Friday 9th June

Sunshine and dry, warm weather persist, albeit with a light easterly breeze.

Results have been tallied for yesterday's seabird survey around Islay. Only certain areas were counted (particularly Nave Island,  Ben Mhor, Texa, Soldier's Rock, Sanaig and the Lossit coast) which are the main colonies and more difficult to census from land. not all species were targeted, but this was the overall score for the 4 that were given all the attention (numbers are all "AONs" = apparently occupied nests rather than counts of birds - of which there were many loafing about on the cliffs and surrounding sea:

Kittiwake – 522: Guillemot – 797: Razorbill – 446: Fulmar 60:

I am told that some of these totals are (at least at some of the sites) an improvement on previous recent years. For example - there were 236 Kittiwake nests around the Lossit cliffs in 2019 and there were 391 there yesterday, but Fulmars seemed well down in numbers (94 on Sanaig cliffs in 2022 and just 25 yesterday). 

The only other bird notes are from yesterday: Jeff Duncan saw 4 Cuckoos together up toward Sanaigmore.