Other than that, it has been a quiet day for bird sightings, with Andrew Whitehouse reporting 4 Sand Martins at Easter Ellister and 11 Manx shearwaters off Frenchman's Rocks this afternoon and a high count of 7-8 Siskins on Val P.'s feeders at Port Charlotte.

Friday 28th March

A quite cold day with blustery winds from the north-west and occasional sleety downpours between bright sunshine.

An extra record of 25+ Sand Martins over Loch Skerrols yesterday came in from Nigel Scriven who also noted the following for today: White-tailed Eagle adult Kildalton Chapel, Çlaggain Bay 2 Shelduck, 2 Great Northern Diver, Ardtalla Farm fields 33 Golden Plover, 17 Ringed Plover, plus uncountable mixed flock of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks.

Andrew Whitehouse saw the first White Wagtail for Islay o 2025 today at Machir Bay. 

Other than that, there were no sightings sent in today until the afternoon, so I was going to have to make do with mention of the 40 Goldfinches on my feeders supplemented by 20-25 at Malcolm O's further along in Bruichladdich and the 15 or so at Val Peacock's feeders in Port Charlotte.

Then a message came in this afternoon from Fiona McG. of a PIED CROW at Portnahaven that had been there apparently for a few days feeding on suet in people's back gardens! This is an odd record to say the least as Pied Crow is native to sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and some of the Indian Ocean islands and not on the British List. Outside of the species' native area there has been presumed genuine vagrancy in N. Africa and the Middle East, but most that have rarely been found in Europe have been considered escapees (quite a few are apparently kept in captivity) or ship-assisted birds. I think the first British record that wasn't traced back to being an escapee was in summer 2018, and that wandered widely across the UK - but that bird is still, I believe, "in limbo" as far as its status.

However, there has been a recent flurry of records in UK and elsewhere in Europe in 2025, with 2-3 still present over a long period of time in Ireland and the Scilly Isles, these individuals also wandering quite long distances with the latter thought to now be in Northern France.

Whatever the verdict (wild or escapee) on this and the current birds elsewhere in the UK, it is a fascinating record, a first for Argyll and I'll be on a twitch to Portnahaven tomorrow morning! Here are a couple of photos courtesy of Mary Redman:

Thursday 27th March

An overcast, cloudy and rainy sort of day, though winds still light.

The only bird news today was of 15 Fieldfares seen by Wendy & John Mattingley at Lyrabus. But there are further bird notes from yesterday.

Wendy & John Mattingley report "We had a group of 110 Common Scoter and another of 66 on Loch Indaal, also 4 Slavonian Grebe, with another at Kilnaughton Bay. A flock of 18 Ravens with 4 Buzzards near Mulindry Bridge and 17 Tufted Duck on Ballygrant Loch. At Loch Skerrols there was 1 Chiffchaff, but no Sand Martins. Highlights at Gruinart 4 Little Egrets, 2 Black-tailed Godwits going into summer plumage and 60 Pintail".

(They had also counted 20 Great Northern Divers in Kilnaughton Bay on Monday 24th).

Nigel Scriven (Chairman of Argyll Bird Club) was on the island on Monday 24th and sent in some notes from Ardnave: 75 Bar-tailed Godwits, 60 Sanderling a Wheatear and a flock of 17 Chough.

There has been no further definite indication of why so many small dead fish washed up at Port Ellen yesterday, though apparently two prawn boats were tied up in Port Ellen on Tuesday evening and it is thought that they might have been cleaning out their holds. Whether this is correct and is the source of the fish, and if so a legal thing to do is all uncertain. Lets hope that it wasn't a poisoning incident and that at least the gulls, corvids, and perhaps a White-tailed Eagle or two benefitted from it?

 

Tuesday 25th & Wednesday 26th March

 Two days of reasonable springlike weather - mostly, dry, sunny with light winds.

Not much of the news on the posts was very pleasant though!

Yesterday there was a report of a roadkill Buzzard that probably met its end while scavenging a roadkill Pheasant. There were also several reports of Wheatears arriving in ones and twos at Cornabus, Ardnave, Gruinart and Portnahaven.

Today, Martin Armstrong posted a note of large numbers of fish washed up dead on the beach at Port Ellen. I'm still unclear what caused this - it was suggested that it could be discards from trawlers as they were all small. If anyone knows of a definite answer, then do let me know,

Bird-wise, Louise M. had a Crossbill at Sanaig forest on Jura. David D. had 2 Wheatears at Lower Killeyan (plus a pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins off Glen Astle), while Andrew Whitehouse saw the Hoopoe again, still along the road north of Gruinart for a 6th day. Finally, Gary T. had a tern sp. off Blackrock.