Mon 3rd - Wed 5th March

Well, I woke the other morning and looked out the window, just to see a Magpie, was I dreaming? No, I was back being your Paisley correspondent for a few days, so not really an Islay bird! But here goes for the birds seen on Islay. Before going over to Paisley, we had a pair of Buzzard mating, and also that day there was a Golden Eagle being mobbed by a group of about 15 Chough. Back at home here on the lawn there was pile of black feathers, possibly from one of our Blackbirds that had been a victim of a "birdstrike" IKB

On Sunday, at RSPB Loch Gruinart Reserve, there were 2 Merlin, a male Hen Harrier and over 100 Skylark. The next day, up at Ardnave 32 Chough were seen and also a Peregrine Falcon. We were wondering why the Snow Bunting numbers were declining from 6 to 4 last week, and now down to only 2. Roger Boughton, a sound recordist who was over here working for the BBC, may have solved the problem as he observed a male Merlin taking and eating one of them.

A Sparrowhawk was seen at Gruinart on Tuesday taking a Starling.

Finally, on Wednesday at Gruinart a Canada Goose, Hutchinsii sp was seen. JRH.

Latest goose figures from SNH are, on 27/28 Feb. there were 42,391 Barnacle geese and 6,102 Whitefronts and on 3/4 March there were 37,990 Barnies and 4,879 Whitefronts. Thanks to the team at SNH for these figures.