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!