Wednesday 24th June

Yesterday, a visitor to Islay had seen 3 Bee eaters down at Port Charlotte, unfortunately we did not hear about this until mid morning today, and despite quite a few of us out looking for them, we could not find them, so if anyone can help us out with a better location, please get in touch. This afternoon there was a report of a Great White Egret present over on the reserve at Gruinart, Louise from RSPB had gone out and confirmed it, with Peter Roberts also seeing it as well. Back on Monday, Bob had been out birding with some visitors. They started their day off with a Stoat carrying a young Rabbit cross the road in front of them. On Loch Indaal, out from Kintra, there was a large raft of 80 Eider, on the Oa, 2 Golden Eagles were present while over at Kildalton, Common Sandpipers were everywhere! On Tuesday, Bob had been up at Killinallan with his guests. Up there, they saw a Buzzard carrying an Adder in its' talons, lots of Skylarks dust bathing in the track with several Whinchats seen there too. They also had over 100 Grey Seals "singing" away on one of the sand bars in Loch Gruinart itself! David Livingstone had heard a Corncrake calling at Kintra while he was playing a round of golf yesterday. David also had heard another calling at Portnatruan on Saturday evening, possibly the same Corncrake that we had while walking along the Distillery path. Armin is back over for his Summer visit and late last night he had a male Hen Harrier fly alongside his car for the best part of 300 yards as he returned from Saligo to Kilchoman. Our friends from Glasgow had seen 2 Eiders with 3 young at Bruichladdich yesterday, today over at Claggain Bay, they had a further 2 Eider but this time with 4 smaller ducklings. Also present there, was a pair of Dunlin along with their 3 small chicks. Gary and Sam have returned from a few days over on the mainland, and had seen a Whinchat on the fence wire at Finlaggan.