Friday 23rd October

Mike Hill sent his birds seen on Wednesday and also yesterday 

Weds 21st

A Chiffchaff briefly early morning in the trees next to the burn besides our cottage. A White -tailed Eagle flew in inland over Machir Bay. Along the road to Saligo Bay, in amongst the Barnacle Geese, were 8 Whooper Swans, 2 Pink-footed Geese and a Canada Goose. It looks like it wasn't the Cackling Goose so could be the Todd's Canada Goose that has been around. At Loch Gruinart were lots of Pintail, c200 Golden Plover, 2 Grey Plover, 4 Greenshank, a flock of Sanderling and all the usual geese. Back at Machir Bay late afternoon there were 59 Ringed Plover with 4 Sanderling for company, 40 Curlew flew over, 24 Whooper Swans came from the SW and at least 2 GNDs on the sea. There were other divers but the sea was quite choppy and only had binoculars with us.

Thurs 22nd

At Machir Bay between 0800 and 0900. A Peregrine flew over, 21 Whooper Swans, 3 Shelduck, a flock of c15 Twite landed near me briefly and out at sea, 15+ Gannets went north and 2 Shearwater sp went south very distantly. At our cottage a small flock of Siskins went over east and 36 Whooper Swans went SW. Along the road to Loch Indaal was a single female Brambling in with the large Chaffinch flock. On Loch Indaal were 12 Red-throated,1 Black and  at least 2 Great Northern Divers along with several Common Scoter and 8 Eider. 20+ Whooper Swans flew along the far side of the loch. Down at Portnahaven/Port Wemyss were 2White-tailed Eagles, and adult and a juvenile. According to a local birder they had been around a while taking advantage of the pupping Grey Seals. A Merlin went low over to Orsay. Back at the cottage late afternoon was a single Golden Eagle off to the east which was mobbed by a Peregrine before drifting over towards Loch Gorm.

Steve Percival sent me through this e mail last night..."Another Cackling goose up at Eorrabus this morning, and 2 cracking W T Eagles on the shore at Bridgend"

Also yesterday, Richard had seen the albino/ leucistic Common Gull down on Machir Bay in the morning. At Bruichladdich, Richard had a Tystie, a Gannet, some Eider and he saw 7 RTDs as well. Over at Blackrock, Richard counted 50 Common Scoter. Peter in the afternoon had also seen the albino/ leucistic Common Gull down on Machir Bay as well.

Eddie and Elaine yesterday had seen the Wood Sandpiper out from the North hide yesterday

The Hoopoe was seen in the Bridgend are again yesterday, by whom I do not know..

David Wood was in touch with some birds counted down on the Oa...

"Rough estimate of 400 Redwing around the Oa yesterday.

We’ve had a bit of a count this afternoon and had 1670 today, real total will be much higher, this was from just 4 different groups. Also 350 Fieldfare today. Merlin present as well. "

James had also noted seeing a movement of Redwings at Gruinart yesterday and today he had counted

"White fronted geese 412. Didn’t count the Barnies

 Golden Plover, a flock of 1315 on the Flats

Teal 1555 on Floods

Linnets a flock of 295 on one of the bird crops"

Lesley today had the Wood Sandpiper  at the North Hide.

Monday 28th September

Peter today had counted over 250 Linnets on the barley stubbles at Kilchoman today, along with 4 Yellowhammers, but no sign of the Tree Sparrows..

Gary had gone to see if he had any joy in finding the Hoopoe, but no luck.. instead had seen a Grey Wagtail in a similar area to where the Hoopoe had been seen. Round at Bridgend, he counted over 200 Barnies  with 79 Pale bellied Brents along at Gartmain.

George E. Jackson had seen 7 Fieldfares down about half a mile after Sunderland towards Foreland.

This evening ,we have been watching several large skeins of Greylags as they flew out to their roost.

Friday 27th June

Yesterday, the Horwich birders had heard some Corncrakes calling, one down near to the Coastguard cottages and a further 2 up beyond Saligo. They recalled that back in 1988, up on the cliffs at the "Opera House Rocks" there were thousands of Razorbills and Fulmars present, in 2009, only a few hundred and yesterday just a handful in total. Young Lapwings were seen in a field at Saligo, with post breeding flocks starting to gather with 26 together at Coull and 12 round at Ballinaby. A flock of 22 Linnets were present near to Saligo. There were 8 Sedge warblers seen between Coull and Saligo along the roadside both as individual and family groups, 2 Stonechat families were seen on the same stretch. Today, Bob heard a Snipe drumming outside his house.

Friday 30th March

Certainly back to wearing another layer of clothing to keep warm today, to think that less than a week ago I cut the grass, several of our Spring migrants have been seen already. On the positive side of it all, at least it has been dry and the ground is drying up and the farmers are getting a chance to get the ploughing done. Earlier in the week, Bob had walked in to Loch Cam and Feur lochans and had seen 1 Goldeneye, 8 Teal, 10 Mallard, 2 Snipe (one of which was chipping), 10 Lapwing, 12 Oystercatcher, several singing Skylarks, Meadow Pipits singing too, 30 Common Gull on nesting territory, 6 Greater Black backed Gull, a "murder" of 20 Ravens. He also had 21 Whoopers flying North up Loch Indaal. Back at his home, Bob had 4 Linnets, the first he has had for some time.

Tues 12th October

Still no sign of the invasion of Barnacle Geese, tomorrow is another day, we all wait in anticipation...

Michal had carried out a count on the floods out in front of the hide at Gruinart yesterday. The tally was as follows, 381 Teal, 95 Wigeon, 64 Mallard, 23 Shoveler, 2 Pintail, 3 Whitefronted Geese and a Little Grebe. On the flats there was a small flock of 13 Golden Plover, and round at Craigens there were 120 Linnets.