Tuesday 11th January

Not a bad day’s weather for January, with light winds, virtually no rain and mostly quite sunny with pleasant temperatures.

Mark Shields was at Smaull this afternoon and saw a Carrion Crow.

Colin & Angie Bushell clearly enjoyed the better weather with some good sightings: “A very pleasant day today. Started by watching over Loch Indaal from The Battery at Bowmore: a Slavonian Grebe, 8 Great Northern Diver, 3 Red-throated Diver, 36 Common Scoter, 22 Eider, 2 Long-tailed Duck, 4 Goldeneye and 6 Red-breasted Mergansers for starters. Rounding the bay from Bowmore to Bridgend, we stopped to check some Barnacle Geese below the Islay Gaelic Centre and found the Iceland Gull.

A Peregrine greeted us at Machir Bay where there were 8 Twite on the beach and a ringtail Hen Harrier quartering the bank below the church. 3 Pochard** were among the Tufties and a couple of Goldeneye on Loch Gorm on the way back for lunch.

 This afternoon we headed back to Gruinart and the RSPB reserve. We failed to find any small vagrant Canada Geese, but there were 2 White-tailed Eagles on the flats, our second ringtail Hen Harrier of the day over the reserve and 3 Black-tailed Godwits from the hide. A Peregrine over the car near Lyrabus was the final bird of another fine day on Islay”. 

** Pochard are quite scarce on Islay and Argyll generally and (presumably) these same birds have been with the Tufted Ducks on Loch Gorm since late October.