Friday, 31 January 2025

 Tuesday 28th to Thursday 30th January 2025

Thank you, Clive McK, for contributing the first bird record this week! And it's an interesting one. From his house on the west side of Loch Gruinart, at sunrise on Thursday he spotted a pair of adult Great Black-backed Gulls to the ESE, high over the hills behind Corsapol (red pin on map). They were sticking very close together and flapping constantly all the way. Instead of dropping in at Gruinart, but they just carried on >WNW, eventually going out of sight over the hill towards Sanaig/Ardnave. As Clive says, one thinks of this species as being quite sedentary. This seemed an unusual flight line, from somewhere  in north-east Islay heading to the north-west.

I hope you all carried out the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch at the start of the week. I did mine, as usual, just after I had put out the food for them and had good totals of 55 House Sparrows, 43 Starlings, 22 Goldfinches, and 13 Collared Doves, as well as single figures of several other species. I am, though, surprised at how few Collared Doves I've fed this winter so far. Last year at this time it was 40-45, but the maximum this winter has been no more than 15. So, has anyone else noticed a big drop in dove numbers or, of course, a large increase?



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