Tuesday 25th October

A great night tonight, we had a record turnout at the bird nurds with 20 folk coming, certainly the number was swelled by visitors, but that is what it is all about! Coming home the sky was full with stars and better still were a couple of Barn Owls sitting on fence posts at the side of the road. We had a male Bullfinch just we turned off the road going into Loch Skerrols late afternoon, while Peter and Pia had one just in Bridgend woods up the back of the Hotel. They also had the large flock of Chaffinches in the wood that was present there yesterday, the male Brambling was still with them along with 4 Goldcrest. In the adjacent fields there was mixed flock of around 25 Fieldfares, 65 Redwing and 5 Mistle Thrushes and 5 Song Thrushes. There also saw 40 Brent Geese at the top of Loch Indaal. Visiting birders had seen a female Merlin bathing in a pool beside the "car park" up at Ardnave, while down on the shoreline they had 9 Snow Buntings. Over close to Storakaig they had a mixed flock of 200 Fieldfares and Redwings. Other visitors had a count of 125 Whooper Swans down at Sunderland. Another set of visiting birders had been up at Ardnave too, and had a 32 Chough up towards Ardnave Point itself, along with a flock of 60 Twite. Off Ardnave Point and towards Nave Island they saw 8 Great Northern Diver and 2 Red throated Divers. They had a count of 11 Snow Bunting in a different place to the group of 9. They also saw 3 Bar tailed Godwit at Ardnave Point and also 2 Grey Plover. Down at Traigh Nostaig, 14 Bar tailed Godwit, 4 Grey plover and 12 Turnstone were seen and on their way home they had 2 Hen Harriers close to the former Kilchoman School.