Monday 14th & Tuesday 15th October

Monday was a fine sunny dry day. Tuesday was blustery, cloudy and occasionally threatening rain. Winds from a generally southerly direction.

Nothing too out of the ordinary has been posted in the last two days. On Monday Jackie Wedd saw 7 Little Egrets, 30-40 Twite and 3 Greenshanks  at and around Killinallan and the Nature Scotland group posted Black-tailed Godwit, 3 White-tailed Eagles at Gruinart.

Today Gary T. was on Machir Bay where 200 Barnacle Geese had settled with the various gulls, a few Sanderling and 30 Ringed Plovers and 17 Twite. Later he noted White-tailed Eagle, Merlin, Hen Harrier and Buzzards at Gruinart. Down at Cornabus Ed Burrell saw a particularly large female Peregrine chasing Barnacle Geese.

I was down at the Gruinart hides in the mid-afternoon enjoying the many thousands of Barnacle Geese accompanied by 2 Pink-footed Geese. The White-tailed Eagle (immature) passed by and later at Ardnave Loch a young Golden Eagle was seen.

Sunday 13th October

Winds went round to a more southerly direction today, but still quite cold. A calm dryish start turned into a slightly more breezy at times afternoon with occasional rain.

The Nature Scotland group kicked things off with a look over Loch Indaal from Blackrock this morning when the seas were nice and calm making counts easier. They had the first good count of Slavonian Grebes this winter with a total of 26 birds, plus 12 Long-tailed Ducks, 38 Red-throated Divers, 46 Red-breasted Mergansers, 11 Brent Geese and a whopping 200 Common Scoter. In contrast there was just on lonely Scaup and a couple of Great Northern Divers. They also had 2 Otters a Peregrine and 8 Twite.

Mary Redman was down t Kilchoman and counted 29 Ringed Plovers on the sandy dune fields adjacent to Machir Bay, while up at Gruinart Clive Mc. counted 11 Little Egrets - the highest count for the species on Islay so far I believe (the previous highest being 10 last November).

Nature Scotland ventured down to The Oa later in the day scoring 2 Merlins, 2 adult and a juv Golden Eagle and 12 Twite. Looking on the Big Strand down at Kintra they found 19 Re-throated Divers and another Slav. Grebe. Not hanging about, they later found a Kingfisher on the River Sorn at Bridgend  before finishing at Gruinart where a Golden Eagle was hunting Barnies.

Saturday 12th October

A cold, blustery, rainy day with fairly strong westerly winds at times - not nice!

Being "not nice", there were fewer reports in today. However the topic continued to be migration from the north, with Clive Mc. sending in maps of a tagged Whooper Swan, recorded flying in from Iceland yesterday afternoon, arriving at Gruinart at 7pm. There were at least 24 Whoopers seen by Clive at Gruinart today and the fields around Kilchoman continue to hold large numbers - 155 counted by the Nature Scotland group. Whether this is the same large number that has been in that area for a few days now, or is a continuing change-over of arriving and departing birds, we'll never know.

Other than swans, there was ac count of 7 Little Egrets at Bun-an Uillt from Tom Gifford and the first of winter's Purple sandpipers seen by Ed Burrell at Carraig Fada. Various Hen Harriers were noted, battling the elements, Swallows seen being chased by Sparrowhawks and an impressive total of White-tailed eagles noted by Nature Scotland, with 6 seen across the Sound of Jura from Bunnahabhain, feeding on a strandline carcass with a further 4 on the Islay side. They also noted 10 Redwings at Gruinart, a Brent Goose with Barnies, 2 Gadwall and 450 Golden Plovers also in that area, along with 20 Common Scoter offshore at Bruichladdich. Finally, Clive Mc. counted 100 Twite on the fields at Ballinaby.

Friday 11th October

A very different day to yesterday with heavy, cold rain showers intermittently throughout the day on winds from the west.

It was another day with lots of sightings of Whooper Swans across Islay. 15 seen near Port Ellen by David Protherough this morning and I counted 20 at the top of Loch Indaal in late morning. At lunchtime Clive Mc. was up at Rockside where 120 were on the barley field stubbles.

Gary T. had a couple of Little Egrets from thew Whin Park lay-by on Loch Indaal. Over at Cornabus, Ed Burrell had 33 Greenland White-fronts and the Naturetrek group watched Peregrine, Merlin and a White-tailed Eagle at Bridgend - the eagle sat deciding which of the many geese there to annoy (the eagle tally increasing to the usual two later, seen by Jackie Wedd). Back at Gruinart, Clive Mc. counted 410 Golden Plovers on Loch Gruinart and Gary T. reported further Swallow sightings (6 at Bruichladdich Distillery) and a Hen Harrier chasing Teal at Bridgend Merse.

I twitched the Ring-necked Duck on Loch Skerrols in the afternoon, while the Nature Scotland team again scored "Bird of the Day" with the first sighting of the anticipated return of the Red-breasted Goose with the Barnies on the RSPB fields at Loch Gruinart.

Thursday 10th October

A largely very pleasant day of sunshine and light northerly breezes, with just the occasional very light isolated shower.

Ed Burrell down at Cornabus was reading rings and neck collars of the first handful of Greenland White-fronts on his patch calling them "old faithfuls" suggesting they have been down that way before! Ed also saw the first Redwings of the autumn in his area.

Thereafter there was much noting of arrivals of groups of White-fronts and Barnacle Geese and Whooper Swans throughout the day and across much of the island. Ed had 6 adult Whoopers at Cornabus, Gary T. had 7 on Loch Indaal at Bridgend, Mary Redman saw further groups of 12 then 9 at Claddach, Patrick Styles another group of 8 near Bridgend while Jackie Wedd had a bumper 160, including 25-30 young birds, at Kilchoman in the early afternoon. Clive Mc. had 16 passing straight through to the south at Gruinart while Theo with a Nature Scotland group just in today bumped up the Bridgend total to 12 and added 6 more on Loch Skerrols. Exact numbers for the day are anybody's guess, but mine is c.200.

Other birds of note included 5 Little Egrets seen by Tim Gifford at Killinallan, a pair of Hen Harriers, a Sparrowhawk and 6 Buzzards found by Andy Bunten near Port Ellen, 2 Grey Wagtails on the Moorland Trail at Gruinart RSPB c/o Jackie and 42 Pink-footed Geese at Bridgend c/o Patrick.

However Bird of the Day certainly goes to the Nature Scotland group who found a drake Ring-necked Duck (photo below) consorting with 32 Tufties and 200 Greenland White-fronted Geese on Loch Skerrols. They aslo added 200 Golden Plover and 12 Pintail at Gruinart.

Wednesday 9th October

With the wind going further into a bluster from the north, today's bird news was mainly about geese arriving in large numbers.

But first, there were reports of a raft of 87 Shags over in the bay at Port Ellen from Steve & Lyn Rogers and the two adult White-tailed Eagles on their little grassy island at the top of Loch Indaal at Bridgend from Gary T.

Apart from confirmation of in the evening of Barnacle Geese and Whooper Swans over the Claddach/Portnahaven area from Mary Redman, all other reports were from the Loch Gruinart area:

Clive Mc. had 9 Whooper Swans on the floods, with 12 there seen by Patrick Styles later. Patrick also noted 8 Pintails and a Brent goose there. Fiona Mc Gillivray did a count of Barnacle Geese  on the Gruinart Flats in the afternoon and estimated 7,058 along with 125 Greenland White-fronted Geese, 25 Whooper Swans and 2 Little Egrets, Clive noted a group of 39 Pink-footed Geese and flocks of Barnies still coming in later, with a count of 7,560.

With a further day of northerly winds tomorrow, we can perhaps expect further large arrivals of geese?

Tuesday 8th October

A dry sunny day, starting with breezy weather from a slightly more NE direction, then calming further into a pleasant afternoon.

Gary T. started the day with 2 adult White-tailed Eagles up on the flats at Bridgend and around Gartmain where 100 Bar-tailed Godwits, 9 Turnstone, 18 Knot, 3 Little Egrets and 29 Brent Geese were noted. One of the Brents had colour rings that he was keen to read and we await any results of this bird's origin. In the same area Patrick Styles had a group of 12 Pink-footed Geese a little later.

Up at Gruinart Clive Mc. had a larger group of 90 Pink-footed Geese in from the west along with a steady trickle of Barnacle Geese. On The Oa David Wood had further flocks of 23 Pink-footed Geese going north and noted a single House Martin.

I took a look around loch gorm, Ballinaby and then up to the RSPB Gruinart hides in the afternoon and made a few counts: Up in the small lochans at the west end of Loch Gorm were 1,400 Greylags with 670 Barnacle and 14 Pink-footed Geese and 22 Whooper Swans. Further along towards Kilchoman a further 70 Whoopers were sat in the barley stubbles. On the other side at the stubbles around Ballinaby were 270 Rock Doves and 11 more Whooper Swans. Down at the hides it was evident that there had been a big arrival of Barnacle Geese, which I didn't count but estimated at "several thousand" ( Clive Mc. was more diligent than I, and did, later, count the Barnies - giving a total of 3,760), along with some smaller groups of the first Greenland White-fronted Geese and a lone Brent Goose. These were scattered out on the fields and across Gruinart Bay where two adult White-tailed Eagles lurked. Here too were a further 22 Whooper Swans (one with a white colour-ring) and 25 more Pink-footed Geese Clive Mc. was more diligent than I, and did count the Barnies - giving a total of 3,760).

Mary Redman photographed a flock of c.70 Pink-footed Geese from the Jura ferry.

Thus a likely total of  234 Pink-footed Geese and 125 Whooper Swans. (It was noticeable that there were only 2-3 young Whoopers in the various flocks seen - a poor breeding season for them perhaps?).