Thursday 20th August

A fine day with some sunshine but a cool northerly wind.

Jim Dickson started the day off with more news of the GPS-marked Knot, which arrived at Gruinart yesterday morning, to say that it had returned to North Uist which it had visited before coming to Islay. Speculation about this unusual movement centered round it possibly wanting to return to a larger flock, but that really is just speculation. Whatever the reason, there's no doubt that large gaps in our knowledge of bird migration are being filled by the use of GPS tags. What is also of interest is that Clive McK saw Knot moving south from Gruinart yesterday evening, but clearly not including this bird.

In the late afternoon. Clive saw 4 Arctic Skuas, including a superb pale adult, heading south low over his house above the west shore of Loch Gruinart. They climbed and circled as they headed towards Bushmill, then turned west high over Carnduncan, ignoring Loch Indaal and heading to Loch Gorm/Machir Bay. Clive has seen Arctic Skuas follow this line before, and thinks that they might have come from the east coast of Scotland, following the Great Glen to the west coast on the back of the NE and N winds.

And here is a photograph by the late Gordon Langsbury of a pale phase Arctic Skua.

 

 

Wednesday 19th August

A wet morning gradually dried up to a sunny afternoon, but with more rain during the night.

Clive McK once again supplied almost all the bird records for today, starting off at midday with 50 Black-tailed Godwits, 1 Ruff, and 1 juvenile Marsh Harrier on or over the Gruinart Flats. During the afternoon, Jim Dickson, the Argyll Bird Recorder, reported the details of a Knot carrying a GPS tag which had arrived at Gruinart about 07.00. It is part of a Dutch study, with the bird ringed in the Netherlands back in February, presumed to have bred in East Greenland, and picked up in North Uist on its way south. The bird was colour ringed, but, although Clive went to look for it later in the day, it may well have moved on as he saw Knots leaving for the south in the late afternoon. However, a consolation for him was a Glossy Ibis on the Flats. There was a large influx of this species into Britain last September, with 2 spending some time in the Gruinart area.

Clive spent from 19.30 to 20.50 monitoring bird movements at Gruinart and noted the following, all moving south: 17 Oystercatchers, 1 Ringed Plover, 2 Whimbrel, 68 Redshanks, 22 Knots, 1 Ruff and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. He also counted 9 Common Snipe feeding in the fields.

Tuesday 18th August 

 Several showers during the day.

 The only reports today came from Clive McK who was at Carnain in the early afternoon, where he found a juvenile Wood Sandpiper, while there were 400 Dunlin, 200 Ringed Plover, 30 Sanderling and 10 Knot on the Bridgend Flats. Wood Sandpipers, almost always single birds, turn up pretty much every year, though more in the spring than in late summer/autumn.

Clive also tried a seawatch at Portnahaven, but it was pretty quiet, though, in the morning, he saw a total of 12 Lesser Blackback Gulls migrating south over Gruinart. In the early evening, there were 4 Ruffs feeding on the Gruinart flats fields.

Monday 17th August 

Rather a damp day, with rain most of the afternoon.

Bird of the month, possibly year, was an adult Mediterranean Gull, "loafing" at Gartbreck in the rain, according to Clive McK, who spotted this rare visitor. 'Birds of Islay and Jura" states that this is about the 13th record for the island since the first in 2010, and only the second adult. Sightings have been slowly increasing in recent years, with 3 last year, although those were the first since 2022.

The only other observation received came from Rogs M, who saw a Little Egret and a Greenshank while driving (!) between Bridgend and Bowmore. 

 

Sunday 16th August 

A quiet, mainly overcast day after overnight rain.

Not much to report today. David D watched a White-tailed eagle flying below the American Monument and also saw 2 Chough on the cliffs below, while Rogs W posted this photograph of a House Sparrow with a beakful of food which he reckons includes both a spider and a caterpillar. It's important to offer one's offspring a nicely varied diet.

 

Saturday 15th August 

Another fine day with light winds.

Rogs M spotted a pure white goose among a flock of Greylags on Loch na Cachie, which lies between Kilchoman Distillery and Loch Gorm. It is either a leucistic or an albino Greylag, but a closer look is needed, the former retaining normal coloured eyes, bill and legs, whereas in the latter those would be pink/red.

Clive McKay had a late afternoon walk around Ardnave, seeing 5 Sandwich Terns and 15 Common Terns at Ardnave Point, as well as 20 Choughs, 2 Whimbrel flying south, and the usual mix of waders on Traigh Nostaig beach, including 47 Ringed Plovers and a Greenshank. He also had a high count of 440 Grey Seals hauled out on the Loch Gruinart sandbanks. In  the evening a Barn Owl was hunting near the RSPB office, while he noted an evening wader emigration from Loch Griunart of 21 Black-tailed Godwits, 68 Oystercatchers and 8 Sandwich Terns.

 

Friday 14th August 

A dry day with light winds and mainly overcast skies. Yesterday evening, cloud obscured most of the sky, preventing more than very partial views (glimpses) of the eclipse of the sun and almost nothing of the Perseid meteor shower.

Only two bird records received for today. Louise M had a lone Curlew in Small Isles Bay, while Rog M continues his exploration of the northeast of the island, noting 8 Grey Herons, including juveniles, perched on trees at Lily Loch. This is the site of one of the several small heronries on Islay. It survived the felling of some of the nesting trees a few years ago as they had become dangerous, but there were plenty of alternative trees, including at adjacent Loch Allan. Peter Roberts, in his book 'Birds of Islay and Jura', lists no less than 18 heronries that have been noted in the last nearly 100 years since the very first National Heronry Survey of 1928, but attendance at several of them seems to be intermittent, while a number are definitely extinct. Peter estimates up to 30 breeding pairs on the island, of which 8-9 were at Lily Loch in 2023, the last time they were counted, making it one of the largest heronries that year.

This makes a perfect cue for one of the late Gordon Langsbury's photographs.