Wed 18th Aug

Malcolm yesterday evening had 3 Whimbrel fly past Bruichladdich. In the morning on the foreshore at Bruichladdich, George had a count of 110 Common Gulls including 15 juvenile birds. There were also 2 juvenile Black headed Gulls with them. In the afternoon, the count for the Common Gulls had risen to 181 with 15 Juveniles, only 1 Black headed gull and also 6 Greater black backed Gulls of which 4 were juveniles. At George's house, the House Martins are on their second brood.

Bob had seen a pair of Wigeon with young down at Gartmain today. Wigeon do remain here on Islay all year, but it is not often that we observe juvenile birds. James had a count of 115 Linnets on the overhead wires at Grainel this afternoon.

Tues 14th Oct

Guess who came to the bird table this morning, yes, a Common Gull caught on camera by Malcolm. He said that he often has the odd Herring Gull visiting, but a Common Gull does not frequent his bird table that often!

Yesterday, Malcolm had seen 4 Arctic Terns, 40 Common Scoter, ( there were only about 20 a fortnight ago), 3 Great Northern Diver and a single Red throated Diver. MAO

Also yesterday, Catherine had 50 Whooper Swan in total, flying over Gruinart on their way South.

Another entry from the Cheshire folk who are making the most of this spell of better weather. They had been out looking over Loch Indaal today and saw 4 Great Northern Diver, 5 Red throated Diver, 7 Slavonian Grebe, 5 Brent Geese, 18 Whooper Swan, 26 Common Scoter (off Blackrock), 25 Scaup (Blackrock too), a group of around 300 Golden Plover that were flying around, and only 2 Arctic Terns at Bruichladdich. In the Bridgend area they had a Canada Goose fly over, and up at The Woolen Mill on the River Sorn they had a Dipper. They did not see any Swallows at all while they were out today.

Back here at home this afternoon, they had 12 Long tailed Tits in the wood along with both Great and Blue Tits on the feeders.