Wednesday 6th November

Another dull, overcast, but basically dry day with light winds and occasional attempts by the sun to break through the grey.

Ed B. started the day's reporting with 4 Pink-footed Geese on re-seeded fields at Ballivicar. Gary T. came in with a Kestrel over stubble fields at Newton and the usual White-tailed Eagle on Loch Indaal at Bridgend. Malcolm O. found a lone Pink-footed Goose at Ballinaby, apparently avoiding the company of nearby Barnacle and Greylag Geese.

Neil McMahon and the Naturetrek group spent all day in the field. Over on Jura, apart from plenty of Otters, they had 6 Great Northern Divers at Craighouse, 30 Lesser Redpolls south of Lussagiven, 25 Eiders and 2 more Great Northern Divers in the Sound of Islay. On Islay were a few of the usual divers, ducks and Black Guillemots off shore around Port Charlotte and Bruichladdich. They also had both eagle species and a Grey Plover, Greenshank and 5 Pink-footed Geese on Loch Indaal.

James H. had found single Jack Snipe, Bullfinch, Treecreeper and several Goldcrests on the RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve. I took a walk along Loch Indaal on the Gartbreck side finding a further Greenshank and a count of 75 Shags. I assume that these are likely to be different from the 160 I counted up at Ardnave a couple of days ago - and different from the sizeable group counted in Port Ellen Bay, suggesting a substantial number possibly over 300 on the island.

Monday 4th & Tuesday 5th November

Two more mostly dreary, damp, overcast days - light winds on Monday picking up a bit on Tuesday.

Monday produced few notes - 1-2 Gannets in Loch Indaal off Port Charlotte, a pair of Peregrines perched up below The Oa RSPB car park and a Water Rail at Gruinart - thanks to Gary T., David D. and James H. respectively.

Ed Burrell spotted a neck-collared Greenland White-fronted Goose on the flats at Gruinart in the afternoon which had been first caught as an adult bird at Ballinaby in December 2012. David D. reported the flock size of this species at Kinnabus was now at 133.

Today, Neil McMahon was back on Islay with another Naturetrek group. He sends in a good list of sightings: 

70 Whooper Swans, 64 Brent Geese, 2 Greenshank, 2 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Kingfishers, a Grey Wagtail and plenty of Bar-tailed godwits and Knot all  at the top of Loch Indaal between Bridgend and Bowmore. Between Port Charlotte and Black Rock he counted no less than 4 different Otters, plus 4 Slavonian Grebes up at Black Rock itself.

Up at Nave Island he had a good count of more White-tailed Eagles - 4 juveniles and 1 second year bird, Three of these flew towards Gruinart and Ardnave Loch where there was a Golden Eagle, Goldeneye, 9 Whooper Swans and 27 Chough.

Further looks along Loch Indaal later in the day produced c.40 Eiders, 2 Great Northern Divers, 6 Canada Geese (big feral types!), 2 Hen Harriers and another small group of Whooper Swans at Coulabus.

Malcolm O. tells us that after recently doubling the size of the niger seed feeder in his garden from one with two portals to one with four, the Goldfinches have increased from 6 to 20 - not a bad return on his investment!

Sunday 3rd November

 Another overcast day, but mainly dry with light winds and no rain and less mist.

Some further notes in for Saturday:

From Mike Bell: off Bowmore were 2 Long-tailed Duck and a pair of Scaup. At Kildalton and Aros Bay a large number of Redwings -  435 plus 825 flying SW in 16 flocks, also 37 Fieldfare, 35 Siskin and a Golden Eagle. At Claggain  Bay 5 Great Northern Diver and an Otter. Back on the Coullabus road a male Hen Harrier and a young Golden Eagle.

From Louise Muir: 150 Fieldfare through Craighouse on Jura.

Today, the Red-breasted Goose showed well in fields south of the road towards the RSPB Visitor Centre. A walk up to Ardnave Point produced 3 Greenshank,  6 Brent Geese, 160 Shags and a total of 18 Snow Buntings in two groups. We also had 5 Greater Scaup in Loch Indaal from the Gaelic College - the largest count so far this winter.

Clive Mc. had a further 31 Whooper Swans flying up Loch Gruinart.  Martin Armstrong saw Peregrine and Merlin over Singing Sands and found a dead Crossbill near Laphroaig.

Saturday 2nd November

 Overcast and a bit damp to start, but by the evening it was a little clearer with lighter winds and even a few small patches of blue sky.

It was another day of Whooper Swan migration and activity - and as always, tricky to work out exactly how many were in involved. Clive Mc had at least 5 groups passing totalling 71 birds, south down Loch Gruinart during the day. At Portnahaven, Mary Redman had a flock of 14 and another group of 6. 29 were still present at the top of Loch Indaal and I had a single flock of 49 flying south directly over Feolin, opposite Port Askaig on Jura. David D. hit the jackpot with 107 on Loch Nigheadaireachd at Laggan (24 of these this year's young). This makes c. 140 seen flying south and whether the 107 resting at Laggan were in addition to, or part of this movement is anybody's guess - though I'd go with a minimum of c.200 and possibly as many as c.275.

Apart frop the swans, Gary T. had seen presumably the same Kingfisher at the mouth of the River Sorn this morning. Visitor Martin Sutherland had an odd goose on Loch Indaal - possibly Barnacle x Canada? Photo below.................

Thursday 31st October & Friday 1st November

Two more days of uninspiring, misty, often overcast, sometimes drizzly weather with lightish winds from a westerly direction.

The only bird notes of note for yesterday was the brief sighting of the Red-breasted Goose at Gruinart, by Jack Fleming's house in the afternoon. 

In the morning, a twirl around loch Gorm produced 6 Goldeneye there, plus at least 6 Buzzards around the circuit. We looked again for "the goose" in the afternoon, but couldn't find it, though there were impressive numbers of Lapwing up at Gruinart to keep us busy.  c.970 were present, first on the fields just down from the Visitor Centre, then all in view on the floods from the North Hide. The loose group of 12 Little Egrets were feeding out on the loch at Gruinart.

Gary T. had 30 Common Scoter off Carrabus and a few more at Bruichladdich where he saw an Otter. The Otter at one point was feeding with two large young around the pier for a good hour or more, much to the delight of my friends visiting.

Wednesday 30th October

 The weather was not exactly as predicted, being misty, light drizzle at times and much cloudier than forecast. However, the winds were very light and plenty of us were out birding.

This morning the Red-breasted Goose was relocated by Steve Percival at Craigens and Greg Hughes reports a Marsh Harrier at Gruinart. On Loch Inmdaal I watched c.70 Common Scoter, 7 Long-tailed Duck, 10 Slavonian Grebes, 6 Red-throated and 2 Great Northern Divers from Black Rock, where a Brambling was heard flying over. A little later at Gartmain were 52 Whooper Swans, 6 Canada and 69 Brent Geese, 2 more Long-tailed Ducks, an adult pair of White-tailed Eagles and 26 Red-breasted Mergansers. We went on to The Oa RSPB reserve, where a juvenile Sparrowhawk dashed in to successfully snatch one of c.25 Twite at the feeders. Back at Port Ellen there were 34 Ringed Plovers on the beach in the bay and later in the afternoon we stopped again at the top of Loch Indaal near Bridgend where 680 Wigeon were counted along with a Little Egret.

The Little Egret was of interest because at the same time Clive Mc. at Gruinart was making another Islay record count of 13 Little Egrets - ours boosting it further to 14 birds on the island. Clive also added a further 16 Brent Geese at Gruinart to our 69 on Indaal and counted a substantial 1,100 Golden Plover present.

Mike Bell was active today too, finding 3 drake Pochard and 3 Goldeneye at the NE corner of Loch Gorm. At Gartbreck he found a Grey Plover and  2 Greenshank, while back at Gruinart, he also counted the same tally of Little Egrets, a juvenile Ruff, 9 Black-tailed Godwit,  2 Greenshank, 940 Lapwing and got the Golden Plover total up to 1,720, with 2 Bullfinch on the woodland trail.

Monday 28th & Tuesday 29th October

 Two days of uninspiring weather, Monday slightly better than Tuesday, which was mostly overcast, misty and drizzly with light winds.

Yesterday George Jackson counted  a flock of 150/200 Rock Doves feeding on the  barley stubble fields at Kilchoman and a little mixed flock (ca. 20) of Reed Buntings, Linnets and House Sparrows at the Kilchoman Coastguard Cottages. Later there were ca. 25 Redwings feeding in the hedge and bushes along Coultorsay drive, south of Bruichladdich.

Up near Garra Eallabus at Creag Mhor, Clive Mc. had a "normal" Chiffchaff (ie. not Siberian!). Frances Cole counted 12 Turnstones at the Gaelic College.

Today, despite the rotten weather, there were occasional patches of blue sky and rainbows enticing me out with visiting birding friends. 25 Tweite fed in barley stubble at Kilchoman and on Machir breach were 47 Ringed Plover and a few Sanderling, Dunlin and a lone Brent Goose. 5 Whooper Swans remain at Ardnave Loch. Up at Gruinart North Hide as the tide came in there were masses of waders on the flats including c.640 Golden Plover and 350 Lapwing. A lone Greenshank was out there amongst masses of Bar-tailed Godwits and a group of 9 Little Egrets  with two others in different locations at Gruinart made a total of 11 birds. The floods in front of the hide held substantial numbers of Teal and Wigeon, but I leave the RSPB to count them - talking of which, James How kindly sent in a count of the immense numbers of Barnacle Geese out on the fields at Gruinart this afternoon: 14,495 to be precise. He also noted 330 Greenland White-fronted Geese, 5 Pink-footed Geese and 30 Brent Geese.

Finally, Ed Burrell found his first Woodcock of the late autumn flighting out of the forestry near Cornabus.