Sunday 3nd December

An overcast morning, brightening a little by midday, and mild. Not a lot to report today, but David D. had a Lesser Black-backed Gull in the gull roost at Cornabus, a migrant species which is very unusual here from about November to February. It breeds here in summer but recently in much reduced numbers, just 28 pairs were found in the last seabird count in 2018/19, compared with 184 pairs in 2000 and no less than 740 pairs in 1986/87, which only covered the main colonies.  The reason for this dramatic decline appears to lie elsewhere, not on Islay.

I joined Clive McKay during the morning, ageing geese in the Gruinart area, finding 91 young in 1008 Barnacles (9.0%) and 7 in 172 Whitefronts (4.0%). The 7 were made up of a brood of 5 and two broods of 1. It's interesting that, in what is a poor breeding year, a few pairs nevertheless do well, remembering that Ed Burrell had a brood of 6 at Cornabus back in October. In a good breeding year there can be a few broods of 7, while the maximum for the Barnacle is 4.

Here are two family photos to show what we were looking for. Ageing Barnacle Geese is all about the wing coverts, the adults' being neat and parallel, the young much less so. Young Whitefronts have no black belly bars, unlike the adults, but gradually acquire the white "front" through the winter.