Thursday 6th October

Another day of breezy north-westerly winds and plenty of rain showers and cloud between very occasional brighter spells.

But the winds brought with them the first more obvious arrivals of winter. Most noticeable was a movement through the island of Whooper Swans. First reports were from David Dinsley, Dave Protherough and Ed Burrell on The Oa with 4 on Loch Kinnabus and 31 at Cornabus. This increased to 21 on Loch Kinnabus later in the day with some of the Cornabus birds heading off beyond The Oa. Mark Newell saw 17 coming in from the NW at Killinallan, later picked up by Mark Shields on Loch Gruinart, with a further 33 seen there by Lucy Atkinson later. These may have been the same birds seen by Malcolm Ogilvie flying over Bruichladdich, close to where Mary Redman saw another group of 8 at Uiskentuie followed by 40-50 in stubble fields between Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte. If anybody wants to hazard a guess as to how many individuals were coming and going I’d probably not argue with them, though I’d guess c.100 birds as Mark reckons at least 53 were involved on Gruinart alone.

Mark Newell up at Killiinallan also found the first winter Snow Buntings (2) plus 33 Brent Geese and 75 Barnacle Geese arriving onto the island. A bigger flock of 352 Barnies arrived into Loch Gruinart by lunchtime.

Away from the influx of wildfowl, were a couple of scarcer finds: Gary Turnbull reports a couple of Tree Sparrows amongst the small birds feeding on wild bird feed planted on field edges between Newton and Redhouses north of Bridgend and Laura Nicoll saw the female Marsh Harrier at Gruinart – assuming it is the same individual, it has been around on the island for quite a while now.