Two days of Storm Kathleen, that for us on Islay at times seemed more like a "storm in a teacup! There were some strong winds at times and some of the ferry crossings cancelled, but it didn't seem that bad, plus it was pleasantly mild and quite sunny at times. A bunch of summer migrants arrived. But before talking of summer arrivals there was mention from Malcolm O. about departing winter birds, a.k.a. Barnacle Geese. He sent in this weather map of Storm Kathleen suggesting that it produced ideal conditions (strong winds from a southerly direction) for Barnacle Geese to depart Islay and arrive in Iceland with barely a flap of their wings! His thoughts were confirmed by his goose contact in Sligo, Eire who noted that a lot of Barnacles departed 2-3 days ago, confirmed by a couple of satellite-tagged birds.
But what of summer visitors? Yesterday Linden saw Sand Martins at Gruinart (plus 15 Back-tailed Godwits). David Dinsley had Swallow and WillowWarbler at Kinnabus, plus 2 Swallows at Emerivale. Gary T. posted that "a birder" was in the bar at Port Charlotte hotel saying they had heard a Corn Crake yesterday at Conisby. This would certainly be in the right place, but would be the earliest ever by 4 days according to my notes saying that there were no April arrival dates noted until the late 1990s, but these are annual since 2003, with four dates from 9 to 12 April, all since 2010. To round things off, Alistair saw 2 Sandwich Terns at Bowmore
Bill Bealey, newly arrived for a visit to the island, counted 80 Oystercatchers roosting on the long strand near the Machrie.
Today there have been more migrants - Ed Burrell had a single Swallow at Cornabus in the morning with 8 there plus the first House Martin on Islay this year in the afternoon. David D. had 2 Swallows at Kinnabus plus the year's first Cuckoos - two of them, both quite early, but not the earliest - (photo below) and Ella Simpson had more Swallows between Beinn Dubh and loch Leathann.
Malcolm O. noted the first Linnet on his bird feeders at Bruichladdich in a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment