Saturday 20th October

A great day out here, but this evening the temperature is dropping, could we be in for a touch of frost? Highlight for today must certainly be the sighting briefly of a flock of over 20 Snow Buntings up in the dunes behind Killinallan by the Bolton Birders. On Traigh an Aonghais they had 85 Sanderling and also 64 Ringed Plover, back towards the Killinallan gate there were 20 Turnstone, 3 Greenshank along with Oystercatcher and Curlew. Also behind the dunes was a ringtail Hen Harrier being mobbed by 2 Buzzards. The Whoopers were still in the same field down at Sunderland, but not so many, along with a large number of Barnacle Geese. Danny from the Teme Valley arrived yesterday for the week and had a Barn Owl in the car headlights over at Erasaid, this morning over at Ballinaby he watched a Golden Eagle fly along beside above only 50 metres or so up! Tonight, another Barn Owl but over at the former Kilchoman School towards Gruinart. Other new visitors in for the week this afternoon counted 103 Whoopers down at Sunderland, with other birds round Loch Gorm seen were 9 Buzzard, 1 Peregrine, 1 Merlin, 1 female Sparrowhawk and 15 Redwing. James last night had a Stoat cross the road at theGaelic college just outside Bowmore, and today he had 3 Siskins on the reserve at Gruinart. Peter today was commenting on the large group of Greylags loitering around at Gortan at the head of Loch Indaal.  Peter counted 520 in all and wondered whether they were just grouping up  before heading off.. He also had a single red legged Partridge at Killinallan. Yesterday Andrew G from Lancashire had a pr of Pintail at Gartmain, pr of Dipper at The Woolen Mill and a Kestrel at Gearach. Martin had seen a Barn Owl the other night as he was walking his dog down close to the airport at Glenegedale and has seen several small flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare passing through as well as 20 Whoopers flying on towards Ireland. He has also had a Brambling on his feeders! The Stewartry SOC group yesterday had 20 Redwing and 2 Mistle Thrushes close to Finlaggan, a female Kestrel up towards Bunnahabhain with a flock of 60 Fieldfare being flushed by a Sparrowhawk at Cattadale. On Thursday, over on Jura, they saw 2 Golden Eagle, 2 Hen Harrier (1 male and 1 ringtail), 1 Peregrine, 1 Kestrel, 11 Buzzards, "large numbers of Redwing and some Fieldfare passing through", 1 Otter, many Red Deer. One of their group had kept a list of wild flowers in bloom, 37 in all, not bad for late October...Yesterday The Leigh birders had 1 male Brambling along with a female Reed Bunting amongst a flock of Chaffinch up past Avonvogie, with a Coal Tit shortly afterwards. Continuing on along the "Glen road" they had several groups of both Fieldfare and Redwing along the fields on the roadside. A male Kestrel was seen past Heatherhouse on the way to Bunnahabhain where they had some more Redwing and also 5 Mistle Thrushes. Back overlooking Loch Indaal from the power station, 2 GND and 3 RTD were seen as well as 40 Whoopers out on Loch Indaal.