Saturday 16th October

 Firstly, some additional records for yesterday:

Further reports of Whooper Swans on the move came in via Malcolm Ogilvie from Peter McIndeor of Braibruich who saw a flock of 74 whoopers followed by 8 and then a little later another 18 all flying down Lochindaal heading south in the afternoon. It is always tricky to get a clear idea of how many Whoopers are passing through, but it was “best part of a tidy few” yesterday! (It was also noted by Malcolm that, so far, few if any are stopping to feed on barley stubbles as they’ve done in some recent years. This is perhaps likely due to a good and early cut harvest with less seed spilt?

Teresa Morris commented on the fine weather yesterday: “What an amazing day it has been for weather and birding.” Teresa had been out to the Oa yesterday and watched for 4 hours around Lower Killeyan and the RSPB reserve. Golden Eagle, Kestrel and Peregrine showed up, plus 3 Chough, 47 Whooper Swans heading south and a Wheatear looking very much like a Greenland race (see the photo below).

Teresa also provided a super photo of an equally super Islay view:

However, Today’s weather slowly reverted to grey and rainy by mid-afternoon. Gary had been out birding at the Big Strand this morning finding 21 Golden Plovers and a Snow Bunting there, plus a Darvic-ringed Common Gull. This was too far off to read, but worth looking out for. The Machrie River held a gathering of 4 gull species where it flowed into the sea. Later Gary watched at Bridgend Merse counting 250 Golden Plovers, 90 Bar-tailed Godwits, 250+ Ringed Plover and 100+ Dunlin. Also in this area were a couple of Canada/Barnacle Goose hybrids which could be the same birds as seen last year?. John Overfield added 20 Knot to the tally here later in the day and went further down Loch Indaal to Blackrock and Uiskentuie where he found a few Slavonian Grebes and a Black-throated Diver.

Mark Shields noted the following Geese on the reserve about mid-morning today: 21,023 Barnies, 128 Greylag, 41 pale-bellied Brent, 47 Greenland White-fronts, a “small” Canada Goose and 4 Pink-foots.

David Dinsley had been out early, watching 2 White-tailed Eagles breakfasting at sunrise on a Barnacle Goose on  the Gruinart Flats. Venturing further north he had the “usual” flock of 26 Choughs at Ardnave and then 3 White-tailed Eagles at Nave Island. These were an adult pair chasing off a young bird, all of which seemed interested in pupping seals on the beach. David noted a dead seal pup at Ardnave Point that should provide plenty of potential food for the eagles?

Newly arrived on the island today, Mike Hill sent in some initial sightings. He was particularly impressed with "a VERY close encounter with a Merlin sitting on a fence post on the road just before the turn to Kilchoman distillery. It just sat there as we approached slowly in the car with the windows down until level with it. Magical."

I hope Mike will enjoy his stay as much as this week’s contributor Tim Daley has. He was leaving Islay today and comments thus:

“Islay was a fantastic birding and exploring place and there’s no doubt I’ll be coming back. It’s great you have the blog and WhatsApp group,”

Thanks very much Tim and we look forward to seeing you back here whenever you can.

To round the day off John Overfield sent in this picture of a family of Otters he'd just seen this evening. The rock they are on is almost directly outside of my house in Bruichladdich. I ran to the window with my binoculars as soon as the message came in, but they had gone. Darn!