Wednesday 15th April

The weather was on repeat, plus a bit of thunder in some of the afternoon squalls.

Only a few observations were sent in today, Peter Gill finding 3 Brent Geese at Blackrock in the morning and, later, 2 Sandwich Terns below the Gaelic College. Mary McR. had 2 Swallows at Claddach, while Nick Bone heard a Cuckoo at Gruinart.

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

Morven Laurie (NatureScot) reminds anyone finding dead birds on the shore to not handle them but to notify this link

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-dead-wild-birds

Finally, this fine photograph of a White-tailed Eagle carrying a rabbit was sent in on Sunday by David Livingstone. Sorry it got overlooked, David, but many thanks for it. 

 

Tuesday 14th April

The strong south-easterlies continued all day with some rain, mostly in the afternoon.

If you're a Greenland White-fronted Goose on Islay in spring looking to head to Iceland on your way to where you breed in west Greenland, then a south-easterly wind is what you want. So, when Ed B. reported first thing that the last of the geese tagged during the winter at Cornabus was heading north, this was certainly to be expected, as was its arrival in Iceland later in the day. The details are wonderfully revealing. It left Glenastle on The Oa at about 4 am and arrived in south-east Iceland, a distance of c. 800 miles/1300 km, at about 5 pm. This suggests an average speed of 100 kph, or 62 mph. The south-east wind probably provided a boost of about 50%. Well done, that bird, and the rest of the flock it will have been in.

David W. reported 400+ Golden Plovers and a Swallow at Kinnabus in the morning, while Peter Gill had a Great Spotted Woodpecker by the carpark entrance to Loch Ballygrant and a Common Sandpiper beside the loch. Pat Jackson found the first Cuckoo of the year, also at Loch Ballygrant, where there were also "lots" of singing Willow Warblers. Billy Stitchell's garden was invaded by 10-15 Swallows around 6 pm in the evening. 

Finally, one of Ed B's neighbours at Cornabus think they saw a Red Kite, so something to keep an eye open for.

 

Saturday 11th, Sunday 12th & Monday 14th April

First, my thanks to Mary Redman for stepping in at very short notice and doing the blog when I was flown off the island to hospital for a small emergency operation. During six boring days on the top floor of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow the undoubted highlight was an adult female Peregrine flying past my window!

Quite strong SE winds persisted through the three days, with occasional squally showers.  

No bird records were received on Saturday, but Sunday was busier with Karim Labib counting 18 Brent Geese on the shore at Loch Gorm House, Bruichladdich, and about 500 Golden Plover on the Gruinart Flats, while Ed B. had 2 Sandwich Terns past the Gaelic College and an Osprey fishing at the mouth of the River Sorn.

On Monday, Martin Reid saw a male Hen Harrier near the Kildalton Cross, 2 probable Sandwich Terns and 2 Great Northern Divers in a bay near Ardbeg and 4 Gannets at Claggain Bay. In the morning, Clive McK watched 400+ Barnacle and 40+ Greenland White-fronted Geese head off NW, followed not long after by another 160 Barnacles and 15 Whitefronts. Peter Gill reported a single Redwing in the field beside the RSPB Gruinart reserve carpark, a single Pinkfooted Goose with Barnacles at Gruinart and then this spring's first Common Sandpiper close to the pier at Bruichladdich.

Other arriving summer visitors were 3 Swallows seen by Mary McR overhead at Claddach and a House Martin at Creag Mhor, Gruinart, seen by Clive McK, both in the morning.

Ed B. had 8 new Pinkfeet at Cornabus joining the family that's been there all winter, while, towards evening, soon after a male Merlin had "whizzed up" the side Loch Gruinart flushing everything, Clive watched 25 "very excitable" Redshanks getting up from the Gruinart floods and heading north. 7 Common Snipe looked as if they would follow but eventually turned back and landed. A single Greenland Whitefront was present, then 27 came into the Flats from on high, presumably staging from somewhere to the south.

Finally, during the afternoon, a Willow Warbler with white outer tail feathers was in Clive's garden, very likely the same bird as he saw there last July.  Here's his video of it.

 

 

 

Friday 10 April

Good evening from a wild and windy south-west coast of Islay! This morning wasn't too bad, bright sunny spells but strong winds all day, building to this evenings blast.  On my morning rounds of the lambing field it was unusually quiet, just 2 snipe leaping up from puddles as I approached.  It seems there wasn't much going on with Islay's bird watchers today, just David on the Oa reported 4 pink-foot geese at Kinnabus. Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Thursday 9 April

 Back to the routine of strong winds, cold chills and showers. April at its finest.  I'm glad of the shelter my hill ground affords the lambs on the ground in weather like this.

Mary-Ann reported a male hen harrier at Seal bay, and I had a large ring-tail hen harrier at Claddach Loch earlier. Every morning on my lambing rounds I spook a pair of teal from the pools near Frenchman's as well as numerous meadow and rock pipits, skylark, oystercatcher pairs, snipe, redshank and wheatear. Hooded crows are never far away, and the ravens often take a tour round the croft midday. 

Steve reported a magpie at Emerivale:  an Islay twitch! Billy at Ballygrant also had a visiting magpie to the garden on Tuesday. His normally tolerant ring-necked doves have apparently taken a real dislike of the bird and actively chase it! 

Clive had found a dead guillemot at Kintra on Saturday, from its BTO ring he discovered the bird had been rung on the Treshnish isles as an adult in 2016.  Clive is concerned with the number of dead birds he and others have discovered on islays shores recently - a result of bad weather? Bird flu? 

Thanks to all for your sightings. Apologies again for the lack of photos, my computer just doesn't want to!

Weds 8 April

 Good evening all from Claddach! I've been roped in to help for a few days. I'll do my best - today has been a 'spring event' with swallows, willow warblers, chiffchaff seen and/or heard across Islay and Jura. Though not a competition, Louise at Craighouse on Jura, heard them yesterday. So there.

 Perhaps the best highlight was the common crane that was reported at Gruinart today.  I'm sure the nearby cafes were delighted with the extra footfall! I'm afraid my computer won't let me upload photos for whatever reason, however if you head to the WhatsApp group the evidence is there.

Also on the group, Ed shared a data tracking map of a Greenland White-fronted goose satellite tag, showing its 15 hour journey from Islay to Greenland on Monday. Clive noted flocks of geese departing from Loch Gruinart, the next day there were swallows, sand martins and wheatear!

The wind returns tomorrow after a glorious day today then, just as the water levels in the fields were beginning to cheer up, a little rain is expected to top up the mud.

Saturday 4th April

A damp and increasingly windy day, a few of the early squalls being mostly hail. However, the worst of Storm Dave passed to the south, so the night wasn't perhaps as noisy as had been threatened.

David Hicklin spotted a/the Cackling Canada Goose on the Gruinart Flats in the morning (see photo), while Clive McK. noticed that the Barnacle Geese had been putting on weight prior to their migration (see photo). The geese are monitored for NatureScot each late winter/spring, using the shape of their back end between the legs and tail, known as their abdominal profile, which is where they store some of the fat which they will use up as they fly north. This gives an indication of how well they've managed to feed up prior to leaving. Fiona McG who carries out the monitoring rated this one as a 3-3.5, so getting close to the maximum. A bird without any fat shows an almost straight line between the legs and the base of the tail.

Later in the day, Clive was at Kintra on the Big Strand and noted 8 freshly dead Guillemots and one dead Manx Shearwater. One of the Guillemots had a British ring on its leg and we look forward to learning where it was ringed. It has already been identified as having been ringed as an adult in 2016.