Sunday 15th August

 White-tailed Eagles were still being seen at the top of Loch Indaal this morning - Gary had 3 (2 adults and a juvenile) perched out on the wreck and rocks before heading away later..

Visitors Stu and Angela were out towards Beinn Mhor on The Oa where they had adult and young Golden Eagles plus a couple of Hen Harriers.

(Both eagle species were seen down towards Kildalton by Mary-Ann Featherstone yesterday).

A late afternoon look over Loch Gruinart confirmed that waders were building up as autumn progresses. Amongst large numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover were 50-100 Sanderling, 20 Black-tailed Godwits, 114 Curlew, plenty of Redshank and 5-10 Knot.

Saturday 14th August

Raptors seem very much in evidence at the moment and providing some exciting birdwatching. Fledged young White-tailed Eagles are wandering about with one at Craighouse, Jura on Thursday; another at Kinnabus, plus an adult over The Machrie yesterday seen by visiting birder Fiona Morton. Also yesterday - a Merlin at Craighouse, Jura, while there was a Peregrine over Bowmore High Street.

Today there were 2 Golden Eagles over Kildalton, Hen Harrier harrying Meadow Pipits over the merse at Bridgend and a White-tailed Eagle mobbed by Buzzards at Ballygrant with 2 seen later over towards Ballimartin. Visiting birder Martin Douglas had yet another White-tailed Eagle being mobbed by gulls at Ardfin on Jura. But Gary hit the jackpot with an adult White-tailed Eagle chasing Greylags on Loch Indaal towards Bridgend, then being mobbed by an Osprey. The Osprey later caught a fish, got mobbed by gulls, dropped its prey and had the White-tailed Eagle swoop in and take it off to eat perched on the old wreck in the middle of the sands there..

Waders today included 2 breeding-plumaged Black-tailed godwits at Gartmain on Loch Indaal and a Greenshank at Kinnabus..

Friday 13th August

 

With reference to previous comments on Barn Owl breeding success, Malcolm Ogilvie gives below some more information on the species on Islay.

Malcolm and Mike Peacock monitored Barn Owls on Islay from 1987 to 2000, covering a fair percentage of the island in that time and finding 39 sites with at least 1 bird present in the 14 years. In the last 5 years of the study, they annually checked up to 30 sites, which held 16-17 breeding pairs each year. A total of 393 (42 of them adults) were ringed. Interesting results included movements between sites: a chick from Gortantaoid beyond Killinallan bred at Stremnishmore on the south-east corner of the Oa at one year old. Only 3 recoveries off Islay were two in Argyll and one found dead at 210 km away at Gullane east of Edinburgh – a long way for this species. It was ringed in July and found dead the following March.

Several former sites no longer exist - ruins that have fallen down or been turned back into houses. But there are more recently deserted properties and older barns that could
provide new nest sites.

Malcolm notes that the study ended in 2000 when Mike moved to Oronsay and he was finding that rotten roof joists in the ruins were no longer supporting his weight!

 

Thursday 12th August

 Louise Muir notes that an Osprey was seen daily from 9^th – 11^th August on Jura flying over the small isles as it came and went from Jura to the mainland.

Bird records sent in today include:

• A Great Skua circling over Risabus and Kinnabus from David Dinsley
• Flocks of Meadow Pipits and Goldfinches in fields at Mulreesh and Balulive from Gary Turnbull – indication of autumn migration building up
• Bullfinch, Peregrine and Sparrowhawk at Gruinart from James How
• White-tailed Eagle down at Gleann on the south of the Rhinns from Mary Redman – the first WTE down that way for a while I think?
• Another White-tailed Eagle seen by visitors Stu & Ange (sorry - don't know your surname) flying with a fish in its talons over the hills behind Finlaggan and dropping into the forestry there. They provide a photo below - not bad considering it was over a mile away!

• ·  More raptor action from David Dinsley with 2 Peregrines, a Hen Harrier and Sparrowhawk hunting the build-up of small passerines around Kinnabus this afternoon.

Wednesday 11th August

Following on from the note about Barn Owls on Islay in Monday's blog, John Miles made the following interesting comment:

"Thought your readers would be interested in our records in the North Pennines. For the first year ever we recorded a nil return for breeding in 2021. 2020 was a vole year with large numbers of young creating exceptional numbers of pairs in spring 2021.With the vole collapse and little else in the form of mice, rats or shrews, It seems the pairs just said 'not this year'!"

It would be interesting to know what percentage of our resident Barn Owl population on Islay have had a successful breeding season.

A day trip to Colonsay and Oronsay today produced a couple of dark phase Arctic Skuas flying along together between Islay and Jura as the ferry steamed north towards Colonsay. Is there a chance that there is still the occasional pair breeding on Jura? On Oronsay a pair of Great Skuas was seen  wheeling around the island at various times.

Monday 9th August

 Little to report today - a day of mixed sunshine and stormy showers. Birding on the east (Killiinallan) side of Loch Gruinart indicated good numbers of migrant waders on the move: many hundreds of Dunlin along with plenty of Redshank, Ringed Plovers, a few Curlews with well-developed fledged young, a handful of Golden Plover, Sanderling, both godwit species and single Greenshank. A count of the masses of Greylags on the exposed flats totalled 680+.

Notes came in of Barn Owls seen recently in several widespread locations across the island including the successful pair in Ian and Margaret Brooke's owl box - all a reminder of a hopefully still healthy population of the species on Islay.

Sunday 8th August

 

The only bird note coming in today was from Gary Turnbull who had a very high count of 34 Mistle Thrushes on the telephone lines at Ballygrant today.

Yesterday's tern photo has been confirmed as a juvenile Common Tern by our local Argyll "Seagull Supremo" Jim Dickson.