Monday 18th November

 A cold, bright, sunny and dry day with light northerly winds.

All bird news today relates to wildfowl! Clive reported 26 Shelduck on Loch Gruinart and sent in a fascinating account of the migration of a tagged Whooper Swan from Iceland that crossed over Islay and Jura, stopped at Welney and continued on to The Netherlands - see the map below. Malcolm O. commented that until GPS tagging, marking and ringing of Whoopers in Iceland, it was thought that Whooper Swans wintering at Welney were from the Scandinavian/Russian population.

Derek Coleman found 6 Long-tailed Duck at Blackrock, a male Pochard, 15 Tufted Duck and 4 Goldeneye on Loch Skerrols. 

Thereafter it was all about rarities: Derek also re-found the female Lesser Scaup on Skerrols, while Ed B. posted that the Cackling Goose was still at Cornabus and James H. found 2 Green-winged Teal at the South Hide at RSPB Loch Gruinart.

Sunday 17th November

Cold moderate breezes from the north wind lots of sunshine between heavy rain showers.

Over at Kildalton Mary-Ann Featherstone had a total of 10 Goldcrests on Corsican Pine - a good-sized count for the species on Islay. Over at Claggain Bay, Steve & Lyn Rogers tallied 109 Greylags, 9 Red-breasted Mergansers a Goldeneye and a Little Egret. George Jackson had 20 Fieldfares in a flock at Coultorsay (plus Starlings seemingly inspecting nest holes (perhaps they were thinking of sheltering from the cold rather than nesting?). James H. at Gruinart had a few interesting birds: a Blackcap, Ruff and Gadwall. Finally, Clive Mc. watched 35 Choughs feeding on Kelp Fly larva on the west side of Ardnave. The storms and tides had pushed plenty of seaweed up the beach, now rotting nicely and producing a good breeding area for the flies and an equally good, if temporary food source for the Choughs who had been digging it over extensively.

Saturday 16th November

A distinct change in the weather to stronger, blustery winds from a more north-westerly direction. Some blue skies in between sporadic, sometimes heavy, rain showers.

Jacob New found the Cackling Goose over at Leorin this morning before it returned to Cornabus. He later had single White-tailed and Golden Eagles having an aerial tussle over Loch Gorm. Mary Redman found the remains of a long-dead Great Skua down at Portnahaven, while David D. took a look at Blackrock noting several Slavonian Grebes.

Derek Coleman emailed to say that  the Orange Ladybirds he found the other day were seen at Bridgend Woods - and that today he braved the wind and rain to cycle around the Rhinns when he found four Snow Buntings over at Octofad.

Friday 15th November

 Further grey, damp overcast conditions today, but with the threat of worse weather to come soon with Ed B. suggesting that the forecast strong, cold northerly winds may bring in the last of the winter geese - talking of which: Ed also reported the Bird of the Day - a Cackling Goose (photo below) with 2,960 Barnies, 314 White-fronts and 182 Greylags over on his patch at Cornabus. (Ed. also noted the Moorhen was still present on Loch Cornabus).

Elsewhere Gary T. found 3 Cormorants on Loch Finlaggan, while Clive Mc. had two groups of Whooper Swans around Killinallan/Corsapol totalling 24 birds. David D. had 8 more Whoopers at Kinnabus, 4 of which were young birds. Over at Saligo, visitor Bob Brown found a White-tailed Eagle and Merlin.

Thursday 14th November

Overcast, damp. misty with very light winds - just like yesterday!

And just like yesterday, Gary T. found the young Little Gull feeding over Loch Indaal just north of Bruichladdich again.

The only other bird news was from Mary-Ann Featherstone who had 200 Greylag Geese and a lone Shelduck at Seal Bay, Kildalton.

Derek Coleman sent in this picture of some very colourful Orange Ladybirds (Halyzia Sedecimguttata), on some tree bark yesterday - presumably hibernating. I'm not sure how common they are on Islay now, but this is part of a post made by Malcolm O. back on 28th June 2011 of the first Islay record found in an allotment in Port Charlotte:

".....we have the first record of Orange Ladybird (Halyzia 16-guttata) for Islay. ...there is only one other species - the Cream-spot Ladybird - which has white spots, but only 14 not 16 of them.

Orange Ladybirds feed mainly on mildew, with aphids, the mainstay food for the majority of ladybirds, only eaten occasionally. There is a single record for Colonsay in 2008."

Wednesday 13th November

 An overcast, damp and misty day with very light winds.

Derek Coleman sent in this account from his day birding Islay: "Spent this afternoon in the hides at Gruinart. The number of birds was just amazing; highlights were male Hen Harrier, nine Little Egrets together and four Gadwall"

Gary T. was out and about finding his usual 2 adult White-tailed Eagles on Loch Indaal up towards Bridgend, where he also saw the Kingfisher again. His best find however, was a first calendar year Little Gull just north of Bruichladdich, which stayed long enough for me to pop out and see it later on - thanks Gary!

Mary-Ann Featherstone has her birding friend Bob Brown staying and he sent a few photos for the blog. Of particular note are 5 Crossbills on the way to Kintra and 120 plus Fieldfares at Ardbeg.

Tuesday 12th November

The most glorious sunny and calm day produced no bird records at all, so I'm reduced to mentioning a Tawny Owl reported on Monday from Ardmore by David Dinsley, which I failed to put in that day's report, and the fact that the Goldfinches attending my bird table have dropped from the peak of 20 to 12, perhaps because I haven't bought a third niger seed feeder for them.

I've had no trouble in selecting another Gordon Langsbury photograph.