Friday 29th September

Quite a lot of birds seen again today, so here we go...

Gary had been down on the Big strand, not much around apart from 2 Turnstone and a Common Tern. Later on, Gary had a male Hen Harrier close to Mulreesh with another close to Coal Ila. Up behind Bunnahabhain a White tailed Eagle and also a Golden Eagle were present. Bob Mc Millan had a count of 200 Brent Geese at Gruinart, while on the flats Bob saw a Curlew Sandpiper, 14 Blackwits and 11 Ruff. Mike had spent a couple of hours sea watching down at Frenchman' Rocks from 10 am to midday. Top birds seen on passage were 11 RTDs, 217 Brent flying past along with 2 Golden Plovers. On his way home, Mike had a Sparrowhawk in Portnahaven. Visiting birders from Jersey, Sam and Bryony Nolan had seen a Swallow over Bowmore, with a Red breasted Merganser out from the distillery as well. Up on the Grinart estuary mid afternoon, they saw an Osprey, a Peregrine taking a Dunlin, a Sparrowhawk from the old hide, 2  pair of Stonechat with 2 Wheatears seen up towards Bun an Uillt. Today was a Richard and Kate's final day of their visit... Up at Sanaigmore, they saw  a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2 Chough, a Brent goose, a Snipe, 2 Raven and also a Grey Wagtail, on one of the streams there. They also had a further 2 Chough between Port Charlotte and Kilchiaran. James had done count round Gruinart late afternoon, with his tally coming to 21 Barnies, 125 Brent Geese, 12 Blackwits, 14 Ruff, 2 Curlew Sandpiper and 295 Lapwing. Late afternoon, we saw  2Wheatear over at Borichill Mor, up from Lagstoban..