Sunday 5th October 

Storm Amy slowly moved away overnight and today, leaving behind a brighter day with some sunshine and a few showers, but with continuing strong to galeforce NW winds which brought lots more geese.

As people woke up and got out soon after 09.00, more migration was noted, with David D. seeing 8 Whoopers over Kinnabus, and Clive McK. noting 138 Barnacle Geese coming into Gruinart from the NW in the previous hour, mostly in small flocks of 5-10. Also, 26 Common Snipe in a single flock, which is sizeable for that species. Meanwhile, at Kilnaughton, Dan Brown, in the hour up to 09.30, had 3 flocks of Barnacles going north and 4 flocks of Whooper Swans totalling 20 birds heading south. Very soon after, Patrick Styles on Oronsay reported hundreds of Barnacles, mostly in small groups of 10/20 birds, and some small flocks of Whoopers, heading for Gruinart, a movement which was picked up by Clive as 200+ Barnacles arrived there soon after, followed in the couple of hours by at least 1000 more, likely coming from further north. At 11.25, David D. saw a female Merlin at Kinnabus, followed an hour later by the first 15 Greenland Whitefronts arriving there. Summarising his Gruinart counts up to 12.45, Clive reported 2267 Barnacles, 2 Greylags, 21 Whoopers, 12 Red-breasted Mergansers, the 26 Common Snipe, 4 divers, and a Merlin. Still in the morning, Fiona McG. saw a Wheatear at Port Wemyss.

In the afternoon, Teresa Morris was back at Ardnave seeing a ringtail Hen Harrier by the loch and 8 Sanderlings, 13 Ringed Plovers, 5 Oystercatchers, 13 Bar-tailed Godwits and 15 Choughs on the east side of the point, while Ed B., at Cornabus, reported 2 Shovelers, 1 Jack Snipe, 2 White-tailed Eagles and 30 Whoopers. 

James visited Gruinart around 15:30 and counted 16,630 Barnacles, 385 Whitefronts, 1 Pinkfoot, 55 Whoopers and 9 Greenshank on the floods. Later on, Dan Brown had slightly lower goose counts, but then birds were arriving and moving on all the time, with an estimated 13,000 Barnacles, 1 Pinkfoot, 335 Greenland Whitefronts, 48 Whoopers on or flying south over the flats, 2 ringtail and 2 male Hen Harriers, a juvenile peregrine on a kill, a Water Rail calling below the visitor centre, 2 Curlew Sandpipers on the sand, 6 Greenshanks on the floods and no less than 9 Little Egrets, 5 on the floods and 4 on the merse. Also in the evening, Teresa saw 12 whoopers on Craigens farm stubbles.

Marc Eden didn't repeat his seawatch at Sanaig, though large auks, Kittiwakes and Gannets were moving past in reduced numbers and mostly a lot further out than yesterday. He noted 6 Leach's Petrels early on, then found the Pectoral Sandpiper with 40 Golden Plover at Ballinaby at midday. He then toured the island (but no further south than the Avenvogie bridge on the High Road), and found over 120 Whooper Swans on the ground/water including a dozen in a stubble field near the highest point of the Glen Road. 

Compared with yesterday, noticeably fewer seabirds were seen moving by all observers.

David D. heard from a chum at WWT that a satellite-tagged Whooper Swan had been clocked travelling at 101 mph at one point yesterday, and that it took 8 hours to travel from Iceland to Northern Ireland, the shortest possible distance being c.670 miles. This brought to mind the famous observation back in December 1967 when an air traffic controller in Northern Ireland saw a radar echo from a flock of birds to the north-west of Islay flying at c.27,000 feet and travelling south at c. 85 mph. In order to check this out, he diverted a nearby aircraft to take a closer look (!) and the pilot reported a flock of c.30 swans. The meteorological data at the time revealed that the swans were in the jetstream which was reaching 115 mph, but more astoundingly the temperature was minus 48 degrees Celcius while, at that height, there is only about 40% of the oxygen at ground level, which speaks volumes about the physiological capabilities of these birds. Colin Pennycuick, an expert on bird flight, pondering about the effort required for the swans to climb to that height, suggested that, perhaps, when sitting on the ground in Iceland, they could actually hear the jetstream, which would give them such a tremendous boost on their migration. His calculations on wingloading and weight of birds had suggested that the Whooper Swan was close to the largest size that a bird could be to successfully fly the distance from Iceland to the British Isles and so would need all the help from the weather that it could get.

After that digression, here's a photograph from Billy Stitchell of Whooper Swans which have successfully arrived feeding on a stubble at Storokaig.