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