Thursday 10 February 2022

Thursday 10th February

Sean Minns provides a bunch of interesting sightings from yesterday and today:

Yesterday (9th February) up at Ardnave he counted the following: 18 Chough, 10 Golden Plover, 50 Lapwing, 18 Bar-tailed Godwit, 61 Knot, 35 Oystercatcher, 10 Redshank, 10 Whooper Swan, 5 Goldeneye. He also had a particularly high count of Common Gullc.1000, feeding in the fields around Ardnave.

Loch Gruinart produced a Grey Plover, c500 Golden Plover, c100 Lapwing and c30 Dunlin, while Portnahaven and Bruichladdich turned up numerous Otter sightings - 2 at Portnahaven with  3 to the north and 2 to the south of Bruichladddich.

Today Sean seems to have covered most of Islay again plus a trip to Jura! His highlights were as follows:

Blackrock - 5 Scaup, 3 Red-throated Diver, 11 Great Northern Diver, 3 Slavonian Grebe,1 Long-tailed Duck and 25 Common Scoter. Gaelic Centre - 20 Pale-bellied Brent Geese. Port Ellen - 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker. Loch Skerrols - 1 male and 1 female Lesser Scaup and the “dodgy” hybrid Aythya sp. Gruinart - 1 female Hen Harrier. Jura - 1 Golden Eagle seen distantly

He commented “It was our last full day today. Back to the mainland tomorrow morning. A very enjoyable stay and hope to come back again soon.”

Many thanks Sean for sharing all your sightings.

Mary Redman finishes the bird notes for today with a Barn Owl seen at Port Wemyss just a little earlier this evening.

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