Friday 29 October

A busy day for Islay today with a handful of rarities spotted.

A long-billed dowitcher was seen at the North Hide at the Loch Gruinart Floods.  Seen by James and by visitors Mark and Alison Cockburn, and again by Garry Wilkinson who heard it from a group of birdwatchers on a bus tour from Northern Ireland! A very obliging bird indeed.

Slightly out of focus but the best picture of the day of the dowitcher from Mark and Alison. Thank you.

The second rarity of the day was a red necked grebe first reported by Dave and Sian Nevitt, and seen again by Peter Roberts. Dave and Sian also counted 15 Slavonian grebe, 2 black throated divers, 9 long tailed duck, a black guillemot and the 'usual suspects' of scoters, scaup...

While Peter was out he got to chatting with visitors who told him of an American wigeon and 2 ring necked ducks seen yesterday at Loch Skerrols. He swiftly went to check and found them quite easily along with 55 whooper swan. He was able to get this photo of the wigeon:

Again, a classic grainy bird watching photo but clear enough to see the bird!

Last (known) rarity was a yellow browed warbler heard but not seen on Wednesday in the Gruinart area by  Ed Hutchings.

Teresa today was down in the bays between Ardbeg and Ardtalla. She noted no wind and a high tide which produced at Rubha Buidhe 52 greylag, 5 curlew, 7 red-breasted merganser, 1 wren, 3 redshank, 1 heron, one golden eagle, and 20 seals. Further east at Ardmore point were very large flocks of redwing making pigs of themselves on the rowan berries, wren, cormorant, one seal, one great northern diver, one cormorant, 7 fallow deer.  Then in Ardtalla bay and Claggan, 4 goosander, 6 cormorants, one wren, one red-breasted merganser, 4 seals.

As I was driving later this afternoon (around half 5) I saw the unmistakable silhouette of a white-tailed eagle feasting on something on a small patch of salt marsh just off smelly corner at the top of Loch Indaal, and a little further along the beaming white figure of a little egret.  Then, about an hour later in Bowmore Harbour, an otter was quietly fishing.

I did say yesterday I would try find out the name of the burn at Uiskentui - it is called Abhainn Ghlas or the Grey River.  Thank you Malcolm, it annoyed me that I couldn't recall it yesterday! It earned is name in the 1840s when the channel was being dug as part of the project to reclaim the Gruinart flats for agriculture. In doing so they disturbed the clay within which turned the water grey.  

Thanks again to all the reports everyone, we couldn't keep the blog updated and maintain it as a resource for locals and visitors without contributions. If you look to the right on our home page, you will find the number to join our WhatsApp group, or indeed the email to let us know any sightings and photos you'd like to share. What's common for you could be an Island twitch for us! Plus with all these rarities reported today, there could well be more out there, and it's a big island to cover.