Saturday 12th October

A cold, blustery, rainy day with fairly strong westerly winds at times - not nice!

Being "not nice", there were fewer reports in today. However the topic continued to be migration from the north, with Clive Mc. sending in maps of a tagged Whooper Swan, recorded flying in from Iceland yesterday afternoon, arriving at Gruinart at 7pm. There were at least 24 Whoopers seen by Clive at Gruinart today and the fields around Kilchoman continue to hold large numbers - 155 counted by the Nature Scotland group. Whether this is the same large number that has been in that area for a few days now, or is a continuing change-over of arriving and departing birds, we'll never know.

Other than swans, there was ac count of 7 Little Egrets at Bun-an Uillt from Tom Gifford and the first of winter's Purple sandpipers seen by Ed Burrell at Carraig Fada. Various Hen Harriers were noted, battling the elements, Swallows seen being chased by Sparrowhawks and an impressive total of White-tailed eagles noted by Nature Scotland, with 6 seen across the Sound of Jura from Bunnahabhain, feeding on a strandline carcass with a further 4 on the Islay side. They also noted 10 Redwings at Gruinart, a Brent Goose with Barnies, 2 Gadwall and 450 Golden Plovers also in that area, along with 20 Common Scoter offshore at Bruichladdich. Finally, Clive Mc. counted 100 Twite on the fields at Ballinaby.