Saturday 9th October

 A grey and rainy day, but still quite mild and with light winds, meant few bird sightings being sent in from the early part of the day:

Dave Protheroe had 20 Barnacle Geese over at Seal Bay.

Margaret Brooke reports a Sparrowhawk and 9 Goldfinch at Shepherd’s Cottage

Chris & Tony (aka The Horwich birders) were out and about in what they rightly called “a dreich day”, but didn’t let it put them off a fairly good look round numerous sites. They started at the mouth of the Sorn and had a White-tailed Eagle fly in low to an island where it watched the barnies. Bridgend woods was very quiet: only a Goldcrest of note and the river in spate so no Dippers seen.  Loch Skerrols held 18 Mute Swan (but only 1 juv) a, few Pochard, a raft of Wigeon and a very mobile flock of Siskins on the walk in. They also ventured up the potholed Kilinallan road, searching in vain through the baronies for the Red-breasted Goose (but see below!) Returning round Loch Gorm a flock of 60 Goldfinches were at Ballinaby and a beautiful peregrine on a fence post near Saligo, finishing with a  Kestrel below Coull in sunflowers.

However, the late afternoon, just prior to sunset turned dry, calm and sunny, prompting me to pop outside here at Bruichladdich and scope across a very flat calm Loch Indaal. It was quite productive too, with birds dotted all over the sea from right up towards Bridgend and down far to the south. There were clearly fish in the sea as there were large gatherings of gulls in the misty distance beyond Port Charlotte. With them were about 60 auks – probably mostly Razorbills actively fishing.  The tally for other species counted was: 76 Eiders, 22 Red-breasted Mergansers, 57 Common Scoters, 5 Great Northern Divers, 10 Red-throated Divers, 1 Black-throated Diver, 4 Black Guillemots, 2 Slavonian Grebes and a single Gannet. Onshore were 2 Grey Herons and a flock of 17 Ringed Plovers.

Visiting birder Tim Daley from Northumberland arrived today and was finding good birds even before he got to Islay, with a couple of White-tailed Eagles sitting on a sea-weedy low tide islet just out from Kennacraig. After that, he saw a group of 4 Black-throated Divers and a few Guillemots Razorbills, Gannets and Kittiwakes on the crossing.

Like myself, Tim got out in the lovely sunny late afternoon. He headed over to RSPB Gruinart where he found the Red-breasted Goose amongst the 1000+ Barnacle Geese on the east side of the loch. Also noted were singles of Whooper Swan, Sparrowhawk and Pintail plus c.15 Black-tailed Godwits.

Visitor Teresa Morris was also out this evening after the rain, finding 42 Twite, 2 Choughs and a Buzzard south of Saligo Bay and 320 Greylags in the fields at Rockside. She sent us this fine sunset photo.