Sunday 7th July

Gary had seen a juvenile  Golden Eagle at Finlaggan yesterday. A trip along to Avenvogie later on in search of the Golden Oriole, proved fruitless, but he did have 3 Hen Harriers (2 M + 1F) . On his way home along the Glen road, Gary had another Golden Eagle. In at Finlaggan today, Gary had another 3 Hen Harriers, again 2 males and a female.

Earlier on this evening, I watched a program (a repeat...) about Fair Isle on the TV, still it was good to see it again,  it rekindled some memories, needless to say...

Saturday 6th July

The last couple of mornings, while out walking his dogs, Distillery Dave has been hearing a Corncrake calling down towards the wee lochans at the Rockside road end.
This morning over big crag up at Kilchoman, he saw 3 Peregrines out on the wing, with one of the birds being very vocal. Dave also saw a Fulmar out on the wing up there as well.

Friday 5th July

Some sightings in from some folk who are over on Islay on holiday this week....

Karen, David and Daniel Wrigley from Hitchin in Hertfordshire had heard 2 Corncrakes calling when down on the Oa on Monday, but did not manage to see them. Yesterday, they watched an Osprey fishing it at Finlaggan. It had also been annoying the Oystercatchers there as well...

Yesterday afternoon, Sandra and Ian Hardy had seen a male Golden Oriole down towards Avenvogie.

Thursday 4th July

Ann Barr had heard a Corncrake calling up at Rockside the other night...

Al Hart had  a great close sighting of a pair of Whitethroats between Portnahaven and Port Wemyss today. Apologies to Al as I misunderstood his e mail relating to the number of  Arctic Terns that he had seen on MacKenzie Island, should have read 12 pairs not 24  pairs, still we can but hope...

Wednesday 3rd July

Returning visitors from the best part of 10 years since their last visit, Sian and Bob Horn had been over on Jura yesterday, where they saw 5 R Bb Merganser, several pairs of Mute Swans and also a Heron. Over at Gruinart they had seen a Shoveler.
Al Hart is over on Islay at present for a few days. Down on Mackenzie Island, off Portnahaven, he estimated there to be at least 24 pairs of Arctic Terns present with another 2 pair seen on neighbouring Orsay Island. Al also commented on seeing a continuous passage of Gannets and also Manx Shearwaters flying past as well. He has been hearing many Sedge Warblers down around  Portnahaven.

Tuesday 2nd July

Another possible reason for not many sightings coming through was that the weather turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag with some showers of rain in the mix..., oops!!!! (and possibly that "us birders" do not like to go birding when the weather is not so great...)

Monday 1st July

Apologies folks for not having any entries on the blog since Thursday, the reason is really quite simple, and no,  it was nothing to do with my laptop but simply that nobody had sent in any sightings through....

Gary, had a reported sighting of a Spotted Flycatcher seen the other day sitting on the Kilchoman cross. Yesterday, James had seen some Red Grouse  while out for a walk when out over towards the Sound of Islay