Friday 16th August

George E Jackson sent some sightings from through the week...

Coming back home on Tuesday evening, they had seen a Barn Owl between Sunderland Farm and Rockside. On Wednesday morning down on Machir bay, 7 Greylags were seen, but George also commented on the amount of Goose footprints seen up the Coull end (North end) seen there over the past few days.. Other birds seen there included 5 Chough, as well as 15 Ringed Plovers. On the fence along the edge of the dunes around 40 Linnets were counted with 15 Sand Martins out feeding. A Stonechat was seen there as well. Up in the reed bed, a Sedge Warbler was present. In the afternoon, over at Finlaggan, they had a family group of 4 Stonechats and then separately, another 2 Stonechats. Also, sitting on a fence post in at Finlaggan was a Buzzard. Yesterday, they had gone over to Jura, up from Craighouse and before Ardlussa, they had 5 pair of Mute Swans seen, none of which appeared to have any youngsters... From the ferry coming back from Feolin they had seen an Otter, in the middle of the Sound of Islay.

Today, Richard Williams and his wife came and visited for a well earned cuppa and catch up, great when visitors throw their sightings at me for to use on the blog... It has been their first visit to Islay and by the way they both spoke, it will not be their last, just spread the words around folks...