An overcast, windy and rainy day.
Despite the unpleasant weather, cabin-fever got the better of me and I checked Lochs Ballygrant and Skerrols in the rain. nothing but 3 Tufted Ducks and a Woodcock in adjacent woodland at Ballygrant, but 18 Tufted Ducks, 6 Goldeneye (all female) and 3 Goosanders (2 male, 1 female) at Skerrols.
Mary R. noticed a Gannet diving offshore at Currie Sands and 5 Chough around the same area, while David D. had a Barn Owl on the wing at Ghiol, The Oa.
Drizzly at times becoming windier with more persistent rain by the evening.
No records noted today, but Clive McK. sent in some details from his WeBS count yesterday from Bowmore to Blackrock. Amongst 30 species recorded were 33 Shelduck, 127 Wigeon, 33 Mallard, 145 Teal, 53 Common Scoter, 27 Red-breasted Mergansers, 232 Oystercatchers, 70 Lapwing, 251 Bar-tailed Godwits, 8 Greenshanks, 144 Knot, 166 Dunlin, 197 Common Gulls and singles of Black-throated Diver, Little Egret and a Kingfisher - the latter by the generating station just outside Bowmore. He also had a loose flock of 17 Rock Pipits at Carnain.
The only bird news today comes from Gary Turnbull who confirms that he and Sam are soon relocating to the mainland to be closer to family. Islay will be poorer for their move away - especially the birding community, as Gary has been one of the island's most active resident birders for the last c.11 years. He has contributed masses of individual records: all sorts of useful observations including from areas where others don't reach too often, to WeBS and other surveys and counts, discoveries of uncommon and scarcer species and valuable notes on other wildlife. I'm sure that all the many birders - resident and visiting - whose paths you've crossed will be very sorry to see the both of you go, but wish you all the very best back on the mainland - and hope that you'll be back on Islay for your holidays!
A blustery day with quite strong SE winds, cloud and a fair bit of rain.
The only bird note sent in is of an uncommon non-breeding species for Islay - a Magpie! First seen by David D. at Cragabus, then again (or was it a second bird?) by Ed. B. at Cornabus. On the one hand it would be good to think there were two - "one for sorrow, two for joy" etc, but the thoughts of two birds staying and starting to breed is probably less welcome?
Mostly rainy and cloudy with moderate winds seemingly discouraged anyone from birding today. However, visitor Mark Avery sent in some notes from the previous few days. Noteworthy among them are:
Friday: a Kingfisher at Gartmain
Saturday: a Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Knot, and single Greenshank at Gartmain and a Great Northern Diver at Carnain. At Bruichladdich were 3 Brent Geese and a White-tailed Eagle at Gruinart.
Sunday: a Gadwall at Ardnave Loch and Golden Eagle on the west side of Gruinart, with 5 immature White-tailed Eagles together feeding on a couple of goose carcasses on the Killinallan side where there was a Merlin and 2 Canada Geese.
Another couple of days of mixed weather - rain and shine - with a few birds being noted.
Billy Stitchell saw a total of 5 Buzzards on Saturday morning: one on its usual pole at Limekiln, two on fence posts at Cluanach, one on road-kill at the cattle grid near Barr and another one taking off with its road-kill at the cattle grid at Knocklearoch.
Today Ed B. reports a Jack Snipe at Cornabus and Martin A. had a Pink-footed Goose near Kilchoman distillery.
Visitor Rudolf Hummel sent in more records: 2 Brent Geese at Port Charlotte on Friday afternoon, 4 Whooper Swans at Ardnave yesterday and 5 at Gruinart today where he also saw a Pink-footed Goose. A couple of Great Northern divers were seen up towards Nave Island, with Gadwall on Ardnave Loch. He reckoned that 3 Golden Eagles were feeding on a dead Barnacle Goose at Gruinart where he also mentions two further dead Barnies and one looking sick. I hope this is not a further outbreak of Bird Flu? Other birds of prey seen by Rudolf were White-tailed Eagle, a male and female Hen Harrier and Sparrowhawk at Sanaigmore.
A brighter, sunny day for much of Thursday, but more variable with sunshine in the middle of the day, but cloud and rain with a light SW breeze otherwise.
Morven sent in the January International Goose Count totals, the census carried out on 13th & 14th January. There were 27,731 Barnacle Geese, 4,093 White-fronted Geese and 659 Greylag Geese.
Billy Stitchell sent in a photo of another bird species visiting his productive garden up at Caol Ila:
Today's weather grew increasingly blustery and rainy from late morning onwards, so no records of any birds came through.
A bit of news from James H. for yesterday (13th) mentions 2 White-tailed Eagles at Loch Gruinart, 2 Golden Eagles and another White-tailed Eagle on the other side of Gruinart at Killinallan, and a further one of each up at Ardnave. James also located the elusive Red-breasted Goose at Gruinart along with a Water Rail.
Having asked about Chaffinches at other folk's bird feeders I had a note from Malcolm O. just up the road from me in Bruichladdich saying he is regularly seeing 15-18 in his garden - about 10 more than in recent winters. He also lamented the decline in Greenfinches: he used to have 3 pairs nesting in the garden.
Billy Stitchell sent in the following count from his garden and feeders at Caol Ila for yesterday: Chaffinch c.40-50 plus 4 Blue Tits, 6 Coal Tits, 5 Great Tits, 1 Siskin and 3 Greenfinches, 1 Treecreeper, 10 Blackbirds, 1 Bullfinch, 4 Collared Doves, c.10 Dunnocks.
He also commented: "I usually chop the Buddleia and Chinese Honeysuckle back at the end of the year, but not last year due to the weather. I hadn’t realised the Sparrows love the seeds, the branches were buckling under their weight and the noise! Same with the Honeysuckle; that’s what attracts the Bullfinch"
Very little to report on the bird front over the past few days. Weather has ameliorated from the colder conditions of last week into something more typical of an Islay winter - milder, quickly changing between clouds and rain and sunnier spells with mostly moderate winds.
Daavid D. noted a Merlin at Sanaigmore on Saturday. Yesterday (12th) Gary T. had a pair of Choughs out at Finlaggan and Steve & Lyn Rogers noted 2 White-tailed Eagles and a Kestrel over their garden at Kilnaughton. Also yesterday, Martin Armstrong had a Yellowhammer near the Round Church at Bowmore. Today David D. reports that the small Canada Goose was present at Kinnabus.
Mary Ann Featherstone sent in a couple of photos of some colourful, regular species in her garden at Kildalton to brighten up the blog.
Here at Bruichladdich I had a count of 7 Greenfinches on the feeders and there are 35-45 Chaffinches on my bird-feeders each day. It would be interesting to have counts of Chaffinches from other feeders.
While other large areas of the country experienced strong winds and snow, it was a calm, and at times sunny day here - though temperatures almost at freezing point at times.
Clive McK. reported a White-tailed Eagle predating a Barnacle Goose on Loch Gruinart and Ed B. saw the parvipes Canada Goose again at Cornabus. Gary T. watched a lone Brambling among a flock of c.50 Chaffinches at Crosshouses and I took advantage of the flat calm waters of Loch Indaal to check birds off Blackrock. There was the usual good selection of Eiders and Red-breasted Mergansers with counts of 22 Red-throated divers, 16 Long-tailed Ducks, 14 Slavonian Grebes and c.45 Common Scoter.
Don't worry! The blog is still going, but there have been no notified sightings for days as the weather has presumably convinced people not to venture far from home. The weather has been variable - some very light snow and cold/icy conditions, giving way today to much milder weather with the snow melted. Winds have been at worst "breezy" and nothing like the awful weather being experienced further south in the UK - nor the heavy snowfalls in northern Scotland.
The better conditions today resulted in a few records coming in - David D. had a Long-tailed Duck on loch Kinnabus - unusual to have a sighting on a freshwater loch. Ed B. saw the parvipes type Canada Goose down at Cornabus along with 5 Pink-footed Geese. There was also a report sent in of the Red-breasted Goose being seen in fields with Barnies above the moorland trail at Gruinart.
Here at Bruichladdich, with a flat calm sea and milder weather, the 6 or more Black Guillemots at the pier seemed to be pairing up, displaying and pretending it was spring!
Two cold and wintery days with intermittent sleety, snowy showers.
There were no reports of any bird sightings yesterday, but today James H. was at the RSPB Gruinart North Hide where the Green-winged Teal is still present plus 3 Black-tailed Godwits and 2 adult White-tailed Eagles.
Billy Stitchell was out and about with his camera and sent in these lovely photos of our local birds:
Clive McK. spotted a Barn Owl on a roadside fence at Gruinart last night.
Today, snowy showers along with fairly strong northerly winds brought a very wintry feel to a normally slightly more benign Islay.
I popped up to the top of Loch Indaal at Bridgend and walked out to the mouth of the River Sorn where a scattered total of 6 White-tailed Eagles sat and flapped into the wind on the flats. Here too were 2-3 Greenshanks and a couple of Little Egrets looking very chilly. Up at Loch Skerrols the loch seemed devoid of the usual Tufted Ducks but a trio of Goosander, including one male, made the visit worthwhile. Here at Bruichladdich were a record-beating total of 7 Greenfinches on my feeders.
Elsewhere, Andy Clements was out on the Oa where he counted 22 Twite on the RSPB Car Park feeders.
Happy New Year to all the readers of the blog.
The first day of 2026 was cool, with northerly buffeting winds and sleety rain showers.
However, some of us got out for some New Year's birding. I started things off with a couple of White-tailed Eagles sat out as usual on the flats of Loch Indaal at Bridgend. Andy Clements came by a little later and found three in the same place. We drove on to Bowmore where we found 5 Brent Geese, Andy Webb finding 20 there shortly after (photo below)! We then went on to The Oa and said hello to Ed Burrell at Cornabus who, shortly after we left, saw another White-tailed Eagle chasing Woodcock over his patch. At the RSPB The Oa car park it was too windy and wet to think about doing the walk out to the American Monument, so we had a coffee, lunch and watched the 25+ Twite at the feeders (my friend, Ken Chapman, with me from Sandwich in the SE of England mentioned that this species now requires a rarity description when see in Kent!). Andy Webb joined us here and managed to see a Golden Eagle on his way back to Port Ellen that we managed to miss! Andy then popped up to Ballygrant loch to "year tick" the three Ring-necked Ducks there.
