Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th January

Another couple of days of mixed weather - rain and shine - with a few birds being noted.

Billy Stitchell  saw a total of 5 Buzzards on Saturday morning: one on its usual pole at Limekiln, two on fence posts at Cluanach, one on  road-kill at the cattle grid near Barr and another one taking off with its road-kill at the cattle grid at Knocklearoch.

Today Ed B. reports a Jack Snipe at Cornabus and Martin A. had a Pink-footed Goose near Kilchoman distillery. 

Visitor Rudolf Hummel sent in more records: 2 Brent Geese at Port Charlotte on Friday afternoon, 4 Whooper Swans at Ardnave yesterday and 5 at Gruinart today where he also saw a Pink-footed Goose. A couple of Great Northern divers were seen up towards Nave Island, with Gadwall on Ardnave Loch. He reckoned that 3 Golden Eagles were feeding on a dead Barnacle Goose at Gruinart where he also mentions two further dead Barnies and one looking sick. I hope this is not a further outbreak of Bird Flu? Other birds of prey seen by Rudolf were White-tailed Eagle, a male and female Hen Harrier and Sparrowhawk at Sanaigmore.

Thursday 15th & Friday 16th January

A brighter, sunny day for much of Thursday, but more variable with sunshine in the middle of the day, but cloud and rain with a light SW breeze otherwise.

Morven sent in the January International Goose Count totals, the census carried out on 13th & 14th January. There were 27,731 Barnacle Geese, 4,093 White-fronted Geese and 659 Greylag Geese.

Billy Stitchell sent in a photo of another bird species visiting his productive garden up at Caol Ila:

Wednesday 14th January

Today's weather grew increasingly blustery and rainy from late morning onwards, so no records of any birds came through.

A bit of news from James H. for yesterday (13th) mentions 2 White-tailed Eagles at Loch Gruinart, 2 Golden Eagles and another White-tailed Eagle on the other side of Gruinart at Killinallan, and a further one of each up at Ardnave. James also located the elusive Red-breasted Goose at Gruinart along with a Water Rail.

Having asked about Chaffinches at other folk's bird feeders I had a note from Malcolm O. just up the road from me in Bruichladdich saying he is regularly seeing 15-18 in his garden - about 10 more than in recent winters. He also lamented the decline in Greenfinches: he used to have 3 pairs nesting in the garden.

Billy Stitchell sent in the following count from his garden and feeders at Caol Ila for yesterday: Chaffinch c.40-50 plus 4 Blue Tits, 6 Coal Tits, 5 Great Tits, 1 Siskin and 3 Greenfinches, 1 Treecreeper, 10 Blackbirds, 1 Bullfinch, 4 Collared Doves, c.10 Dunnocks.

He also commented: "I usually chop the Buddleia and Chinese Honeysuckle back at the end of the year, but not last year due to the weather. I hadn’t realised the Sparrows love the seeds, the branches were buckling under their weight and the noise! Same with the Honeysuckle; that’s what attracts the Bullfinch"

Saturday 10th January to Tuesday 13th January

 Very little to report on the bird front over the past few days. Weather has ameliorated from the colder conditions of last week into something more typical of an Islay winter - milder, quickly changing between clouds and rain and sunnier spells with mostly moderate winds.

Daavid D. noted a Merlin at Sanaigmore on Saturday. Yesterday (12th) Gary T. had a pair of Choughs out at Finlaggan and Steve & Lyn Rogers noted 2 White-tailed Eagles and a Kestrel over their garden at Kilnaughton. Also yesterday, Martin Armstrong had a Yellowhammer near the Round Church at Bowmore. Today David D. reports that the small Canada Goose was present at Kinnabus.

Mary Ann Featherstone sent in a couple of photos of some colourful, regular species in her garden at Kildalton to brighten up the blog.

Here at Bruichladdich I had a count of 7 Greenfinches on the feeders and there are 35-45 Chaffinches on my bird-feeders each day. It would be interesting to have counts of Chaffinches from other feeders.

Friday 9th January

While other large areas of the country experienced strong winds and snow, it was a calm, and at times sunny day here - though temperatures almost at freezing point at times.

Clive McK. reported a White-tailed Eagle predating a Barnacle Goose on Loch Gruinart and Ed B. saw the parvipes Canada Goose again at Cornabus. Gary T. watched a lone Brambling among a flock of c.50 Chaffinches at Crosshouses and I took advantage of the flat calm waters of Loch Indaal to check birds off Blackrock. There was the usual good selection of Eiders and Red-breasted Mergansers with counts of 22 Red-throated divers, 16 Long-tailed Ducks, 14 Slavonian Grebes and c.45 Common Scoter.

Monday 5th to Thursday 8th January

 Don't worry! The blog is still going, but there have been no notified sightings for days as the weather has presumably convinced people not to venture far from home. The weather has been variable - some very light snow and cold/icy conditions, giving way today to much milder weather with the snow melted. Winds have been at worst "breezy" and nothing like the awful weather being experienced further south in the UK - nor the heavy snowfalls in northern Scotland.

The better conditions today resulted in a few records coming in - David D. had a Long-tailed Duck on loch Kinnabus - unusual to have a sighting on a freshwater loch. Ed B. saw the parvipes type Canada Goose down at Cornabus along with 5 Pink-footed Geese. There was also a report sent in of the Red-breasted Goose being seen in fields with Barnies above the moorland trail at Gruinart.

Here at Bruichladdich, with a flat calm sea and milder weather, the 6 or more Black Guillemots at the pier seemed to be pairing up, displaying and pretending it was spring!

Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th January

Two cold and wintery days with intermittent sleety, snowy showers.

There were no reports of any bird sightings yesterday, but today James H. was at the RSPB Gruinart North Hide where the Green-winged Teal is still present plus 3 Black-tailed Godwits and 2 adult White-tailed Eagles.

Billy Stitchell was out and about with his camera and sent in these lovely photos of our local birds: