Monday 21st October

 Winds still blowing in from a southerly direction with patches of rain - but nowhere near as stormy as yesterday when huge seas and breaking waves in Loch Indaal threw stones, seaweed and debris up onto the road at Bruichladdich.

Neil from Naturetrek took his group around Ardnave this morning, notching up 3 White-tailed Eagles on Nave Island and 3 Great Northern Divers in the channel there. He saw 3 Snow Buntings around Ardnave Loch that were upped to 5 later by Alan Bowie who counted 30 Choughs there. Neil later added 2 more White-tailed Eagles near Bowmore.

I popped over to Loch Skerrols to try and get a look at the Lesser Scaup reported yesterday. The c. 40 Tufted Ducks were typically at the far end of the loch, bobbing up and down on the waves and actively feeding, so not the best conditions. However, despite not being able to locate the much more obvious Ring-necked Duck, the Lesser Scaup did pop up and even flexed its wings to show me the extent (or lack of extent) of its wing bar. There were 33 Whooper Swans on Skerrols, including 8 young birds, while an immature Golden Eagle was noted over adjacent fields.

Neil was later at Blackrock where 25 Common Scoter were counted. He found 3 Pink-footed Geese still present at Leorin on the High Road near Port Ellen and had a tally of 4 Hen Harriers across the island during the day. Down at Cornabus Ed Burrell had a flock of 120 Goldfinch.

Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th October

 A sunny, moderately pleasant day on Saturday before Storm Ashley hit today with, at times, very strong winds from the south, plenty of rain at times.

Yesterday Gary T. was up at Bunnahabhain finding a Crossbill, while Clive Mc. counted 370 Lapwings at the top of Loch Gruinart. Down at Currie Sands, Portnahaven, Mary Redman had a couple of Choughs, a Kestrel and 12 Whooper Swans flying over. David Wood ventured to Loch Gorm where he found a first Pochard of the autumn/winter, plus 19 Black-tailed Godwits and 75 Lapwings, then 48 Brent Geese on Loch Indaal.

Neil Mc. with his Naturetrek group were on Jura where he had, amongst other birds, no less than 5 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Golden Eagles and 12+ Yellowhammers. A male Long-tailed Duck seen by the group at Craighouse is only the 4th documented record for Jura since 1972.

Amazingly, despite the appalling stormy weather today, people did go out birding:

James H. did a count of the geese on the RSPB Gruinart reserve in the morning before it got really nasty and found 13,670 Barnacle and 377 Greenland White-fronted Geese plus 890 Golden Plover. Neil Mc. was at Skerrols confirming the continued presence of the male Ring-necked Duck, plus a distant sighting in the ferocious conditions of a female Lesser Scaup along with 2 Greater Scaup, 25 Whooper Swans, 40 Siskins in the adjacent woods and 5 White-tailed Eagles. The latter were presumably taking some shelter from the storm, but annoying the wildfowl on the loch. Later, Neil reported 5 Greenshank and a Carrion Crow paired with a Hoodie at Gruinart, 3 Pink-footed Geese near Port Ellen and a scattering of c.50 Whooper Swans and 6 Little Egrets across the island. Clive Mc. flushed a Woodcock, sheltering from the storm, in his garden up near Garra Eallabus on Gruinart.

Thursday 17th & Friday 18th October

The weather on Thursday was "tolerable", but not as good as forecast, with more cloud and light rain at times than anticipated. Friday's weather was almost entirely unpleasant, with  cloud and heavy rain at times over much of the day. The wind persists from a southerly direction.

I was out and about over at The Oa and up towards Kildalton and Claggain Bay yesterday, as was the newly arrived Naturetrek group. None of us saw anything especially out of the ordinary, but White-tailed Eagle, Peregrine, a couple of Hen Harriers, a couple of Choughs and c.40 Twite around the feeders at the Oa car park were noted. Up at Kildalton was another White-tailed Eagle, 2 more Peregrines hunting at Claggain, 14 Red-breasted Mergansers at Ardilistry Bay and a single Pink-footed Goose near Glenegedale and Laggan Bridge with two Merlins around Avenvogie. 

Up at Gruinart, Clive Mc. increased the record number of Little Egrets on Islay from 11 a few days ago to 12 on Thursday and Malcolm O. counted 18 Whooper Swans at Kilchoman.

Today, despite the appalling weather, people were out there birding. David D. reported a Merlin chasing a Blackbird at The Oa RSPB car park. Neil McMahon for Naturetrek had the usual pair of White-tailed Eagles on their grassy islet at the top of Loch Indaal, plus 45 Brent Geese along with good numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits and Knot. Later he nopted further White-tailed Eagles and a Little Egret at Gruinart. Gary T. was at Bunnahabhain noticing lots of Fieldfares and Redwings and a male Kestrel at Persabus. Mry Redman had another Little Egret at the top of Loch Indaal this evening.

Clive reported a decrease in Whooper Swans at Kilchoman today to 5 birds following a record count just over the water at Rathlin island yesterday. He also reported  back on a sat-tagged Whooper he had seen on Monday at Kilchoman which turned out to be an adult male tagged in Iceland recently with a brood of 5 cygnets.

Wednesday 16th October

A mostly cloudy and damp sort of day with light winds from the south. Rainy to start, with brief sunny patches in the afternoon before a mist and fog set in.

Alison and Mike Uren, visiting for a week sent in a good list of their sightings. Pick of the bunch were:

Sunday 13th - 26 Brent Geese on Loch Indaal near Gartmain

Monday 14th -  2 White-tailed Eagles at Blackrock

Tuesday 15th -  3 Golden Eagles on Nave Island and a Snow Bunting at Ardnave Point

Today - c.10 Pink-footed Geese  at Loch Gorm and 30 Ringed Plover on Machir Beach

I looked at the Loch Gorm area this afternoon and was surprised to see so many Barnacle Geese on the loch and on the surrounding heathland - c.5,000 in total, plus another couple of thousand on the barley stubbles around Kilchoman where 15 Whooper Swans remain. Mandy H. also commented on the numbers here and that they were very jittery, but couldn't see any sign of eagles!

Monday 14th & Tuesday 15th October

Monday was a fine sunny dry day. Tuesday was blustery, cloudy and occasionally threatening rain. Winds from a generally southerly direction.

Nothing too out of the ordinary has been posted in the last two days. On Monday Jackie Wedd saw 7 Little Egrets, 30-40 Twite and 3 Greenshanks  at and around Killinallan and the Nature Scotland group posted Black-tailed Godwit, 3 White-tailed Eagles at Gruinart.

Today Gary T. was on Machir Bay where 200 Barnacle Geese had settled with the various gulls, a few Sanderling and 30 Ringed Plovers and 17 Twite. Later he noted White-tailed Eagle, Merlin, Hen Harrier and Buzzards at Gruinart. Down at Cornabus Ed Burrell saw a particularly large female Peregrine chasing Barnacle Geese.

I was down at the Gruinart hides in the mid-afternoon enjoying the many thousands of Barnacle Geese accompanied by 2 Pink-footed Geese. The White-tailed Eagle (immature) passed by and later at Ardnave Loch a young Golden Eagle was seen.

Sunday 13th October

Winds went round to a more southerly direction today, but still quite cold. A calm dryish start turned into a slightly more breezy at times afternoon with occasional rain.

The Nature Scotland group kicked things off with a look over Loch Indaal from Blackrock this morning when the seas were nice and calm making counts easier. They had the first good count of Slavonian Grebes this winter with a total of 26 birds, plus 12 Long-tailed Ducks, 38 Red-throated Divers, 46 Red-breasted Mergansers, 11 Brent Geese and a whopping 200 Common Scoter. In contrast there was just on lonely Scaup and a couple of Great Northern Divers. They also had 2 Otters a Peregrine and 8 Twite.

Mary Redman was down t Kilchoman and counted 29 Ringed Plovers on the sandy dune fields adjacent to Machir Bay, while up at Gruinart Clive Mc. counted 11 Little Egrets - the highest count for the species on Islay so far I believe (the previous highest being 10 last November).

Nature Scotland ventured down to The Oa later in the day scoring 2 Merlins, 2 adult and a juv Golden Eagle and 12 Twite. Looking on the Big Strand down at Kintra they found 19 Re-throated Divers and another Slav. Grebe. Not hanging about, they later found a Kingfisher on the River Sorn at Bridgend  before finishing at Gruinart where a Golden Eagle was hunting Barnies.

Saturday 12th October

A cold, blustery, rainy day with fairly strong westerly winds at times - not nice!

Being "not nice", there were fewer reports in today. However the topic continued to be migration from the north, with Clive Mc. sending in maps of a tagged Whooper Swan, recorded flying in from Iceland yesterday afternoon, arriving at Gruinart at 7pm. There were at least 24 Whoopers seen by Clive at Gruinart today and the fields around Kilchoman continue to hold large numbers - 155 counted by the Nature Scotland group. Whether this is the same large number that has been in that area for a few days now, or is a continuing change-over of arriving and departing birds, we'll never know.

Other than swans, there was ac count of 7 Little Egrets at Bun-an Uillt from Tom Gifford and the first of winter's Purple sandpipers seen by Ed Burrell at Carraig Fada. Various Hen Harriers were noted, battling the elements, Swallows seen being chased by Sparrowhawks and an impressive total of White-tailed eagles noted by Nature Scotland, with 6 seen across the Sound of Jura from Bunnahabhain, feeding on a strandline carcass with a further 4 on the Islay side. They also noted 10 Redwings at Gruinart, a Brent Goose with Barnies, 2 Gadwall and 450 Golden Plovers also in that area, along with 20 Common Scoter offshore at Bruichladdich. Finally, Clive Mc. counted 100 Twite on the fields at Ballinaby.

Friday 11th October

A very different day to yesterday with heavy, cold rain showers intermittently throughout the day on winds from the west.

It was another day with lots of sightings of Whooper Swans across Islay. 15 seen near Port Ellen by David Protherough this morning and I counted 20 at the top of Loch Indaal in late morning. At lunchtime Clive Mc. was up at Rockside where 120 were on the barley field stubbles.

Gary T. had a couple of Little Egrets from thew Whin Park lay-by on Loch Indaal. Over at Cornabus, Ed Burrell had 33 Greenland White-fronts and the Naturetrek group watched Peregrine, Merlin and a White-tailed Eagle at Bridgend - the eagle sat deciding which of the many geese there to annoy (the eagle tally increasing to the usual two later, seen by Jackie Wedd). Back at Gruinart, Clive Mc. counted 410 Golden Plovers on Loch Gruinart and Gary T. reported further Swallow sightings (6 at Bruichladdich Distillery) and a Hen Harrier chasing Teal at Bridgend Merse.

I twitched the Ring-necked Duck on Loch Skerrols in the afternoon, while the Nature Scotland team again scored "Bird of the Day" with the first sighting of the anticipated return of the Red-breasted Goose with the Barnies on the RSPB fields at Loch Gruinart.

Thursday 10th October

A largely very pleasant day of sunshine and light northerly breezes, with just the occasional very light isolated shower.

Ed Burrell down at Cornabus was reading rings and neck collars of the first handful of Greenland White-fronts on his patch calling them "old faithfuls" suggesting they have been down that way before! Ed also saw the first Redwings of the autumn in his area.

Thereafter there was much noting of arrivals of groups of White-fronts and Barnacle Geese and Whooper Swans throughout the day and across much of the island. Ed had 6 adult Whoopers at Cornabus, Gary T. had 7 on Loch Indaal at Bridgend, Mary Redman saw further groups of 12 then 9 at Claddach, Patrick Styles another group of 8 near Bridgend while Jackie Wedd had a bumper 160, including 25-30 young birds, at Kilchoman in the early afternoon. Clive Mc. had 16 passing straight through to the south at Gruinart while Theo with a Nature Scotland group just in today bumped up the Bridgend total to 12 and added 6 more on Loch Skerrols. Exact numbers for the day are anybody's guess, but mine is c.200.

Other birds of note included 5 Little Egrets seen by Tim Gifford at Killinallan, a pair of Hen Harriers, a Sparrowhawk and 6 Buzzards found by Andy Bunten near Port Ellen, 2 Grey Wagtails on the Moorland Trail at Gruinart RSPB c/o Jackie and 42 Pink-footed Geese at Bridgend c/o Patrick.

However Bird of the Day certainly goes to the Nature Scotland group who found a drake Ring-necked Duck (photo below) consorting with 32 Tufties and 200 Greenland White-fronted Geese on Loch Skerrols. They aslo added 200 Golden Plover and 12 Pintail at Gruinart.

Wednesday 9th October

With the wind going further into a bluster from the north, today's bird news was mainly about geese arriving in large numbers.

But first, there were reports of a raft of 87 Shags over in the bay at Port Ellen from Steve & Lyn Rogers and the two adult White-tailed Eagles on their little grassy island at the top of Loch Indaal at Bridgend from Gary T.

Apart from confirmation of in the evening of Barnacle Geese and Whooper Swans over the Claddach/Portnahaven area from Mary Redman, all other reports were from the Loch Gruinart area:

Clive Mc. had 9 Whooper Swans on the floods, with 12 there seen by Patrick Styles later. Patrick also noted 8 Pintails and a Brent goose there. Fiona Mc Gillivray did a count of Barnacle Geese  on the Gruinart Flats in the afternoon and estimated 7,058 along with 125 Greenland White-fronted Geese, 25 Whooper Swans and 2 Little Egrets, Clive noted a group of 39 Pink-footed Geese and flocks of Barnies still coming in later, with a count of 7,560.

With a further day of northerly winds tomorrow, we can perhaps expect further large arrivals of geese?

Tuesday 8th October

A dry sunny day, starting with breezy weather from a slightly more NE direction, then calming further into a pleasant afternoon.

Gary T. started the day with 2 adult White-tailed Eagles up on the flats at Bridgend and around Gartmain where 100 Bar-tailed Godwits, 9 Turnstone, 18 Knot, 3 Little Egrets and 29 Brent Geese were noted. One of the Brents had colour rings that he was keen to read and we await any results of this bird's origin. In the same area Patrick Styles had a group of 12 Pink-footed Geese a little later.

Up at Gruinart Clive Mc. had a larger group of 90 Pink-footed Geese in from the west along with a steady trickle of Barnacle Geese. On The Oa David Wood had further flocks of 23 Pink-footed Geese going north and noted a single House Martin.

I took a look around loch gorm, Ballinaby and then up to the RSPB Gruinart hides in the afternoon and made a few counts: Up in the small lochans at the west end of Loch Gorm were 1,400 Greylags with 670 Barnacle and 14 Pink-footed Geese and 22 Whooper Swans. Further along towards Kilchoman a further 70 Whoopers were sat in the barley stubbles. On the other side at the stubbles around Ballinaby were 270 Rock Doves and 11 more Whooper Swans. Down at the hides it was evident that there had been a big arrival of Barnacle Geese, which I didn't count but estimated at "several thousand" ( Clive Mc. was more diligent than I, and did, later, count the Barnies - giving a total of 3,760), along with some smaller groups of the first Greenland White-fronted Geese and a lone Brent Goose. These were scattered out on the fields and across Gruinart Bay where two adult White-tailed Eagles lurked. Here too were a further 22 Whooper Swans (one with a white colour-ring) and 25 more Pink-footed Geese Clive Mc. was more diligent than I, and did count the Barnies - giving a total of 3,760).

Mary Redman photographed a flock of c.70 Pink-footed Geese from the Jura ferry.

Thus a likely total of  234 Pink-footed Geese and 125 Whooper Swans. (It was noticeable that there were only 2-3 young Whoopers in the various flocks seen - a poor breeding season for them perhaps?).

Monday 7th October

 Firstly a big "Thank You" to Malcolm O. for doing the bird blog in my absence over the last week or so.

The weather today has been a bit kinder, with lighter easterly winds, sunshine and warmer temperatures - though winds are beginning to turn northerly now.

Gary T. was up at Caol Ila this morning and noted thrushes and a Short-eared Owl flying across the sound from Jura to Islay along with White-tailed Eagle cruising the coastline and 3 Buzzards, another White-tailed Eagle and a Golden Eagle in the area.

Down at "the other end" Mary Redman was also watching a White-tailed Eagle flying over to McKenzie island near Portnahaven, with 4 Whooper Swans at Claddach. This afternoon she posted a photo (below) of a Turtle Dove she saw near Portnahaven.

Visitor Patrick Styles reports 11 Black-tailed Godwits at Gruinart, where Clive reported on a steady trickle of incoming Barnacle Geese.

Fiona McGillivray counted 24 Whooper Swans among a large gathering of Greylags at Starchmill, Bridgend.

Sunday 6th October

 Still a SE wind, but not as strong as yesterday, with light rain on and off, mostly on, but not that cold.

The first report came around lunchtime from Fiona McG who saw 26 Light-bellied Brent and 90 Barnacles at Gartmain. A little over an hour later, Gary also saw the 26 Brent, but no Barnacles. Instead, he saw 150+ Wigeon, 32 Mallard, 11 Curlew, 23 Barwits and 20 Knot. He also about 70+ Greylags one of which had an orange neck collar which he couldn't read, but hopefully it will show again. This is quite possibly an Islay-ringed bird.

During the afternoon, Patrick Styles saw 2 Wheatears at Ardnave and Louis Schöpp saw a WTE on his way to Ardnave and 2 Choughs drinking from a puddle on the track by Ardnave Loch. Finally, Clive saw 2 Swallows at Gearach and 3 at Eresaid, as well as a Wheatear at Gruinart.

Saturday 5th October

 The rain of yesterday continued until late morning, but as it cleared the wind got up, as forecast, and has been gusting up to 43 mph, still mainly SE, at the airport, and it is set to continue through the night before dropping a little tomorrow but only to the mid-20s mph.

Very little bird news to report, with single Wheatears seen at opposite ends of the Rhinns, one at Claddach, quite possibly the same one seen there on Thursday, also by Mary Redman, while Clive had one at Ardnave.

James was counting at Loch Gruinart in the late afternoon, finding a juvenile WTE, yet another Wheatear, 2 Hen Harriers, 105 Lapwing and 590 Barnacle Geese, which compares with 1510 yesterday. It is quite normal for Barnacle Geese to arrive at Gruinart and then to move to another part of the island, the strong SE wind making it unlikely they've moved on to Ireland. Finding somewhere with a bit more shelter from the weather is the most likely.

Friday 4th October

Well, the rain arrived and the S-SE wind blew a bit stronger and, not untypically in such weather, the blog relies on visitors who obviously go out and birdwatch, not stay indoors like us residents.

Having said that, school runs have to continue whatever the conditions, and Mary Redman driving from Portnhaven to Port Charlotte this morning saw a Wheatear in Portnahaven village, a male Hen Harrier at Octofad and, on the return leg, a WTE adult over Claddach Loch.

Thank you again, Louis Schöpp, for sharing your observations, starting with 75 Whooper Swans in the fields near Kilchoman Distillery, a flock which contained a number of cygnets. He then moved on to Gruinart where there were 3 Little Egrets on the east side near the Oyster Shed and 2 WTE flying over Ardnave Point.

The final observation at the end of the day was James How's count  of 1510 Barnacle Geese and 8 Greenland Whitefronts at Gruinart. They will have set off from Iceland where the weather remains sunny with light winds, and then been welcomed here by rain and wind, which, though, they will be used to having been here before!