Saturday 25th October

A quite cold day with a good breeze from the north and occasional, sometimes quite heavy rain showers between bright sunshine.

Late news from yesterday was from Neil McMahon who saw a Barn Owl near Cluanach. Neil also provided a couple of splendid pictures of his Naturetrek group's Otters from Jura yesterday. This one of an Otter eating an octopus is particularly interesting.

More arrivals and passage of Whooper Swans was noted to day with David W. seeing 15 south over The Oa, and I counted 12 at Bridgend Merse while looking for a mystery wader seen all too briefly by Martin A. and described as about the size of a Redshank but with bright yellow legs. The obvious thought was that it might be a Lesser Yellowlegs and coincidentally one turned up just to our south on Rathlin Island. While looking for the wader there was a flash of blue and orange from the resident Kingfisher and 2 White-tailed Eagles squabbling out on the sands over a bit of unidentified carrion. Clive McK. also took a look for the wader, again with no luck, but a good count for Loch Indaal of 10 Greenshank. Clive had earlier seen a Mealy/Common-type Redpoll in his garden at Creag Mhor.

Later into the day and David W. reports a Garden Warbler at Kinnabus - a scarce bird on Islay, the last in 2022, though easily overlooked. Mary R. had a Merlin chasing Snipe at Port Wemyss, and Billy Stitchell was busy taking brilliant photos of Crossbills at Cluanach and a lovely Redwing in his garden at Caol Ila.

Neil McMahon got Bird of the Day, finding 2 Waxwings (the first since 2023) near Lagavulin this morning where 2 White-tailed Eagles were also noted, then a good runner-up of 2 Pochard on Loch Skerrols this afternoon, where there were 60 Tufted Ducks and a female Scaup. In other wanderings today his group found 2 Great Northern Divers at Claggain Bay, and 2 more along with 4 Red-throated Divers, 9 Slavonian Grebes, 30 Common Scoters, 64 Red-breasted Mergansers and 2-3 Great Skuas in the mouth of Loch Indaal harassing the gulls.