Monday 6th October

A quieter day in every way, the wind mainly from the W or S having dropped a lot, plus an occasional shower.

Little goose and swan movement was in evidence, though plenty of other observations were received, for which thank you, as always. Dan Brown started the day off with an adult and juvenile White-tailed Eagle coming in from the east over Kilnaughton bay and heading off SSW along the coast. Soon afterwards, David D. reported 10 Whooper Swans on Loch Kinnabus, including one juvenile, and a Merlin was busy hunting finches there, while Clive McK. had 2 Icelandic Redwings and a Chiffchaff at his home on the west side of Loch Gruinart.

Mid-morning, Dan was at Ballinaby where he refound the juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper back in same field as before but all by itself, commenting that it hasn’t been there the last four days! He also counted over 50 Skylarks in a stubble field. He then spent his time counting the birds at Loch Indaal, where he had 2 adult WTEs, 3 Greenshanks, a  Blackcap calling from scrub in the NE corner, 1 Golden Eagle flying over, 7 Whooper Swans and 4 Tufted Ducks, while at Loch Gruinart there was a Grey Plover on the estuary, 3 Gadwall on the floods, 1 juvenile Pale-bellied Brent on the Flats with the Barnacles and 1, perhaps 2, male Hen Harriers. Still at Gruinart, Teresa Morris watched a flock of 64 lapwing over the floods.

At the other end of the island, somewhat neglected of late, David Hunter found 2 Black-throated Divers off Claggain Bay around lunchtime, while Dan, back at Kilnaughton in the afternoon, had the other two divers, Great Northern and Red-throated, in the bay. David D. saw a juvenile WTE, 2 Swallows and 11 Chough at Kintra, and Teresa was on the east side of Loch Gruinart towards Killinallan seeing 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Curlews, 24 Barnacle Geese heading south (the only movement seen today), 2 Cormorants, 1 ringtail Hen Harrier, 5 Little Egrets, 1 Redshank, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Kittiwakes, and 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Later in the afternoon, Dan saw a Carrion Crow plus a hybrid Common X Hooded on the Gruinart flats, and 2 Peregrines were spotted, one at Cornabus seen by Ed B. and one at Kinnabus seen by David D.

After mentioning Whooper Swans migrating at speed yesterday, over the weekend, a Barnacle Goose tagged in Iceland was measured flying this way at 93 mph (or 150 kph, which somehow seems much faster in those units!). 

Here's a superb photograph of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Ballinaby photographed by Dan on the last day here of his present visit. Thanks Dan, and for all your sightings.