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.