Sunday 31st December

An early entry tonight while still have got power, and at least with having a satellite broadband system, we are not reliant on cable broadband as I believe that some folk on the island have not been getting any broadband lately. One of our regular correspondents who is over on the mainland on holiday, had seen a Red Kite as he was driving along, close to Doune. It was just as well that I went out in the dark last night and took the bird feeders down, as one of the big posts was blown well over in the wind through the night. The wind was rather strong with us around 7 am with our reading at 72 mph while over at Port Ellen, it was 76mph. I can verify that it was blowing rather strongly as I was outside and it almost blew me over, what was I doing outside???  The birds were fed on the ground and this afternoon, with the wind dropping a bit, we managed to put the leaning post in another position and put all the feeders back up...and the birds and ourselves were pleased with the job done. Just after we finished putting the big post back up, a ringtail Hen Harrier flew across the far corner of the garden and then around 30 minutes later, a Heron flew past on its' way "home" after being down in the stream.

Many thanks to all the folk that have contributed their sightings through the year, and to you the reader for following us through the year, so keep the blog going, send through your sightings...

All the best for 2018 wherever you are!!!!

Saturday 30th December

Yesterday, James while on his way down to Bowmore, saw a White tailed Eagle out from Whin park, over the merse at Bridgend. It managed to spoof the geese present, into the air and then proceeded to catch a goose as it was taking off  and proceed to land with the said goose and devour it... This afternoon, while James was over for a natter and a cuppa we were watching the birds on the feeders, who suddenly all took off, a quick scan round produced a  female Sparrowhawk  up in the sky. A few moments later it came back round and down into some scrub willows where it remained just waiting in hope that the wee birds would return. So after a few moments it took off and literally was pushed away in the wind, as they say "Gone but not forgotten"

By the look of the weather forecast, I might just go out and take the bird feeders down this evening, better that than picking up broken feeders in the morning!!

Friday 29th December

The blog and myself have returned...

Coming down out of Inveraray, yesterday afternoon as we headed for the ferry, I counted 8 Grey Herons on the edge of the loch with another dozen or so counted along the shoreline as we headed on to Kennacraig. Here at home, well it has been rather wet, in fact the wettest place in the U.  K.  with the best part of an inch falling in the past 24 hours, with puddles seen out on the Machir as a consequence. The feeders at one point this morning over 21 Goldfinches were present with a couple of Wrens scuttling along in the lee of the stone dyke and then late afternoon, a group of 26 Chough flew over from Rockside heading along towards the Machir  and then flying in to the roost. The odd thing about observing them was that they were flying along at the same altitude all the time, rather than their usual undulating  flight, but they were certainly vocal none the less.

Saturday 23rd December

Well by the sound of things, it has been windy over on Islay today, as forecasted with the ferry going up to Colonsay cancelled today and being re scheduled for tomorrow... With weather being so windy, no bird to report tonight... Please remember that there is no meeting of the bird nerds on this coming Tuesday, with a lot of the locals being off Islay, normal service will return in January.

All the best to all our readers and followers wherever you may be over the festive period.

Friday 22nd Dcember

Today, Gary had seen 6 Bullfinches up at Bunnahabhain...On his way down the road from there, Gary had seen a further 12 Bullfinches in the willows at Torrabus. He also saw some Tysties in winter plumage along the coast on the Sound of Islay. Think the wind is to pick up tomorrow with the ferry to Colonsay already cancelled...

Thursday 21st December

Yesterday, when he was out helping with the goose count, Bob had a count of 500 Wigeon on the Laundry Loch up behind Laggan. Also present there, were 7 Whooper Swans. Shortly afterwards, down the road towards Gartbreck Bob saw a large female Sparrowhawk siting on a fence post at the side of the road.. Morven Laurie kindly sent through the tally for the International Goose Count, carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with the tally coming in at 43,351 Barnies, 5,351 Whitefronts and 837 Greylags. Thanks to Morven and the team from SNH for these figures. Phill today had seen a juv, White tailed Eagle down at Kinnabus. It moved some Hooded Crows off their prey on the ground, and then set to having some of the grub...It sat around for some time digesting its' brunch...Close by sitting a fence post was a female Sparrowhawk. Phill also saw a Golden Eagle flying over the "American monument" with a snipe seen nearby, as well as a flock of Meadow Pipits and 2 Ravens cronking away,there as well.

Wednesday 20th December

Louise had seen 6 Pale bellied Brent Geese out in the Glebe at the Manse at Craighouse over on Jura this morning. She also has ben having a count of 80 Geese regularly, coming in from over at Inver, again on Jura, on a regular basis. Not sure as to the species, ? Barnies as Lou forgot to say on her e mail to me!! This afternoon, she saw an juvenile Glaucous Gull North Loch Gorm. James had been out again helping with the International Goose. He was saying that it was rather foggy this morning, making counting the geese a bit of a problem...The count for the Barnies came to 10,500 while his tally for the Whitefronts was 700. James also saw a Sparrowhawk at Gruinart, a Hen Harrier at Craigens and also Merlin up at Ardnave.

Tuesday 19th December

Today, James had carried out a count of geese present at Gruinart, his tally came to 15,000 Barnies and 750 Whitefronts.  He also saw 2 Sparrowhawks as well as a Hen Harrier while he was out.

Before I forget, as is our habit, there will be no bird nerds meeting next Tuesday, as with so many of us being away.. but come the end of  January,we will have our annual night out for a meal somewhere, more details of that nearer the middle of January.

Monday 18th December

This morning we had 2 different Nuthatches and also a Coal Tit on our bird table down at our bolt hole, different place as well as different birds too... oh, yes, yesterday we saw a Buzzard being mobbed by 2 Rooks... Back on Islay, Phill had seen 2 Barn Owls  while driving along the High Road.

Sunday 17th December

Not a lot to report tonight as most of our contributors are off Islay at present, and it will be a similar story over the next few weeks with many of us visiting friends and families over the festive period...
I am in one of the afore mentioned categories and had a late visitor outside on the bird feeders, a Nuthatch, and it came back several times for more food. Another bird that is not that common to us is a Blue Tit, and already we have seen a couple of them, a different place altogether, no Choughs or Hen Harriers around... The weather, is different as well with frosts lately, but thankfully now away!!

Friday 15th November

Martin was in touch last night to say that the Lesser Whitethroat he had been seen the Lesser Whitethroat in his garden over at Glenegedale. He has not seen  since the 19th of November... Good one Martin!!!
Also yesterday, James had seen a Short eared Owl at Bolsay, only the second one he has seen one in the winter time on Islay. Also yesterday, James had seen 5 Hen Harriers on the reserve at Gruinart, 3 female, a brown male and a grey male.

Wednesday 13th December

On our way down past Rockside this morning, on our way to Bowmore we saw a Merlin as it zipped past. Down at Bowmore at Bun an Uisg, where Islay Farmers once traded from, 21 Pale bellied Brent geese were bobbing about on the water's edge of Loch Indaal.
The weather out here has not been that warm... after all it is now the winter time I led to believe!!!

Tuesday 12th December

Mike sent some highlights from his WeBS count, carried out on Outer Indaal... 20 Lapwing, 37 Golden Plover, 40 GND, 3 RTD, 15 Common Scoter and 44 Common Gull. Mark carried the WeBS  on Loch Gruinart counting 1,340 Golden Plover, 584 Teal, 95 Wigeon, 105 Sanderling, 48 Turnstone, 154 Lapwing, 97 Barwits, 11 Snipe, 3 Greenshank and also 27 Redshank. Yesterday, Fiona  had seen a juv. Golden Eagle fly past down at Sunderland Farm. Gary today, while sitting down at Whinpark, saw a Peregrine chasing after a wee bird which attempted to dive into the water but not noting that it was ice on the top of the surface of the creek, net result the Peregrine got its prey!!!  Later on, back at home, Gary had a male Hen Harrier fly through his garden and on over the moorland behind his house. Mid morning, we saw a ringtail Hen Harrier fly past through our garden and fly on down over the game crop, here at home

Monday1th December

It has been a bit on the cool side still over here on Islay, with the snow still remaining well down on the Paps of Jura, usually the snow does not last that long...Mandy apologises to you all as it was at Carnain not Gartmain, that she saw the Long tailed Ducks yesterday...

Today, Gary had seen the juv 2 yr White tailed Eagle on the merse at Bridgend, he also saw the Kingfisher coming into its perch, close by. Along at Carnain, Gary counted 11 Snipe, over 250 Rock Pipit as well as 2 Snow Bunting there as well. At the start of the High road, at Springbank, he saw a male Hen Harrier and then another quartering its' patch over on the moorland opposite John Calderwood's former smiddy. Back up near to Ballygrant Gary saw an adult White tailed Eagle and then 2 Crossbill in the treetops of the plantation in at Finlaggan, while on the Loch  itself, there were a pair of Goldeneye

Sunday 10th December

Like the rest of the country, we all appear to be sitting pretty cool today, the temperature hardly rose above freezing point, the saving grace being that we had little wind, otherwise it might have felt a lot colder...

Back on Friday, Mandy had seen numerous Brambling in a field down close to Newton. Yesterday while out walking with a friend's dog, James almost walked on top of a Golden Eagle which was eating its' prey, a hen Pheasant in amongst some rushes. Today, James seen a male Hen Harrier out on the wing over beside the former  Kilchoman School, and then a ringtail down beside the Machrie Croft. Down on Machir Bay this morning, Peter and Pia had seen 3 Snow Bunting and also 24 Ringed Plover. This morning, Bob and myself did the WeBS count from Bowmore down to Gartbreck, our birds seen were as follows, 1 GND, 43 Shag, 3 Cormorant, 80 Greylags, 8 Pbb Brent, 181 Whitefronts, 1,100 Barnies, 9 Shelduck, 91 Mallard, 430 Teal, 465 Wigeon, 30  Eider 17 R B Merganser1 Heron, 111 Curlew, 5 Barwit, 40 Knot, 10 Redshank, 11 Dunlin, 4 Turnstone, 1 Snipe, 22 Ringed Plover, 46 Golden Plover, 4 Grey Plover, 97 Lapwing, 4 Gbb Gull, 200 Herring Gull and 120 Common Gull.  Also today, Mary Redman had seen the Chifchaff in her garden again. Mandy today saw 2 Ruff at Aoradh and also a pair of Long tailed Duck at Gartmain.

Friday 8th and Saturday 9th December

The reason why that you never got an entry on the blog for Friday, last night when you should have done, well our satellite broadband system which we have went on the blink, and their engineers do not work after 6pm....say no more..

Yesterday Mary Redman had a probable Chiffchaff in her garden down at Port Wemyss/ Portnahaven. Garry had seen the Kingfisher at the mouth of the River Sorn. He also saw  2 White tailed Eagles up behind Ballygrant and then later on, another couple flying over Jura, up from Inver.

This morning, Paul Graham had a second year White tailed Eagle trying to spoof the Barnies off the merse at Bridgend. Bob came across a dead Great crested Grebe down at Carnain. Along at Bruichladdich he saw 2 Purple Sandpipers. Mike Peacock saw the 2 Bottle nosed Dolphins today at Port Charlotte. This afternoon, we saw a single Whooper Swan down on the wee lochans below Rockside as well as a Heron flying past there as well. Later on, in the gloaming, we saw a Barn Owl out on the wing, no doubt rather hungry after the windy weather over the past few days.

Thursday 7th December

Yesterday, Bob had counted a total of 48 Pale bellied Brents down after Blackrock, beside Cash Kelly's former house on Loch Indaal. Today, while coming back out of Bowmore, Margaret counted 31 P b Brents just below where Islay Fames used to trade from at Bun an Uisg. As the wind was quite strong today, I decided to take the big bird feeders down, rather than  seeing them being broken. So the birds got fed on the ground instead, no large numbers of Starlings around, just as well.

Wednesday 6th December

Like a lot of other folk, we are just going to wait for tomorrow, to see what the weather brings in. The ferries have already been cancelled for tomorrow morning, so perhaps there might have been some panic buying by some folk down in the Co-op in Bowmore already...

I did a quick count of the birds that George E. Jackson has caught and rung with BTO rings over this past year... A total of 119 birds in all comprising of 34 House Sparrows, 18 Goldfinches, 1 Dunnock, 56 Chaffinches, 3 Starling, 1 Brambling, 1 Great Tit, 2 Robins, a Blue Tit, a Blackbird and also a ringtail Hen Harrier. He also had 5 retraps, a Goldfinch plus 4 Chaffinches, with one of the chaffinches coming from elsewhere, the other birds being "local" retraps!!

Dave Wood along with some ringers from the mainland had caught and rung 87 Twite down on the Oa over the past few days. All the birds are fitted with a BTO ring and also a Black ring with white lettering on the other leg. This project will continue for a few more years, so if you manage to see any of Dave's birds and manage to read the black ring, give us a shout and I will send through the details to Dave himself, many thanks in anticipation.

We counted 33 Chough flying in to the roost this evening. Earlier on this afternoon, there were 2 large mumerations of Starling around 800 birds in total, a few more than we one we had earlier on with just under 700 birds counted then. Just a well that they did not all come in for a feed!!!!

Tuesday 5th December

This morning, Gary saw a Kingfisher at the mouth of the River Sorn and out on the merse a White tailed Eagle was siting there. Up at Bunnahabhain this afternoon, Gary saw 3 White tailed Eagles. Today James had carried out a goose count on the reserve at Gruinart and he also commented about seeing so many geese, "perhaps due to the full moon". His tally came to 9,685 Barnies, 589 Whitefronts and 51 Greylags. He also counted 1,925 Golden Plover and saw 2 Hen Harriers (a male and also a female) and a Golden Eagle. Here at home, the birds are busy eating the food put out for them, at one time we looked out and the big Niger feeder had 20 Goldfinches tucking in, a full house.

Monday 4th December

Back on Saturday, Gary had seen 2 White tailed Eagles over at Bunnahabhain and also a male Goosander. Yesterday, Peter and Mike had been down on the Oa and at Kinnabus had helped out with the catching and ringing of some Twite with all the birds getting a colour ring as well as a BTO ring fitted. Pia yesterday afternoon, had watched a White tailed Eagle "dispatching" a Barnacle Goose over the merse at Bridgend, but she was not sure as to whether it was a freshly caught bird or possibly it might have been an injured Barnie...

Marsali sent through rainfall tally for November from Mulindry with the figure coming in at 5.4 inches, almost an inch drier than November last year, say no more....

Here at home midmorning the ringtail Hen Harrier flew over the garden, down over the game crop and then away out over the Machir. At lunchtime, a Sparrowhawk flew past but in the reverse way to the Harrier, both great to see though!!! There were 39 Goldfinches at the feeders early afternoon with over 60 Chaffinches present as well..

Sunday 3rd December

Some more sightings for you all. Back on Friday, John Nadin had a "great day" spotting rare geese. Early morning, he had 2 Cackling geese on the North shore of Loch Indaal as well as 30 Pale bellied Brents and 22 Pintail. He then saw another 2 different Cackling geese amongst the Barnies at Eorrabus. He went up to Kinnabus after that and met in with David Wood and they saw a Todd's Canada Goose feeding with the Barnies there. John has written a paper on the Canada geese along with Jimmy Steele which is in the September edition of the Scottish Birds.

Distilery Dave had 2 Goldcrests as he walked down to the North hide at Gruinart this morning, he also had a small number of Redwing out in the field s he approached the hide itself. Down on Machir Bay, he had seen an Otter, some Ringed Plover and also some Curlew. Down on the tide line at Bruichladdich, Dave spotted a few Purple Sandpipers, some Dunlin and a few Turnstone there as well. James had a fly over his house at Gruinart of a Golden Eagle early afternoon, and all that I can offer is a fly over of a helicopter mid afternoon!!! The moon outside, at present, is not that spectacular this evening with misty cloud which does not lead to great views of it..
Just hear this evening, that our good friend Dot Street was over on the island with the group from Ribble Bird Tours... Dot very generously gives us a help on the "Islay stand", down at Rutland at the Bird Fair...

Saturday 2nd December

Stuart Meredith from Ribble Bird Tours sent some sightings from their recent visit to Islay, they had also spent a few days on Mull as well. On Thursday afternoon they had a White tailed Eagle on a Barnacle goose carcass at the head of Loch Indaal. Yesterday, they saw a Golden Eagle down on the Oa, and a male Hen Harrier up at Gruinart. This morning, they had seen 2 Cackling geese at the head of Loch Indaal, a Todd's Goose down at Loch Kinnabus, as well as a count of around 180 Twite at Kinnabus itself. Finally, a male Hen Harrier was present at Gruinart, later on. On Thursday, Peter was out birding with his friends who have been over on Islay this past week. On Thursday, they had a Snow Bunting down at Machir Bay and then round at Ballinaby, a Pink footed Goose was present amongst the Greylags and Whitefronts. Yesterday, they had 7 Purple Sandpipers at Bruichladdich, a pr of Tysties at the pier as well as a Common Guillemot there too.  Up at Gearach, behind Port Charlotte, a Crossbill was spotted with a Merlin also seen close by, with a Golden Eagle seen further out behind Kilchiaran. A Red Grouse was also seen up on Bolsay Moor. This afternoon, Bob and Distillery Dave had seen 5 Greenshank from the North hide at Gruinart.

Friday 1st December

Just to put you all out of your misery, the rainfall figure for November came to exactly 5 inches, the same figure for the month as last year, but still slightly wetter than the total for 2017 compared to 2016 at the same time.

Visitor John Nadin kindly sent in some sightings to share with us... On Wednesday, John had been up the Oa, trying to see the elusive Cackling and also the Todd's geese but no joy, but had a couple of ringtail at Cornabus. He did see a Cackling goose amongst some Barnies at the top of Loch Indaal, later on. Yesterday, John saw 2 Cackling Geese along with the Barnies, one at a similar place to the previous day with the other amongst Barnies along at Eorrabus. He also saw an imm Golden Eagle at the top of the Loch as well. Over at Gruinart, he spotted 2 imm White tailed Eagles on the North shore of the loch. On Ardnave Loch, he saw 2 Mute Swan, a Whooper swan, 7 Tufted Ducks, a Dabchick as well as 39 Curlews. Back down the road at the reserve at Gruinart, a Grey Wagtail was present while between Bowmore and Bridgend, a Barn Owl was seen. Thanks John.

Today, Mike had seen the 2 Bottle nosed Dolphins off Port Charlotte again with them both leaping out of the water. Later on Mike counted 68 Curlews resting up on the rocks on Machir Bay. The ringtail Hen Harrier had a fly over the game crop this morning, here at home ...wonder, if it is still the bird that George caught and rung earlier on???

Thursday 30th November

Well, that is almost another month in, but you will just to wait in suspense for the rainfall figures, will it be more or less than it was in 2016??

This morning, while he was having his breakfast Nike had spotted 2 Bottle nosed Dolphins in Loch Indaal out from Port Charlotte, and Mike saw them again off Port Charlotte, early afternoon. Mike also spotted a Snow Bunting on Traigh an Luig mid afternoon, which is below the coal yard. Just after midday, we saw 8 Red breasted Mergansers at Blackrock, out from Cash Kelly's former home.

Wednesday 29th November

Some sightings from the bird nerds meeting last night... Yesterday, Peter and his visiting friends had a Peregrine while travelling along the High road. At Gruinart, they saw a White tailed Eagle over the flats, as well as an immature Peregrine having a minor dispute with a ringtail Hen Harrier. Gary had seen another ringtail out on the wing at Mulreesh. Mandy had a Snipe on the verge / roadside as she was coming to the meeting last night below Carnduncan. We had 16 folk coming to our monthly catch up which was great to see and a grand chance for a catch up as well.

Peter along with his guests had ventured out in the cold but drier day today. Just after midday at Bridgend, they saw an immature White tailed Eagle, along in the bay at Cash Kelly's former house the flock of Scaup were seen, around 45 in number. From the new hide (North hide) at Gruinart, they had a count of 1,200 Golden Plover. Also seen from the hide were 2 Blackwits, 2 Greenshanks as well as a single Hen Harrier. Mid afternoon, we saw a Merlin zip across the road as we drove between the Coastguard cottages and Rockside. Returning home later on, we saw a "small" mumeration of around 700 Starlings in the sky, towards Coull.

Tuesday 28th November

An early entry tonight as I am heading out to the Bird nerds meeting. Yesterday Steve Duffield  had seen a Cackling goose at Kinnabus, down at Cornabus, he had a Todd's Canada goose and a Pink footed Goose amongst the other Whitefronts and Barnies present there. This afternoon, David Wood had a Cackling goose, a Todd's Canada Goose, some Brent geese seen amongst a flock of over 2,000 Barnies at Kinnabus. Louise reported through to say that she has been observing a lonely/ lovely Snow Bunting at the side of the road, over on Jura up beside the path that leads to Evans Way and on over to Glenbatrick.

Monday 27th November

Another miserable kind of the day with a few hail showers clattering against the windows, what a noise. To be on the safe side, I emptied out the rain gauge as it was almost full, and it is not the end of the month yet....

Phill, yesterday had taken a walk round Loch Skerrols and then back through Bridgend  Woods and had seen 5 Buzzards, a Golden Eagle, 2 Chough, 2Wood Pigeons, a flock of Skylarks, 120 Barnies flew overhead and then around 80 Whitefronts were seen with more geese noted in the distance. In the woods, many Coal Tits, a few Great Tits and Blue Tits as well as a couple of Song Thrushes were present. In the afternoon, over at the Singing Sands, he counted 28 Mallard, 5 GND, 4  R b Merganser, and a couple of GBB Gulls.

Sunday 26th November

A very similar day to yesterday, not only on the bird front but the weather was similar to yesterday as well. The weather forecast was certainly correct being a bit on the cold side with squally wintry showers coming out of nowhere. The Paps of Jura have got their white winter caps on as have the higher hills down on the other side of Islay. Just glad to be inside !!!!!

On the bird front nothing in at all, but we had seen a small flock of around 20 Curlew over at Coull this afternoon and then shortly afterwards a Stonechat was on a fence post at the side of the road.

Remember to come along to the Bird nerds meeting at 7pm in the Lochside Hotel, if you are around...See some of you there !!!

Friday 24th November

The stats have come back through from BTO on a Common Gull that Gary found dead on Machir Bay last week. It had been rung on the Shaint Islands on the 25th of June this year as a nestling... While he was out helping with the International goose Count, earlier this week, Bob had seen a couple of Golden Eagles while he was up beside the radar masts above Kilchiaran. Yesterday while out for a walk out along the top of Loch Indaal, he counted 42 Pale bellied Brents along towards Carnain. He was also saying that he has ben seeing some Greenfinches in at his garden over the past few days.

This coming Tuesday evening, 28th November, at 7pm the Islay bird nerds will be meeting in the Lochside Hotel in Bowmore for the usual monthly catch up, so any visitors will be made welcome, come along and put a face to the names that you read about on the blog, meet the team!!!!

Thursday 23rd Novembr

Back on Sunday, Louise had seen a Magpie behind her home at Gatehouse up towards Tarbet on Jura. David Wood on Sunday had seen a Black throated Diver at Kilnaughton Bay, and he had a Cackling Goose at Kinnabus  and a count of 330 Twite and also 4 Brambling seen there as well. Yesterday Mike counted a couple of rafts of GND totalling 131 birds as they were going into the roost off Laggan Point between 15.30 and 16.40 on Loch Indaal. Because of the poor weather on Tuesday, the count for the International Goose count was not carried out, but Andrew Kent sent the figures from Wednesday's tally.. The totals were as follows, 48,336 Barnies, 4,877 Whitefronts and 880 Greylags. Jams had carried out the Gruinart stint, so his count in the total figure came to 16,244 Barnies, 546 Whitefronts, and 29 Greylags. Thanks to Andrew and his team or these numbers. Louise had counted 80 Barnies fly over from Inver on Jura over to Islay this morning. Ed Burrell had a Carrion Crow the other day on the Oa. Ed was saying to me this morning, that he has caught, rung and fitted collars to a further 25 Whitefronts, 5 with transponders, the rest with neck collars. The team from WWT had also fitted neck collars to 24 Greylags as well. Armin had seen the overhead power lines being weighed down by a good number of Rooks along with some Jackdaws, below Carrabus.

Wednesday 22nd November

Yesterday, Margaret counted 12 Whooper Swans as they flew in off the sea from the North, possibly to rest up on the stubbles overnight, they certainly had moved on this morning. No sightings today of Mandy and Fiona's Little Egrets either. Ed today had a large flock of Whitefronts down at Sunderland Farm. Here at home, as the temperature has dropped a little, the birds on the feeders have increased in numbers and eating a lot more too... Today, Gary had seen Grey Wagtails on the metal silage feed bunkers up towards Mulreesh.

Tuesday 21st November

Yesterday, our good friend Armin had seen a charm of Goldfinches through the patio doors of the cottages where he is staying, also present were some Chaffinches. On his way from Loch Gorm over Loch Gruinart, he saw 4 different Buzzards!

This afternoon, just as the light was fading, Mandy and Fiona had seen 2 Little Egrets fly over while they were driving up past Foreland. Thy appeared to be flying towards Kentraw.

The weather has not been very good with a steady rain for most of the day, hence not a lot on the blog tonight...

Monday 20th November

Yesterday, Mandy spotted a Barn Owl on a fence post as she drove across the Gruinart flats. During the afternoon yesterday, she had a Kestrel sitting on a fence post below Carduncan, it took off and then started hovering, great sighting Mandy, her first Kestrel seen for over a year. Yesterday morning Mike had carried out hid WeBs count on Outer Loch Indaal, basically from Port Charlotte down to Portnahaven. Mike counted a total of  110 GND, mostly in groups, the largest group being 18 in number. Within each group they were calling to each other while on the surface, then all diving together. Other birds seen were 3 RTD, 24 Common Scoter, 6 Wigeon, 6 Eider, 13 Shag, 11 Guillemot and a Tystie.

Here at home, the Goldfinches were back at the big niger feeder, after being awol for a few days...

Sunday 19th November

This morning, we saw a Moorhen down on the pool at Carnain, where a pair of Mute Swans have tried to breed over the past few years.  The Scaup were present in the bay at Cash Kelly's house past Blackrock. Today Bob, Martin and Distillery Dave had carried out the WeBs count from Bowmore along to Gartbreck counting the following birds, 6 Greylags, 850 Barnies, 60 Whitefronts, 16 Mallard, 64 Wigeon, 42 Teal, 9 Eider, 25 R b Merganser, 6GND, 2 Cormorant, 35 Shag, 2 Shelduck, 6 Heron, 52 Oystercatcher, 38 Curlew, 50 Barwits, 2 Blackwits, 20 Knot, 7 Redshank, 4 Dunlin, 1 Snipe, 7 Turnstone, 450 Golden Plover, 2 Grey Plover, 55 Lapwing, 25 Ringed Plover, 8 Gbb Gull, 40 H Gull, 20 C. Gull and 8 B h Gull.

This afternoon, Margaret spotted over 20 Whoopers flying South towards Ireland, way out past Granny's Rock.

Saturday 18th November

Yesterday Carl had been out with a photographer.. Up at Sanaigmore they saw 3 Golden Eagles, a Merlin and a Kestrel. Today while out his wheels by himself, Carl saw 2 Red Grouse close to the former Kilchoman school as you come over the from Loch Gorm down towards Gruinart.

Over at Finlaggan yesterday, Gary saw a Kestrel, 4 Bullfinches and a count of 7 Buzzards. Today, Gary had ben out with folk that won a competition to come over to stay on Islay  for a few days and see some of our tremendous wildlife. Gary came up trumps, for sure... They saw 5 Golden Eagles over Jura, and from Coal Ila, they saw 3 White tailed Eagles and another 2 Golden Eagles and then up at Bunnahabhain, they saw an Otter out on the rocks. Later on at Finlaggan, they saw a Grey Wagtail, a Peregrine in the air as well as a fly past by a Crossbill..

Gary was also commenting on more Buzzards being around, while waiting on his folk this morning, he saw 8 Buzzards from Whin Park, all on the ground on the merse and out on the sand.

No sign of the Blackcap here at home today, perhaps he did not like the apples that he was guzzling into yesterday... mind you I made the most of the day planting even more daffodils... What a show they will be if and when they come into flower... as long as the wind does not twist them around too much, but hopefully, I have planted most of  them in sheltered places...

Friday 17th November

A mixed day with the weather, with quite a lot of squally showers coming in from the sea..

The Bowland birders had seen 2 Barn Owls up past Bob's house out of Port Charlotte.. This morning they saw a Moorhen on the distillery pond at Port Charlotte. Later on they had seen 6 Snipe near to Ballinaby, then a Snow Bunting at Machir Bay and while they were up having a catch up with us a male Blackcap was in at the feeders, eating away at the apples on the ground. Also seen here, over 40 Chaffinches and around 20 Goldfinches clamouring around the feeders, and then a ringtail flew past, keeping everyone on their toes!! The Lesser Whitethroat is still on Martin's feeders..

The Blackcap was a new "Islay tick" for them.. a not bad week, with 90 species seen so far.

Mark along with the "vols"  had carried out the WeBS count at Loch Gruinart today, with their tally coming in at 1,610 Golden Plover, 114 Curlew, 47 Turnstone, 106 Sanderling, 6 Dunlin, 49 Ringed  Plover, 9 Snipe, 6 Greenshank, 104 Shelduck,175 Wigeon, 54 Barwit, a Blackwit and a Pale bellied Brent Goose

Thursday 16th November

Another dry day out here again, a bit on the cold side, but for time of the year, certainly not that bad a day.. This afternoon, out in the garden I manage to get some more bushes planted as well as a few daffodils too..

The Bowland birders, yesterday had gone round Loch Gorm seeing Skylarks, Dunnocks, Wood Pigeons, Mistle Thrush, 4 Chough down close to Machir Bay, with 25 Ringed Plover seen there too. The Cackling goose was present amongst Barnies at Rockside along with a flock of around 80 Chaffinches. Back at Octomore, Reed Bunting was added to their list for the week. Today at Octomore, they saw a Grey Wagtail. At Bun an Uisge, where Islay Farmers used to trade from, they saw 6 Pale belied Brents. At the top of the merse at Bridgend, 12 Pintail, and a male Goldeneye were seen. Loch Skerrols held Mute Swans, Whooper Swans, Tufted Duck, Wigeon and Teal. Round at Newton, on the stubbles there, a Brambling was amongst the large flock of Chaffinches. A walk from the Woollen Mill produced Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, 7 Goldcrest and a Treecreeper.

Wednesday 15th November

Yesterday, Gary had been out with some clients, a great day to be out plus they had some great sightings thrown in, so here are some of their best sightings. At Coal Ila, they saw a couple of Otters out in the Sound of Islay, what a start... While they were there a White tailed Eagle and then a Golden Eagle were also seen, along the road and over the hills behind Ballygrant, another White tailed Eagle was present. From Blackrock, out on Loch Indaal they had seen a Red throated Diver, only 5 feet from where they were parked up, GNDs, Common Scoter, 3 Long tailed Duck, Slavonian Grebe and the flock of Scaup as well. Along at Rockside they had 2 small Canada Geese and also the larger Canada, Todd's goose amongst the Barnies and Whitefronts present there.

This morning, Gary dropped in for a cuppa and a natter, who else came by but this female Sparrowhawk who happily sat on the old sack barrow outside the kitchen window while I managed to get the above, could be a bit clearer but taken through the double glazed window. Earlier on,  Gary had seen the Snow Bunting down on Machir Bay and also found a dead Common Gull with BTO ring on... Mandy had seen some Whitefronts over at Carnduncan with collars fitted but too far off to read, she has also had a couple of Greenfinches on her feeders at Carnduncan itself.

Tuesday 14th November

Today, Lesley Silcock reported through on a report of 2 Snow Buntings being seen down at Machir Bay. While she was there, in the Coull field adjacent to the car park, Lesley had a count of at least 24 Curlew, a Snipe along with 2 chough being present as well.

The Bowland birders have been out and about, making the most of a better day.. At Bruichladdich, opposite the mini market, 2 Purple Sandpipers were seen. From Blackrock, 8 Slavonian Grebes out on Loch Indaal, 57 Scaup counted close to the shore, with a pair of Stonechats seen in the car park there. From the hide old hide at Gruinart, they saw a Peregrine and also a Ringtail harassing around 100 Teal around. A flock of 12 Long tailed Tits were seen clos to the viewing platform. Along towards the visitor centre at Gruinart, they has a small Canada Goose, a male Hen Harrier, 2 Little Grebes, 6 Wigeon, 6 Whoopers including 2 Juvs. Along the flats they had a Whitefronted Goose with a radio collar on. A female Merlin flew along the road at the former Kilchoman School, and finally they saw 4 Woodcock, back at Octomore. Martin was over here visiting this morning us when a ringtail flew over the garden. The Lesser Whitethroat was still present on his feeders this morning with a Blackcap flitting around as well. We also had a small flock of 20 Redwing on the overhead cables leading up to our cottage

Monday 13th November

Yesterday, the Bowland birders had taken a drive round the Rhinns. Down at Bruichladdich they saw 3 Purple Sandpipers, Ringed Plover and Redshank while out on Loch Indaal they had 7 Scoter along with GNDs and RTDs. They had a male Sparrowhawk at Easter Ellister and then another at Claddach Loch, down past Portnahaven. Some flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing were present at Claddach as well. Today, they covered from Port Charlotte along the top of Loch Indaal along to Bowmore. They had a total of 23 Brents in 3 groups, 7 noted at Bruichladdich, 8 at the spit along the Uiskentuie strand and 8 along at Blackrock. Along at smelly corner, a male Sparrowhawk and also a female Merlin were seen, with plenty of Dunlin and Ringed Plover present. A flock of around 100 Golden Plover were seen flying out over Loch Indaal. Off the Generator station, 50 Scaup were seen, bit no sign of the Little Egrets, no Slav Grebe or any Long tailed Ducks, roll on tomorrow, fingers crossed folks..

Sunday 12th November

The weather today, a typical Autumn day for sure with a coolish wind blowing for most of the day and then mid afternoon a dirty hail shower appeared out of nowhere, just glad we have a big stove to light to augment the central heating...

The Bowland birders are back over for another visit. Yesterday, as the ferry approached Port Askaig, they saw a Little Gull being pursued by a Kittiwake, while over on Jura they saw a White tailed Eagle tucking into a carcase. This morning, Bob had seen 2 pairs of Bullfinches in his garden. With this wee cold snap of weather, the birds have been busy on our feeders...

Saturday 11th November

Not a lot  to report tonight, but Martin was in touch to say that the Lesser Whitethroat  is still present in his garden. He also had a solitary Redwing there as well as a Goldcrest. Down at the mouth of the River Sorn at Bridgend, Martin saw 2 Dippers and also 8 Long tailed Tits present there as well.

Friday 10th November

Gary, yesterday had a good day out birding with some clients. They saw the Kingfisher down at Bridgend, then 2 Peregrines on the South side of Loch Gorm. Along on the barley stubbles at Rockside, amongst the barnies present, they had a Todd's Canada Goose and also a cackling Goose. Back over the hill behind Sunderland, 2 Golden Eagles were seen. Finally along at Newton, 3 Brambling were present amongst the flock of finches.

Martin, this morning, had the Lesser Whitethroat on his feeders in his garden at Glenegedale.

Earlier on this week, we had a great evening with the staff from Speyside Wildlife who were over on Islay "team building". Great to see you all and trust you all got home safely!!

Thursday 9th November

Peter returned home yesterday from leading 2 back to back tours in Oz and then visiting family in New Zealand. He wasted little time, on his return, seeing the Lesser Whitethroat on the feeders in Martin's garden. He also saw the 2 Little Egret at Bridgend.
This morning, we saw 2 Red Grouse on the road while driving over Loch Gruinart. They were on the grit in the centre of the road up past the Culbuie road end. They were loathe to move, I had to stop and blow the horn at them, to get them fly out of the road. Needless to say no camera with  us... Instead you can make do with another of George E Jackson's birds that he caught in the nets here last week, the first Blue Tit that we have caught and rung here

Wednesday 8th November

Weather has not been great out here today, the wind has been growling away and with the rain blattering away against the windows, not a day for doing much birdwatching...

Lesley had  the 2 Little Egrets down at Bridgend this morning, Gary had also seen them yesterday, Also yesterday, Gary had seen 3 Bramblings and a Chiffchaff down in Martin's garden but no joy with Martin's Lesser Whitethroat.

This ringtail Hen Harrier was caught and rung in the mist nets by good friend George E Jackson last week. It was in hot pursuit after a Chaffinch that it never saw the net... Good one, George!!!

Tuesday 7th November

Islay seems to be the place to be tonight, with some great birds seen, or a we an easy to please lot of folk?? Martin had the Lesser whitethroat in his garden feeders this morning.

Martin took this image for to share it with you all. He also had a couple of female Brambling as well. Mike Peacock had seen a Little Egret this morning at Carnain. Martin had gone down this afternoon to Carnain, no joy with the Egret but he saw a Kingfisher on the Sorn. Fiona and Bob had seen a male Merlin at Rockside and up behind Sunderland, a juv White tailed Eagle being mobbed by some corvids. To finish their day off they saw 2 Little Egrets at Carnain. James had a quick look around Gruinart noting 494 Whitefronts, 32 Whoopers, a Cackling goose (hutchinsi sp), a Green winged Teal and counted 710 Teal   . The Green winged Teal was seen out to the left of the South /old hide...

Monday 6th November

Rather a tousy sort of a day with some dirty showers in the mix too, and the evening ferry has been cancelled with the wind increasing its strength... not really a day for being outside, let alone birdwatching!!!!

A couple of sets of e mails that I had overlooked with birds on , so here we go... Gary had seen a juv Golden Eagle over Jura, a Ruff was present amongst the Golden Plovers and then he saw a juv White tailed Eagle out on the merse at Bridgend, all on Saturday. Mike had ben off the rails earlier on last week but got out at the end of the week seeing a Snow Bunting at Bruichladdich and and then another along at Carnain, a Brambling below the Coastguards cottages leading to Machir bay and then Mike had a Merlin hunting over the stubbles at Sunderland.

Sunday 5th November

Marsali sent through her rainfall figure from Mulindry, up behind Bridgend  and her figure for October came to 5.6 inches, which meant for once her figure was lower than our tally..
Today, a dry day for a change, Martin Armstrong caught a sighting of an late visitor, a Whitethroat on his garden wall and then shortly afterwards, Martin saw a juv Swallow over at Kilnaughton Bay. Mike Peacock today had seen a Great spotted Woodpecker on a fence post over Craigens, along at Bun an Uillt, he had a Peregrine and also 2 Greenshank and up at Killinallan a small flock of 8 Twite were present. This morning, Margaret had the pesky Sparrowhawk on the garden wall
Yesterday morning  Irene Miller had 5 Brambling on her feeders, a pair of Sparrowhawks flew past her house and on down the glen. On Friday, Irene had a Kestrel over behind Uiskentuie and then a male Sparrowhawk flew past her car, close to Craigfad. Carl had a Comic Tern at Bruichladdich fishing out in front of the Distillery

Saturday 4th November

Mike Bell had a  great list of birds seen for the blog, all seen yesterday... Up at Sanaigmore, Mike saw a Hen Harrier, 12 Ringed Plover, 1 Sanderling, 7 Turnstone, 80 Redwing and also 2 Chough. Mike had a flock of 105 Redwing, out from the visitor centre at Gruinart, along at Coullabus he saw a Merlin carrying prey which was attacked by a female Peregrine, with prey being lost during the skirmish. At Storakaig, 20 Fieldfare were present and up behind Kilmeny, a Golden Eagle was seen. Finlaggan held a Peregrine and out behind Scarrabus a pair of Golden Eagles were out over the hills. At Newton there was, on the stubbles, a flock of 160 Chaffinches and a Brambling, with the tally on Loch Skerrols coming to 25 Mute Swan, 47 Whoopers, including 17 juvs, 116 Wigeon, 13 Teal, 8 Tufted Duck with 3 Siskin noted in the trees. Finally Mike saw a pr of Golden Eagles up behind Ballinaby and also a Kestrel, his only Kestrel from this visit.  Yesterday had been John and Jonti Wilson's final day of this visit. Up Ardnave they saw 40 Chough with a flock of 80 Twite there as well. Down at Bowmore, 54 Ringed Plover, 40 Dunlin, 5 Knot were seen. At Kilchoman they had a Merlin  and a ringtail. They also saw another ringtail and also a Dabchick at Gruinart.

Friday 3rd November

Yesterday, Tim and Em had seen a female Merlin being mobbed by a couple of corvoids  and then shortly afterwards, they saw a Whimbrel . Over close to Kilchoman, they had 40 Chough and 14 Whoopers flying over Machir Bay. Also yesterday, John and Jonti had seen the large flock of Golden Plover at Gruinart, and they also saw a ringtail there as well. Down on the Oa, they had a small flock of 65 Twite while  along past Kildalton 2 Redpoll and 6 Long tailed Tits were seen, with 6 GND at Claggain Bay

Thursday 2nd November

Today, Mark had seen 7 Whoopers and 5 Greenshank from the North hide at Gruinart. James had carried a "wee" count on the reserve and his tally came to 18,440 Barnies, 722 Whitefronts, 44 Greylags, 1,945 Golden Plover, 700 Lapwing, 72 Twite, 55 Linnet, 3 Brambling and a Peregrine.today Mike Bell had a Brambling at Kilchoman, and then a Hen Harrier along Rockside. Over at Craigens, he counted a flock of 90 Mipits, which is a good count for this time of the year, as well as 80 Redwing. Further on, up at Killinallan, a Hen Harrier, 3 Chough and 3 Twite were seen, On the estuary of Loch Gruinart, 66 Shelduck, 167 Wigeon, 11 Rb Merganser, 57 Ringed Plover, 2,240 Golden Plover, 690 Lapwing, 2 Knot, 13 Sanderling and Curlew were there. On Ardnave Loch, 10 Whoopers were seen along with 2 Goldeneye, out on Ardnave Point 35 Chough were present and on the cover crop coming down from Ardnave, 180 Linnet and a Peregrine were counted. Down on the floods at Gruinart Mike saw 510 Teal, 29 Pintail, a Blackwit and also 5 Greenshank.

Wednesday 1st November

That is another month in, a rather wet one, with the tally coming in at 5.8inches, which gives the tally for 2017 so far a lot wetter than the same time last year...
Ed sent info through on the Whoopers that he had seen at Sunderland Farm on the 21st - 22nd October. The pair ZKZ and YPV were caught at WWT Caerlaverock  in March 2014 and Feb 2016 respectively and are "regular winterers" there. Another Whooper XBC was seen with an unrung mate and cygnet, XBC itself was caught and rung at Glaumbaejareyja, Skagafjordur, Iceland. Tim Halliday, "Al Hart's old mentor" had seen an adult winter Little Gull as he came over to Islay on the ferry today. John Wilson had counted 62 Scaup at Blackrock, 84 Whoopers and 15 Mutes on Loch Skerrols, He also saw a Brambling and also a ringtail Hen Harrier round at Rockside. Finally, John counted 36 Chough flying in to the roost on the crag. Mandy had seen 2 Whitefronts fitted with coolars at Corsapol and along the flats at Gruinart, she saw another 5 with collars and another with a radio collar, so will let you know any history on them later on. Mike Bell today had 2 Dabchick, 2 Tufties, a Woodcock, 21 Blackbirds, 2 Treecreeper, a Brambling and 12 Siskin at Loch Ballygrant and the and woods. Close to Port Askaig, 2 Golden Eagles, and another Goldie up behind Ballinaby while at Sunderland Farm 34 Whoopers were present. Irene and Tony Miller now have 6 Bramblings in their garden amongst the many Chaffinches, Goldfinches and also some Siskins present, notably back after a long absence...Their House Sparrows, Dunnocks, and Robins are always around, with a male Hen Harrier scouring the glen every day. Irene also commented on the Brambling being less shy than were when they first returned.

Tuesday 31st October

Just back in from the talk given by Ed Burrell on the Greenland Whitefronts at the monthly meeting of the bird nerds, a really informative presentation with 27 folk attending.... Thanks Ed.. 

Mike Bell had been out and about today, braving the elements.. In Bridgend Woods he had 55 Redwing, a Fieldfare and 6 Goldcrest, no Dippers on the River Sorn, or Siskins at the Woollen Mill. At Gruinart, Mike counted 410 Teal, 25 Pintail, 16 Shoveler, 3 Brent Geese, a male Hen Harrier, a total of 2,240 Golden Plover ( a flock of 1,000 in the fields and another flock of 1,060 out on the estuary), 250 Lapwing, 5 Blackwits and 4 Greenshank. Round at Ballinaby, he saw a Merlin. John Wilson and son Jonti had a ringtail as they drove over to Gruinart this morning and also saw the large number of Golden Plover on the flats as well at Gruinart.

Monday 30th October

Today, John Wilson along with his son Jonti had seen a Comic Tern off Bruichladdich and they saw 5 Mistle Thrush close to Port Charlotte. Up on Loch Skerrols, they counted 112 Whoopers and also 116 Wigeon there as well. Mike Bell had seen a ringtail at Rockside and then 13 Tufted Ducks on Loch Gorm. Down on the High road close to Leorin out of Port Ellen, a ringtail was seen with another spotted on the road leading out to the Oa. On the Oa itself, a pair of Golden Eagles were  displaying, a Peregrine was noted as was a Merlin, with over 400 Twite seen on the cover crop at Upper Killeyan where a flock of 60 Redwing were also seen. A close encounter as Mike drove down the single track road to Kintra when a  Golden Eagle and 2 Hooded Crows seen less than 20 yards away.. At Kintra, he saw some Mistle Thrush and Redwing, possibly birds on passage. Offshore out on the water, were GND & RTD. A female Long tailed Duck was seen flying South. As he headed out to Claggain Bay, a Golden Eagle was close to Kildalton with 2 Whitetailed Eagles spotted along the South Coast. Back up at Bowmore, 20 Common Scoter were out on Loch Indaal along with a single Goldeneye. Round the top of Loch Indaal, and the Merse, 15 Pintail, 145 Wigeon, 290 Teal, 34 Brent Geese, 73 Ringed Plover and also 76 Dunlin and 2 Knot were present. The Rochdale birders are back for another "fix" seeing 2 groups of Snow Buntings totalling 7 birds around Ardnave, a female Sparrowhawk at Finlaggan with another present  up towards Bunnahabhain. They also had a group of 7 Whoopers fly off Jura and inland towards Loch Staoisha.

Sunday 29th October, continued....

Well, I trust that you all have got the wee bird sorted out from earlier on, and yes, it was a possible Little Bunting, requiring verification by the rare birds committee, a first I believe for Islay and only the fourth for Argyll, not that common a bird.. right on with the birds from Sunday as promised... George as stated in the previous entry, topped the 100 birds rung here at our home, at the end of play George has caught and "processed" 127. Yesterday's tally came to 2 House Sparrows, 5 Goldfinch, 17 Chaffinch, a Robin, a Blackbird, the Little Bunting and a Blue Tit, just fantastic...Many thanks, George.

John Wilson yesterday had seen 2 Golden Eagles at Kilchoman, a Peregrine and 40 Linnet round at Rockside, several groups of Fieldfare, the largest being around 40 in number close beside Loch Gorm. Up at Ardnave John had seen 40 Twite and 18 Whoopers on Ardnave Loch. Several groups of Whoopers  were seen flying past here through the day. Mike Bell had seen 2 Mistle Thrush up at the old church next t o where we live. Down on Machir Bay, 57 Curlew were present. At Coull roadend, he saw a ringtail, a male Hen Harrier as he drove up to Ardnave with another ringtail at Ardnave itself. Mike counted a total of 32 Rock Pipits as he walked round the Point. At Traigh Nostaig,  4 Barwits were seen with a GND offshore. There were 1,060 Golden Plover on the flats at Gruinart, with 65 Turnstone were on the estuary. Down at Bruichladdich, 2 Purple Sandpiper were seen and between there and Blackrock, Mike saw 20 RTD, 7 RTD, 5 Slav Grebes, 10 Common Scoter, 49 Eider, 44 Scaup, 58 R b Merganser, 8 Guillemots, 12 Razorbill and 4 Tysties. 

Remember the talk by Ed Burrell on the Whitefronted Geese at 7 pm on Tuesday round at the visitor centre at Gruinart... along with some socialising too over a cuppa, no doubt.

Sunday 29th October

Sorry folks, a rather VERY LATE entry, should really be Monday's date...

Been a great day out here, a long and busy day at that, tried to write entry before I went out earlier this evening, but did n't manage. Will give you an image of a wee bird that we had in the garden earlier on and tell you more about other stuff later on.

All I can say at this late hour of the night, or rather early hour of Monday morning that the above image is the 100th bird caught and rung by George E. Jackson here at our house..... a wee cracker!!!

Back on Saturday night George E and Pat Jackson had seen a Barn Owl at smelly corner while coming home from Bowmore on Saturday evening.... 

Saturday 28th October

Yesterday Irene and Tony Miller who live between Port Charlotte and Portnahaven had seen a Hawfinch out on the feeders in their garden. In May, last year Irene and Tony had a Hawfinch in their garden... This afternoon, they spotted a couple of Bramblings amongst the Chaffinches. Irene had seen a female Blackcap earlier in the week, and regularly sees a male Hen Harrier hunting past her feeders and fortunately the wee birds are not present when this happens. Out in their garden she has been seeing a 2 Goldcrests. At breakfast time we believe that we saw a "possible" 1st winter Ring Ouzel out in the garden, no Bramblings seen here though...... Today, James had 3 Bramblings in his garden at Mill cottage.

Friday 27th October

Lee Thickett saw a Basking Shark on the Sound of Islay, North of Bunnahabhain back on Tuesday, also on Tuesday, Ian and Linda Brockbank had 2 Yellowhammers over at Kintra. On Wednesday, Lee saw  3 Greenshank on Loch Gruinart and yesterday he saw a BTD and also a Leach's Petrel close in , up at Sanaigmore. Today, Alan Harris had seen 2 Golden Eagles while down on the Oa. James had carried out a count on the reserve at Gruinart, (less the Barnies...) his tally came to 630 Whitefronts, 28 Brent Geese, 8 Whoopers, a Pinkie, 2 Ruff, 4 Blackwit, 1,555 Golden Plover,109 Redwing at Gruinart with a further 80 over at Craigens, 4 Fieldfare and 2 Moorhen. Mark covered Loch Gruinart itself, seeing a Ruff, a Dabchick, 6 Blackwit, 5 Whoopers, 60 Golden Plover, a Peregrine, a Fieldfare, 3 Redwing, 40 Twite and also 5 Snipe. Mike and Elspeth had walked though Ballygrant Woods along to Loch Allan seeing mixed Tit flocks and at least 2 Goldcrest. On Loch Ballygrant itself, 2 Mutes, 10 Whoopers, 14 Tufties and 4 Mallard were seen while over the fields, a Peregrine was spotted. Out from the "Glen road" they had a Golden Eagle and also a male Hen Harrier.  This morning Mike Peacock had 6 Slav Grebes, 28 Scaup and also 2 BTD. Off Port Charlotte, out on Loch Indaal this afternoon, Mike had 38 Common Scoter, a Velvet Scoter, 15 GND, 5 RTD, a BTD and also 14 Eider. Finally, Mike had a Merlin on the shore, in front of his house, chasing starlings. Peter and Jane headed off today, but saw a female Merlin fly over the stern of the ferry as they crossed over to Kennacraig. Graham and Jo had been over on Jura today, seeing a Golden Eagle close to Feolin, another along the road after Jura House, some R b Merganser along from Craighouse as well as some Buzzards on their way through Jura. Returning back to Craighouse they saw another Golden Eagle and then shortly afterwards while waiting on the ferry at Feolin a White tailed Eagle was seen over the Sound of Islay, another Golden Eagle was seen out from Ballygrant. Here at home, Margaret spotted a Golden Eagle soaring high up over the crag and later on 3 Buzzard were seen dodging along.. George E Jackson had another successful day catching a ringing some more wee birds with a further 35 birds fitted with BTO rings, and also 2 retraps, one from yesterday, the other  being one that George rung here back on the 2nd of January... Keep up the good work George... apart from the usual bird that have been rung, George managed to fit a ring on 3 Starlings and also a Robin... Almost forgot, the cheeky, local ringtail flew past close and had a peek at us ringing the wee birds, and no, it did not fly into our "mist nets". Several small groups of Whoopers were seen heading out to Ireland, the largest being 12 Swans in total around 5.30pm

Mind the Bird nerds meeting on Tuesday evening at 7pm at the visitor centre at Gruinart, when Ed will give us an update on his work with the Whitefronts

Thursday 26th October

Yesterday, Gary and Sam had seen 8 Bullfinch at the start of the track leading out  from Bunnahabhain, out on to the hill. They also saw a Woodcock shortly afterwards. Today, Graham and Jo had seen many  Redwing, a flock of 20 Twite, 4 Reed Bunting, a male and a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2  Golden Eagles, a Peregrine and also 2 Ravens, all on the Oa. Coming back to Port Ellen they saw a Swallow. Out on Loch Indaal from a vantage point close to Blackrock, they saw a GND, 2 Slav Grebes, 2 Common Scoter and a probable Common Tern. Off Bruichladdich, they saw 2 Common Guillemots while on the shore a Wheatear, Rock Pipit and Ringed Plover were seen. Mike and Elspeth had a Merlin on the Oa and also a large flock of Fieldfare and also around a dozen Whitefronts close to Leorin. Gary had ben out with clients seeing a Merlin on the Moss road, just out of Bowmore 4 Golden Eagles on the south of Islay, a juv Swallow at Imeraval and heard Crossbill calling at the plantation on the "Glen road".   On the ferry back to the mainland, just out of Port Ellen, Richard and Pat had seen 20 GND and a BTD. Half an hour in to their crossing, they had an Arctic Skua and 9 Bonxies.. the Bonxies were their 100th species seen this visit.. Peter and Janet had counted 570 Golden Plover on the flats at Gruinart, and also spotted 2 Todd's Canada Geese.They saw 2 Swallows over Islay House Square this afternoon  while out on Loch Indaal, they had 3 GND, a RTD and a Slav Grebe. Other visiting birders, Bob and Sheena Tonner from Paisley had also seen 3 GND between Bridgend and Port Charlotte, a BTD off Port Charlotte, 20 Whitefronts down at Octofad. Highlights from a "mini sea watch" at Frenchman's Rocks  include a RTD, 50 Kittiwakes, 4 Manx Shearwater, a Brent Goose and also a Purple Sandpiper on the rocks nearby...  Here at home today George E. Jackson is back over for a few days visiting, so we had a wee session ringing some of the birds, in total George caught and rung a total of 22 birds with 2 retraps from previous sessions. We had a male Brambling and a Great Tit as well as some House Sparrows, Goldfinches and Chaffinches. We also saw several departing groups of Whoopers heading away over to Ireland.

Wednesday 25th October

This morning, Al Hart had done a "wee sea watch" from where the former wave power station was once, rather than brave the elements and go further out... Al had seen a Pomeranian Skua, 4 Bonxies, along with Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars, Kittiwakes and Auks. Graham and Jo Morton today had seen a male Merlin, 3 Bullfinches, and a few Fieldfare as they headed up towards Bunnahabhain where they had 2 GND out on the water. Later on, they had seen 3 different ringtail Hen Harriers and an adult Golden Eagle, also a 1st winter Goldie there as well. They also saw Snipe and some Fieldfare as they drove along. At Neriby, 24 Whoopers and 20 Whitefronts were present while 2 Buzzard were seen over Claggain. Mike and Elspeth today had a "deliberately quieter" day, noting the GND in the harbour in Bowmore first thing, also there were 4 R B Mergansers.  Along at Blackrock, they had a Comic Tern. From the old hide at Gruinart, they had 2 Dabchick and a "very fine" male Ruff. The new hide had a lot of ducks but proved difficult due the lowish sun. Peter and Janet Roworth had over 550 Golden Plover, over 120 Lapwing and at least 24 Pied Wagtails on / over the flats at Gruinart today. Here at home, the Bramblings are still around, could it be all the food that is on offer that keeps them here? Along between Ballinaby and Leek, there were a few Fieldfares in the scrubby bushes along the roadside. Late this afternoon, I had a really close sighting of a ringtail as I walked round the back our garage, no need for the bins, and no camera to prove it either!! Richard and Pat Howells today had a juv Golden Eagle near to Feolin and also soon after 3 White tailed Eagles close by. They also saw a Woodcock at the other end of Jura, on the roadside, but no sign of any Ring Ouzels.

With the clocks changing this weekend, the Bird nerds meeting will be held inside, up at the Visitor Centre at Gruinart  on Tuesday evening at 7pm when our good friend Ed Burrell will give us an update on his work with the Whitefronted Geese

Tuesday 24th October

Yesterday over at Gruinart Al Hart saw a Whitefront with an orange neck collar on... Back on Sunday returning birder, Lee Thickett had seen a Jack Snipe over at Ardtalla, and yesterday, he had seen a Lapland Bunting while walking up from Machir Bay towards Granny's Rock. On Sunday, Dave Pierce, Neil McMahon along with their group from Naturetrek, had counted 39 Scaup and also 2 Common Scoter at Blackrock while at Gruinart they saw a juv. Golden Eagle and also 6 Grey Plovers. As they headed to Jura, they had 3 White tailed Eagles. Yesterday, up at Lealt  on Jura they saw 3 Ring Ouzel as well as many Redwing and Mistle Thrush with a Dipper back at Craighouse. Yesterday also, Peter and Janet Roworth had a male Merlin at Gruinart while at the top of Loch Indaal, they had 4 Barwits, 10 Pintail, 6 Knot, 16 Whoopers, 138 Wigeon and 34 Brent Geese. Today, Gary had a Todd's Canada Goose amongst the other geese present below Rock Mountain and then later on, he saw the Little Gull along on the pool at Saligo. Dave Pierce, Neil & co had a dark morph Arctic Skua on the Sound of Islay and also saw Golden Eagles and White tailed Eagles on both Islay and Jura. Botswana Dave had a male Ring Ouzel close to Lagstoban. On the guided walk down on the Oa, Dave was able to show folk on the walk a Golden Eagle being harassed by 3 Ravens, forcing the Eagle off its' kill. Other birds seen on the walk included a Peregrine hunting Redwing & Fieldfare, a ringtail Hen Harrier, Stonechats, Twite and a pair of Chough. Bonnie Wood, Dave Wood's wife spotted a Ring Ouzel while out walking their pup. Other birds seen on the Oa this morning included 2 Brambling, a Chiffchaff and 5 Goldcrest. The Redwing flock is up to around 3,000 birds along with several hundred Fieldfare, with more birds arriving in from the North. This morning Richard and Pat Howells managed a count of the wee waders on the breakwater at Bowmore counting 50 Ringed Plover and 24 Dunlin. While waiting at Port Askaig, they saw a White tailed Eagle flying up the Sound of Islay. A Peregrine was seen hunting along the shore as they headed up to Craighouse where they saw a Dipper and then 2 GND further out on Small Isles Bay. Today, Mike and Elspeth had been round the loop on the Rhinns, not as many birds seen compared with other visits, but a fall of Redwing at Claddach, a Peregrine, a Merlin with 28 Whitefronts seen at Octofad. The GND was present again in the harbour at Bowmore this afternoon. and a smaller flock of waders seen there as well. Peter and Janet had seen a White tailed Eagle while they were driving over the Glen road up close to Storakaig this afternoon. Graham and Jo Morton today had 40 Scaup and 4 GND at Blackrock, at Bruichladdich, they saw 10 Ringed Plover, a Redshank, a Rock Pipit, and a Common Guillemot. Along at Sunderland 50 Whoopers were present amongst the mixed flock of Whitefronts, Greylags, a few Pinkies and a lot of Barnies. Close to the pool behind Machir Bay, 20 Chough and 25 Ringed Plover were seen. Finally, they saw a RTD up at Sanaigmore

                  

The image is of our 2 Brambling, seen regularly along with the Chaffinches

Monday 23rd October

Another bumper edition coming up..

Peter  Roworth had a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2 Ruff and a Blackwit over the flats at Gruinart. On Loch Indaal, he had a RTD, 2 GND, 2 Slavonian Grebe, 5 Eider and 43 Scaup. Up on the barley stubbles  opposite Neriby, 11 Whitefronts, at least 2,500 Barnies, 17 Greylags and 76 Whoopers were present. Past Cluanach, on the Glen road on the hedges there 12 Fieldfares and over 120 Redwing. On the barley stubbles around Newton, 100 Chaffinches, at least 3 Brambling, with Robins, House Sparrows, Redwing, Mistle Thrushes and 11 Collared Doves were seen. Finally at Craigens, 67 Whitefronts were counted. Yesterday also, Richard Howells had 10 Brent Geese below the Gaelic college, out of Bowmore. Loch Gruinart held around 400 Golden Plover, 2 Grey Plover, 11 Dunlin, 10 Knot, 2 Blackwit, a Barwit, 50 Brent Geese, a Grey Wagtail, some Redwing and some Fieldfare. At Bruichladdich, 6 Scoter and a GND were present while along at Blackrock, a raft of 38 Scaup were seen. Up past Bowmore, towards Cruach, a Sparrowhawk flew across the road below the radio mast. Yesterday evening as they drove back in the darkness from Port Ellen, he had 2 different sightings of a Barn Owl, along the High road. Al Hart is back over for a few days seeing a juv. Kittiwake in the water at Portnahaven and then later on, a small group of 5 Fieldfare at Lossit. Dave Pierce along with the Naturetrek group had 2 Purple Sandpipers at Bruichladdich and it was Neil McMahon who saw the Ring Ouzel there. Carl Reavey saw a "lovely" drake Long tailed Duck at Sanaigmore. Visiting birdrs from Cumbria, Ian and Linda Brockbank had a ringtail Hen Harrier over beside the Airport and this morning a juv. Swallow while on the Oa. Gary yesterday had a Golden Eagle and also  2 White tailed Eagles in the Coal Ila area. Today, Gary had 2 Comic Tern at Bruichladdich and he also saw a Canada Goose  amongst the Barnies in the field below Bob's house. This afternoon, David Wood had a flock of over 2,300 Redwing and around 200 Fieldfare on silage aftermaths at Kinnabus. He also had 4 Brambling, 2 Blue Tit, 12 Snipe and 2 Hen Harriers. Richard and Pat had 4 Swallows fly over a field of Redwings at Cruach. From Bowmore Harbour, they saw 2 GND, a RTD, and a Slavonian Grebe as well. Other waders seen on their way up to Bridgend included 2 Knot, 2 Barwits, 7 Redshank while up on Loch Skerrols, a female Pochard was present. On their way back to where they are staying, up at Cruach, a ringtail was out over the field where the Redwings had been in the morning...Returning birders from Nottinghamshire, Graham and Jo Morton had seen 10 Whitefronts, a few hundred Barnies & 20 Chough at Ardnave,. From the old hide, they saw many Teal, Wigeon, 10 Pintail, 5 Blackwits, 6 Ruff and 5 Snipe. From the viewing platform they saw over 1,000 Golden Plover, 40 Whitefronts and thousands of Barnies. Mike Anderson today saw the small flock of 140 waders at the Bowmore Harbour at first light, made up of mainly Ringed Plover, a few Turnstone and around 20 Dunlin. This evening, Mike had a GND in the harbour. A wet walk up at Ardnave , not a lot seen, but 2 Tufties along with 2 Mutes on Ardnave Loch and a count of 24 Chough out on the West coast at Ardnave. the 2 Bramblings are still showing well here at home as is our other regular visitor, a ringtail passing over the game crop. A late entry through from Gary, a visitor had seen a Ring Ouzel over at Carnain, and today the same birder had a Little Gull on the flooded pond in the field at Saligo and also saw 3 small Canada Geese amongst the Barnies out at the top of Loch Indal between the old smiddy and Bridgend...

Sunday 22nd October

Surprise, surprise a dry day  for once, the first for some time, mind you I had to empty our rain gauge as it was full, we had the best part of an inch of rain yesterday with quite a lot of flooding along the roads...Right on with the main interest, the birds seen on Islay from various folk ....Yesterday, Mike who spotted the cattle Egret back in 2009, returned for another Islay fix along with his wife Elspeth. Late afternoon a quick run out from Bowmore  and over the head of Loch Gruinart provided great views of Barnies, and Golden Plovers, also a good flock of Redwing and a small flock of 10 Twite. On the stubbles below Sunderland they saw around 90 Whoopers. Richard and Pat had a White tailed Eagle up behind Ballygrant. A ringtail was seen being mobbed by a Hoodie while driving along the "Glen Road". Down at Cluanach, some Long tailed Tits were present. They also had 2 Dabchick at Ardnahoe Loch. Naturetrek had had a group over on Islay over the past few days, led by Dave Piece and Neil McMahon. At Kennacraig, while waiting on the ferry, on Thursday, a Wheatear and also a Rock Pipit were seen. On Friday they had 17 Scaup at Blackrock, 4 Ruff at Gruinart,  a Chiffchaff at Leckgruinart. At Ardnave 2 Wheatear and 41 Chough were present. Thy also saw the Golden Eagles at Gruinart already reported in earlier entries to the blog. Between Lyrabus and Ardnave, they sawa total of 5 ringtails and  also a male Hen Harrier. Yesterday another productive day with a Tystie, GNDs, a RTD, a BTD, 15 P B Brent and a Merlin, all seen between Bowmore and Bridgend. Over 1,000 Redwing along with a few Fieldfare were present out of Port Ellen towards Ardbeg. Also seen were another Merlin, a Peregrine, a Goshawk,  2 Sparrowhawks and an Otter! Over on the Oa, 2 Golden Eagles were present, another Merlin, a Kestrel, a ringtail and a male Hen Harrier, around 40 Twite, a Brambling, some Whitefronts were noted with neck collars as well. Mary Redman saw a juv. Little Gull at Claddach out of Portnahaven this morning. This morning, Mike and Elspeth had seen 3 groups of Brents between Bowmore and Bridgend totalling 30 geese, with around 50 Scaup at Blackrock. Between Sunderland and Rockside they reckoned a tally of 170 Whoopers were present. Early afternoon, a RTD was seen North of Bowmore Harbour with a couple of Turnstone seen on the shore there as well. Later on, up towards Mulindry around 70 Whoopers were present as was a large flock of Ravens in the same field. Just as the light was starting to fade they had a mixed flock of around 70 Ringed Plover and Turnstone came in to the shore at Bowmore, possibly in to roost for  the night.. Her eat home the Brambling was still present, not one but two, seen by Distillery Dave, a new tick for him. Late afternoon, and I have noticed several groups of Whoopers leaving, honking away as they flew on ...

There was a reported sighting of a Ring Ouzel down at Bruichladdich this morning, but still to be confirmed, watch this space..

Saturday 21st October

As promised the sighting that folk had sent through from yesterday....Peter and Janet had seen 16 Scaup and a GND out on Loch Indaal and then counted 26 Ringed Plover together down at Port Ellen. In the Ardbeg area, they had seen over 500 Redwing along with only 6 Fieldfares. Along at the area around Kildalton, 2 Golden Eagle were seen soaring high, also present was a flock of 30+ Redpoll with 5 Long tailed Tits and 3 Goldcrests. Another flock of  20+ Chaffinch, a few Goldfinch and Siskin was also seen there as well. Yesterday was Eddie and Elaine's last day.. Down on the Oa, they saw 2 Golden Eagles, a juvenile Peregrine landed close where they were and remained there for around 30 minutes, appreciating the sun  they also had a small flock of 15 Redwing and then 4 Swallows, a sight that they had not seen before, Swallows and Redwing together! They also heard a Water Rail calling there too. On their way back over to Gruinart, they had 3 Slavonian Grebes at Blackrock. From the viewing platform at Gruinart while watching the geese coming in, they saw a Golden Eagle which flew in below them and landed on a distant fence post, soon afterwards another Goldie flew along and landed 3 fence posts away... Richard and Pat had seen 5 Chough on the Oa, and noted Fieldfare as they came back off the Oa. They too had seen the flocks of Redwing & Fieldfare along the South coast, at Lagavullin, Laphroaig, Kildalton and along to Claggain Bay where 8 GND were present. James had carried out another count at the reserve at Gruinart yesterday, with his goose tally coming to 20,165 Barnies, 274 Whitefronts, 30 Brent Geese, 6 Greylags and a Canada Goose, hutchinsii sp. Other birds of note were 2 Golden Eagles, a Ruff, a Blackwit and a Hen Harrier. Back on Thursday, Gary saw  2 Common Terns off Bruichladdich and yesterday up at Kilchoman, he saw a Brambling, a Greenshank at Bun an Uillt with 17 Slavonian Grebes on Loch Indaal. He commented that the numbers of Grebes and Divers present are starting to rise.

Today, first full day back home a rather wet day, a very wet day and this evening the wind has started to pick up... While having a catch up with Mandy over a cuppa at the back of lunchtime, amongst the Chaffinches Mandy spotted a male Brambling, a tick on Islay for her. Later on, we had a Blackbird gorging itself on the cotoneaster berries, suppose that was why they we planted the catoneasters ... a ringtail Hen Harrier glided past and finally 30 Chough flew into the roost...

Friday 20th October

I am just home again after being away for the best part of the last fortnight, the long and the short of it I am rather tired so you will not get a lot tonight but the entries that I had for tonight will be on the blog tomorrow night. While waiting on the ferry docking at Kennacraig this afternoon, we saw a Wheatear hopping around on the rocks. Bob today had seen over 600 Redwing flying South over his house. Ian and Susan Pettman had seen a Snipe as they walked along the Moorland trail at Gruinart.

Thursday 19th October

Mary Redman had seen her first Redwing of the Autumn, seeing a small flock of around a dozen or so near to Claddach , out from Portnahaven.yesterday a flock of round 60 Redwing flew past her kitchen window, but not seen again all day, early this morning saw another flock of similar numbers, so Mary wonders if it was the same flock that had possibly ben roosting up in the brambles along the burn? Her father had a count of 40 Whoopers flying south past Kerrera, off Oban and reckons that they were en route directly to Islay!!!Mary has also been seeing several skein of gees and swans flying South past Portnahaven. Also yesterday, Wally saw a Wheatear at Kintraw. Louise had a Dipper spotted in Craighouse on Jura. This morning, Louise had seen 172 Whoopers at Bridgend, 48 at Sunderland and the big lot of 218 along at Rockside. Richard today had managed some birds between the showers...Off Bowmore, Richard had 40 R b Merganser a BTD, a GND and some Turnstone along the shore.Over at Gortan, close inshore, 36 Scaup were present and along at Ben Cladville, 2 Mistle Thrush, along with some Redwing and Fieldfare were seen. At Port Mor, 4 Guillemots were noted while 1 small flock of 10 Chough were seen out at the War graves Cemetery at Kilchoman.at the entrance to Rockside a Merlin was being chased by a Hooded Crow, and at the top of the drive a male Blackcap was seen. James had a Brambling in his garden with Wally noting 7 Pinkies at Newton. Peter and Janet Rowarth had seen a ringtail Hen Harrier at Leek, 30 Pinkies mixed in with the greylags and Whooper on the bottom (South) side of Loch Gorm. Between Ben Cladville and the forestry plantation, a male Sparrowhawk, a Kestrel, a Buzzard and a great sighting of a male Hen Harrier were seen A flock of 33 Redwing were also present.

Wednesday 18th October

A lot of sightings through from yesterday, here we go....
Peter and Janet Roworth had 2 Redwing with 4 Blackbirds in the hawthorn bushes outside Loch Gruinart House. A single Wheatear was seen in the scrub, along the "Battery" out of Bowmore. On the River Sorn, they saw a Dipper. Gary had 3 Grey Wagtail over at Bunnahabhain, and had some Redwing moving though the bushes there as well. Later on, with Sam, they counted 122 Whoopers and 9 Pinkies at Newton out of Bridgend, On Loch Skerrols, they had another 46 Whoopers. Wally and Jude had a total count for the day of 452 Whoopers including a flock of 240 at Rockside itself. Eddie and Elaine had Grey Wagtail at Claggain Bay, as well as 5 GND and several Fieldfares. Another visiting birder at present is Tom Lowe who had a Lapland Bunting at Blackpark. Distillery Dave had seen some Snow Bunting up at Ardnave
On to some sightings from today... Gary had ben out with a couple of clients seeing a total of 5 Buzzards, a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Peregrine and 3 Kestrels over between Coal Ila and Bunnahabhain. This afternoon, Richard and Pat Howells had seen a ringtail Hen Harrier being hassled by a couple of Rooks over the car park at Gruinart. Later on they had a male Merlin over past Cruach.

Tuesday 17th October

Visiting returning birders, Peter and Janet Rowarth from Lincolnshire sent some sightings from earlier this week. On Saturday on their way over on the ferry, coming up the Sound of Islay they saw a White tailed Sea eagle and then later on they had a Merlin over the saltmarsh at Gruinart. On Sunday, they saw a male Hen Harrier over the flats at Gruinart. Up at Ardnave Point,  a single Redwing was spotted with over 16 Chough seen there as well. Returning back from Ardnave, near to Kilnave, a flock of 28 Twite and 2 Chaffinch and a Greenfinch were seen, with a distant Otter swimming on Loch Gruinart, with 52 Brent Geese present there as well. They saw a ringtail Hen Harrier at Toranore, also seeing the large number of Whoopers reported by Wally and Jude, at Rockside. Also present were 23 Pinkies, a single Brent amongst the Barnies and Greylags there.  44 Ringed Plover were in the field behind Machir Bay. They also had 2 Redwing fly through as they drovr from Loch Gruinart over towards Loch Gorm. Gary yesterday had a single Pink footed Goose amongst the Barnies, along from Gartmain. A single Brent was present with the Barnies at Gruinart and up at Coullabus, Gary had a male Hen Harrier. Some sightings through from Phill on the reserve on the Oa. Today Phill had 2 Chough, a Snow Bunting, 50 Golden Plover, a Kestrel, 150 Twite and 3 Snipe. James sent the tally for his count at Gruinart from earlier this afternoon... 25,735 Barnies, 445 Whitefronts, 70 Greylags and 15 Brent Geese  were present.

Monday 16th October

Our reporters have been out and about with some birds today, that is before the winds started to pick up, certainly not as strong on Islay as other places, but..
On Saturday, James had seen 2 Merlin, a Dipper and 3 Snow Bunting while over at Bolsa. yesterday Bob, Distillery Dave and his son Jamie managed to carry out the WeBs count from Bowmore down to Gartbreck. Their tally came to 70 Shag, 8 Cormorant, 12 Whoopers, 242 Greylags, 62 Whitefronts, 2,000 Barnies, 6 Brent Geese, 7 Mallard, 7 Wigeon, 6 Teal, 16 Eider, 14 R b Merganser,  62 Oystercatcher, 55 Curlew, 40 Barwit, 10 Redshank, 10  Dunlin, 25 Ringed Plover, 102 Golden Plover, 3 Grey Plover, 31 Lapwing,1 Snipe, 3 Turnstone, 300 Common Gull, 25 Herring Gull and 15 Gbb Gull. Also yesterday, Wally and Jude had a Kingfisher down at Bruichladdich. Today, they had counted 107 Whoopers at the Kilchoman end at Rockside. Wally reckoned that there at least 170 in total in the area. Val Peacock had counted 30 Whoopers flying down Loch Indaal, in a SE direction, hope they made to Ireland before the wind picked up...James sent through a count of  19,650 Barnies, 15 Brent Geese and 30 Whoopers from the reserve at Gruinart.

Sunday 15th October

From the ferry heading back over to Kennacraig today, Clive McKay had seen 2 Storm Petrels off the South end of Jura. He also had seen 4 Porpoises from the ferry as well.

Saturday 14th October

Another big entry from visiting birders here on Islay..
John Miles has been over for the past week... Back on the 8th, John had 53 Whitefronts at Gartbreck, as well as 2 Grey Plover and 120 Golden Plover as well. The following day at Rockside he saw a Male Hen Harrier, a female merlin and 26  Whoopers at Rockside. On the 10th John had the Pinkies at Rockside that Wally and Jude had seen amongst the Barnies and Greylags present there. He also saw 4 different sightings of Merlin , all within 3 miles of Kilchoman! Later on that day 2 Wheatear were seen up at Ardnave with 2 White tailed Eagles were present over on Nave Island round the Grey Seal pups. 3 GND, 2 RTD and a BTD were present in the channel between Ardnave and Nave Island. From the old hide at Gruinart, an adult Golden Eagle was seen, with 5 Ruff, 4 Blackwits,16 Pintail and 12 Shoveler were seen out on the floods. Along at the new hide a juv. Peregrine was spotted annoying itself with the waders there!!! Down on the Oa on the 11th, a 1st yr Golden Eagle, a 1st yr male Peregrine, a Kestrel and also a flock of Twite seen at Kinnabus. An adult Golden Eagle was seen later on close to Cragabus. On Thursday,  a male Hen Harrier was spotted at Kilchiaran and an adult Golden Eagle seen, on the moor South of Loch Gruinart. Yesterday, was John's last day . he saw Long tailed Tits and a Tawny Owl in the trees at Kilchoman, and then 2 Swallows over at Ardbeg. From the ferry returning to Kennacraig, he had a count of 10 GND, a Slavonian Grebe, and over 40 Common Scoter. Thanks John for your sightings. Yesterday, Eddie and Elaine from Leighton Moss  had seen 7 Snow Buntings as they walked round Ardnave, they were seen probing in around in the sea kelp... Richard today had a GND at Kintra and also a male Hen Harrier. He had also seen a male and also ringtail Hen Harrier down on the Oa. Also seen down there were Stonechats, lots of Linnets and a Raven. At Upper Killeyan, a Redwing was spotted while over at Laphroaig, Swallows were present. Finally, Richard had 7 Pale bellied Brent Geese in the bay at Port Ellen. Gary today had seen a RTD, a Red breasted Merganser along with 30 Scaup at Blackrock and at Bruichladdich a Comic Ternnwas seen.

Friday 13th October

James today  reported through to say that more Geese have arrived. The figures of Geese at Gruinart were as follows, 17,250 Barnies, 180 Whitefronts, 86 Brent Geese, and a Pinkie. On the flats, there was a Whitefront with one of the radio tags fitted by Ed Burrell from BTO, also there, were 3 with neck collars. Out on Loch Gruinart  735 Golden Plover, 2 Knot, 4 Grey Plover and a Little Stint were present. Also out on the estuary were "a lot of Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Turnstone and a few Sanderling"

Thursday 12th October

Back on Monday, Clive McKay, (please note the correct way of Clive's surname tonight!), after the rain cleared, he had a short walk up at Ardnave, seeing a Wheatear, a Whimbrel, a Pink footed Goose coming in with 17 Barnies, and also a ringtail Hen Harrier. This morning, Bob had seen 3 Fieldfare fly over his house, and a Merlin while he was waiting down in Port Charlotte. Along at Carnain, Bob had 9 Snipe and counted 14 Brent on the shore there as well. Also this morning, Mandy had a ringtail Hen Harrier quartering over the game crop up at Kilchoman, and this afternoon she saw a Sparrowhawk sitting on a fence post, close at hand, also at the same location. James, today had managed to carry out another reserve count which tallied out at 10,195 Barnies, 125 Whitefronts, 16 Brent Geese, 57 Greylags, 560 Lapwing, 5 Blackwits, a male Merlin, a Sparrowhawk and 4 Chough. James also mentioned that "lots of Mallard have arrived".

Wednesday 11th October

Not a lot to report tonight, but Gary had been down at Coal Ila where he saw 2 Bullfinches, a total of 7 Herons, a Tystie was there as well.  A White tailed Eagle was also seen flying over the Sound of Islay between Islay and Jura.

Tuesday 10th October

Quite a few birds for your perusal tonight, a sure sign that the weather is a bit better today...
Gary managed to do his WeBS count from Port Charlotte back round to Blackrock. His scores on the doors came through at 10 GND, 55 RTD, 6 R b Merganser, 12 Cormorant, 34 Shag, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 38 Common Guillemot, a Tystie, 36 Eider, 13 Common Scoter, 26 Oystercatcher, 2 Curlew, 33 Ringed Plover, 2 Dunlin, 7 Gbb Gull, 52 Herring Gull, 4 Common Gull, 5 Gannet, 2 Grey Heron, and also 5 Greylag Geese. Round at Gartmain, 19 Brent Geese and 170+ Wigeon were present. There was a large Barnacle goose flock out on the estuary between the Sorn and Gartmain, but nothing of note present. Up at Skerrols, a large flock containing 1,000 Barnies and 32 Whitefronts were seen. A walk through Ballygrant Woods produced a nice mixed flock of Goldcrest and Coal Tits with a Golden Eagle was seen over the hills. Back at home, Gary had a group of 10 Long tailed Tits in the woods beside his house. James had carried out a count of the geese present on the reserve at Gruinart this morning. His tally came to 12,825 Barnies, 72 Whitefronts,56 Greylags, 12 Ruff and 905 Golden Plover. Mandy today had seen 21 whoopers amongst the large mixed flock of Barnies, Greylags and gulls down on the stubbles at Rockside. Other good friends, Wally and Jude have arrived over for their visit, and Wally had told Mandy that he had seen 20 Pinkies drop in beside the Whoopers etc late afternoon. Yesterday, Clive Mackay had a count of 125 Linnet on the game crop up towards the top end of the reserve at Gruinart, he also spotted a Long tailed Tit in in his garden.