Mostly sunny, but a few blustery showers with a westerly airstream.
Yesterday Gary T. commented on the first flocks of finches gathering for the autumn - a mix of over 100 around Gartbreck including Goldfinches, Linnets and Chaffinches. He also counted along the shore at Gartbreck from the dump to the farm: 79 Shags, 11 Cormorants, 80 Greylags, 3 Eider, 17 Curlew, 4 Whimbrel, 10 Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 83 Ringed Plovers, 21 Dunlin, 30 Sanderling and 7 Turnstone, 6 Greater Black-backed, 1 Lesser Black-backed, 19 Herring and 23 Common Gulls.
A later count at Machir Bay by Clive McK. produced 70 more Ringed Plovers and 40 Sanderlings. He also had a group of 8 Choughs (commenting that these didn't include any young fledged this year) couple of Sparrowhawks and a female Marsh Harrier over the Gruinart/Loch Gorm road. Earlier there were 18 Arctic Terns up at Loch Gruinart along with a single Golden Plover and 2 Knot.
Down at Cladville, Alistair Hart watched a ring-tail Hen Harrier braving the windy conditions.
Today Gary T. reported a male Hen Harrier near Finlaggan and 2 Golden Eagles on the Glen Road below Beinn Dubh and Clive McK. did an afternoon sea-watch from Frenchman's Rocks for a little over 3 hours from about 3pm. The more interesting observations were 40 Whimbrel and 16 Lesser Black-backed Gulls passing by and 12 Storm Petrels with 693 Manxies too.
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