Friday 13th and Saturday 14th November 2009

Hello.
Like everywhere in Britain the weather was not the best for wildlife watching today, which was lucky because I spent most of the day watching primary school shinty (it was nail biting stuff). It was worth going to the shinty as I happened to see the Cattle egret at Bridgend on the way to shinty via the sale at Bridgend. On the way back we flushed a Woodcock at Gruinart.
Friday the 13th was thankfully a lucky birdwatching day with sunshine and crystal clear air, giving the birds a crisp appearance through the scope, a really good west coast day. At Gruinart there was 1 Brambling, 372 lapwing, 1,295 Golden plover (I couldn't find any American golden plover amongst them), 220 Bar tailed godwits, 1 Greenshank and 2 grey wagtails.

Thurs 12th Nov

Tracey e mailed the totals for last weeks Goose counts. The Barnies tallied at 50,145 and the Whitefronts at 5,464. The Whitefronts have certainly come in since the previous count, and there appear to be higher percentage of juvenile birds along with them compared to previous years. Thanks Tracey for the figures. While Malcolm was out on the count yesterday, on the Ardtalla/ Oa route, he had seen several groups of 100+ Redwings.

Our visiting birders had gone over to Jura today, and had seen a couple of Swallows down beside the distillery at Craighouse. Malcolm told me last night that the latest record of a Swallow been seen on Islay was on the 24th of November in 1989, although there have been later sightings than this on mainland Argyll.

I shall be away on holiday for the next fortnight or so, so James will be looking after the blog while I am away. Margaret and myself are going to Dumfries and Galloway at the start, so hope to catch the sighting of the Starlings going to roost at Gretna. We may be even see the Red Kites at Loch Ken, and everyone talks about the geese, a bit of a busman's holiday..... We also hope to catch up with relatives and friends while we are there too.

Wed 11th Nov

Remember the poser about the snails yesterday, well one of you readers out there reckons that the collective name for snails is a "rout", any other suggestions?

Some birds news now, I have not heard of any recent sightings of the Cattle Egret since Albert and Hazel Percival saw it last Friday, but there again it disappeared for a few days before showing up again.

James had a couple of Brambling yesterday on the track leading to his house at Grainel. Also yesterday afternoon, and also on the reserve, a visiting birder over for the week, had seen the Taverner's Canada Goose, and was well pleased. He had spent a lot of time scanning through numerous flocks of Barnies! Today, down at Bruichladdich and George saw a late Swallow in the morning, as well as a few Woodcock.

Tues 10th Nov

I took this image of some snails the other day, thought it might amuse some of you! I am not sure of the collective name for such a "gathering" is, answers on a postcard...

Back down on Loch Indaal and there were 24 Pale bellied Brent Geese down at the spit on the Strand, and another 4 at Bowmore, possibly the small group that overwinters with us is here! Also on the foreshore were a few Turnstone, and some small groups of Eider offshore.

Mon 9th Nov

Remember back to the other day, when I was talking about having seen the Cattle egret and the Little egret together, and how it was good being able to compare the two birds. Well, tonight I was speaking with some friends, when the topic came up about Eagles, and one of the friends said that they had seen a Golden Eagle and also a White tailed Sea Eagle, and again they also commented about comparing the birds when they are relatively close to each other.

Sun 8th Nov

Danny Arnold who was up for his 3rd visit of the year last week, had seen 6 Barn Owls throughout his visit, including 3 on his journey to the 7am ferry on Friday! Danny was fortunate to see the 7 Otters on one day on his visit, and gave us images of Moths earlier on in the year.

Another visitor today had the good fortune of seeing a male Hen Harrier seeing a Buzzard off, also an Otter in Loch Indaal out in front of Bowmore Distillery, and commented on the large flocks of Geese present.

Sat 7th Nov

James was in touch with some sightings from the past few days. On Thursday, apart from the Cattle Egret at Blackrock, he had a Coot on the reserve at Gruinart, perhaps common on the mainland, but not that common here. James also had 64 Whoopers passing through.

On Friday, James carried out a goose count on the reserve, 12,880 Barnacle Geese, 775 Whitefronts and 31 Greylags. The count for the Barnies was quite high, while the whitefronts were almost 100 up on last year at the same time, with more juvenile birds to be seen, so perhaps they have had a better breeding season this year. On the mud flats there were 665 Golden Plover.

Today in the wood beside Gruinart Farm, James had a Chiffchaff, a Treecreeper, a Woodcock and 2 Mistle Thrush.