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...