Friday 28th November 

The overnight southwest gale and a few heavy squalls continued all morning, gradually moderating in the afternoon. The ferry and the plane stayed at home in the morning, but birders were out.

Mike Boothman was in the southeast in the morning seeing a ring-tail Hen Harrier at Ardilistry and he also flushed a woodcock from woods near Ardmore House. I was driving the Glen Road and near Cluanach counted a flock of c.520 Rock Doves in a grass field, along with some sheep and 83 Greenland Whitefronts. The Rock Doves were feeding in a tight flock in the shelter of some trees and my count was a minimum because of the lie of the ground. The field was fairly shaggy and the doves were presumably feeding on grass and other seeds which must have been quite plentiful. This is one of the larger flocks recorded on the island, beaten by 800 and 600 in 2007, with the 800 at the same location. There is no estimate of how many pairs breed on Islay, but this number suggests a gathering from a considerable part of the island.

Just before midday, Clive McK counted 61 Curlew, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits and 1 Black-tailed Godwit feeding on pasture at Garra-Eallabus on the side of Loch Gruinart, noting that one of the Curlew had a droopy left wing and was presumably the same bird which was present in the area all last winter.

In the early afternoon, Mike Boothman was still near Ardmore House, at Port Mor (not the one on the Rinns), watching a Great Northern Diver, a Black Guillemot and 2 female Goldeneye, also seeing another Woodcock. Jonathan Dolbear at the same site a little later on reported that the diver was accompanied by an otter!

The choice of a photograph for today is a pretty obvious one, taken by Gordon Langsbury.