Wed 10th Oct - Thurs 11th Oct

Quite a lot of birds to report, so here goes.....

We can start off with the monthly Webs count, from over at Loch Gruinart, covering the whole estuary. 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 19 Shag, 1 Heron, 68 Wigeon, 1 Eider, 36 Red Breasted Mergansar, 255 Oystercatcher, 61 Ringed Plover, 149 Bar Tailed Godwit, 295 Curlew, 31 Redshank, 34 Turnstone, 33 Common Gull, 107 Herring Gull, 2 Greater Black Backed Gull, 1 Cormarant, 227 Dunlin, 4 Black Tailed Godwits, 8 Mallard, 16 Lapwing and 11 Grey Plover. Many thanks to Catherine and her counters for that information. CF

There was a flock of over 600 Golden Plover down at Portnahaven, while up at the head of Loch Indaal there were 300 Dunlin, 9 Little Stint, 1 White Rumped Sandpiper, 12 Bar Tailed Godwit, 120 Ringed plover, 50 Turnstone and 3 Snipe. RAS

Over at Loch Gruinart RSPB, there were 13,385 Barnies, 118 Whitefronts, 1 Canada (Hutcinsii), 6 Fieldfare, 5 Redwing, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Merlin, 2 Mistle Thrush en passage. There were a lot of Blackbirds and Robins on the move too! The reason for the drop in Barnies is that they have already started to go in to groups round the island. JRH