Tuesday 11th October

Yesterday, Carl had a "comic tern" on Loch Indaal at Gortan. Visitors had been busy too with 2 Black throated Divers, 1 Red throated Diver, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 15 Common Scoter, 25 Bar tailed Godwits and 6 Knot all on Loch Indaal. They had 3 counts of Whooper Swans, 7 flying over Loch Indaal, 6 over Bridgend and a further 22 up at Gruinart. In Bridgend Woods, they had over 25 Robins, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Treecreeper and 10 Long tailed Tits. Thanks folks for your sightings. Today, we welcome back Louise with some birds from down on the Oa today. This morning there had been a count of 47 Whoopers flying out over the Oa heading over to Ireland. Back on land and a Wheatear was seen as were 2 Swallows. 1 Scaup was seen on Loch Kinnabus on the Oa, and a further 37 were seen earlier on Loch Indaal. Louise was telling me that a few weeks ago that a Kingfisher had been seen over at Tarbet on Jura, but she forgot to tell me at the time! This afternoon while we were out we counted 31 Whoopers on the barley stubble at Rockside, a further 36 in the barley waiting to be cut at Sunderland. Over close to Heatherhouse at Port Askaig, a Wheatear was on the roadside, and further on at Ardnahoe there were 12 Red legged Partridges, no doubt released birds! On our way back, in at Loch Skerrols, a Treecreeper was seen and a Kestrel flew overhead. On Skerrols itself there were 27 Whoopers and 23 Mute Swans counted, while on the fields below Octovullin there was a large mixed flock of Barnies, around 150 Whitefronts and a Canada Goose. Back on the Loch, and there was a large raft of Greylags. On one of the trees, a Heron was perched up. Coming back home, the Whoopers were still on the uncut barley field at Sunderland, the lochans at Rockside had 20 and a further 54 were present on the same barley stubble at Rockside. There was a big group of Greylags on the heather behind the lochans at Rockside. There were also some Whitefronts and 7 Barnies on another cut field at Rockside. There was a large number of Barnies present this afternoon at the head of Loch Indaal.