Thursday 14th January

 A much better day with the weather again, with not a lot of rain falling compared to yesterday.. having said that it has just started to rain outside again, spoke too soon....

Some birds through from James, all from yesterday included the following.... 2 Goosanders seen down on the burn at Uiskentuie, 2 Merlins seen over the flats at Gruinart with the Little Egret and also a Greenshank present out on the estuary at Gruinart.

This afternoon, Margaret and myself went down on to Machir Bay for a constitutional walk as the weather was up for it.... the only bird spotted was a Hooded Crow

Wednesday 13th January

Well, many thanks are due to Peter who came to my rescue earlier on today, a simple tweak on various bits and bobs on the pc and once again all going well it  has enabled me to access my emails again. I should say that it was Pia that actually solved the problem not Peter, many thanks...

Back on Monday, I should have got this e mail through from Karen Graham, but because of my pc I only received it through late this afternoon, apologies to Karen, my fault...

"Watching a Treecreeper earlier and the Nuthatch. Wet and sometimes windy day. Such a change from the sun and snow."

Yesterday, Peter had walked up past Killinallan to Gortantoid, a round trip of around 6 mles or so, but he at least had seen a Greenshank while out.... This morning, just before lunchtime he saw a pesky Sparrowhawk up here.

 I spoke to James, just after 9pm last night, and he gave some birds for the blog...

"2 Slavonian Grebes seen down on Loch Indaal, a Little Egret, a Peregrine Falcon, a White tailed Eagle and also a Sparrowhawk all seen on/over the reserve at Gruinart." 

Tuesday 12th January

Another "light day" on the bird front as I am unable to get my emails to work, not receiving any, nor am I able to send out any to folk either, so if you have any birds seen, feel free to give us a shout on the phone...

Looking out mid afternoon, and we had a Buzzard perched upon one of the poles that bring us our electricity to us here. Then just after 4 pm, Margaret saw a juv. Golden Eagle flying along the front of the crag, great to see it before it veered up one of the gullies...

Monday 11th January

 Not much on the bird front on the blog at least, and I have to put it down to 2 completely diffrent reasons... Firstly, the weather has not been that great out here today, not leading to many birds being seen and the second possible reason is that the old pc  could be starting to play up as I have not reeived any e mails through from anybody since lunchtime...

But one peson, Peter was in touch before "lockdown" to say that David Dinsdale had a Snow Bunting seen down at Kinnabus, on the Oa, today...

Sunday 10th January

James was in touch with some birds seen over at Gruinart... 

Yesrerday, he had seen the Little Egret and then today James had a White tailed Eagle seen out on the wing over the reserve. In his garden he saw a couple of Long tailed Tits on his feeders and shortly afterwards he saw a Treecreeper on one of his trees in his garden.

Saturday 9th January

 Peter kindly sent me through some sightings, so here we go...

• Thursday: found a female Velvet Scoter dead on the beach towards Uiskentuie
• Friday: did a cycle ride around Loch Gorm and noticed 220 Golden Plover in a field at Ballinaby
• Saturday: Fiona McGillivray saw a Red Kite over Conisby this morning & Dave Dinsley reports seeing  a Snow Bunting in Kinnabus farmyard, down on the Oa, this afternoon.

Friday 8th January

Well, the bitterly cold weather is still here, but thankfully no snow here as of yet, out on the West coast of Islay, with the pond still with a skin of ice on it yet, not sure how thick it is, but I am not going to test it out, no comments please!!!

This morning, we had a Buzzard sitting on top of the old church next door to us, makes a change from the noisy Ravens!!!! This evening, we had a Barn Owl sitting down outside in the garden for a couple of minutes before flying off to look for something for it to eat. Around midday, I saw a Woodcock on the road between Rockside and Sunderland Farm, and no I did not hit it, as it was reluctant to move off the road... Old story, right place, right time, me driving too!!!