Thurs 22nd Jan

A message through from Andy Schofield, saying that he had seen the Canvasback Duck and also the Lesser Scaup this morning down at Loch Skerrols. We went down after lunch and only saw the Lesser Scaup, and it was hard enough to identify, but thanks to Andy for that. There were also 24 Whooper and 9 Mute Swans there too, along with a Coot, a few Wigeon, some Goldeneye, a few Scaup and Tufted Duck, it was too cold to count! RAS

Tracey forwarded me on last week's Goose counts from SNH, tallying out at 40,191 Barnies, and 6,097 Whitefronts. Whilst at Loch Skerrols, I had been speaking to Becky Williamson from Bowmore, who took the images of the Rosy Starling, and Becky said that while doing the Goose counts back in December, that she had seen the Bar headed Goose.

George had found a dead Heron up on the ponds at the back of his house, and he reckons that it was possibly the same Heron that was quite tame and was a frequent visitor. Another visitor George had was a Sparrowhawk, while he had a count of 107 Curlew in one of his fields. GJ

Thurs 9th October

The only news for toady is that a Bar-headed Goose was seen today along with a flock of Barnacle Geese at Blackrock. If you recall, there was one seen last year, first of all on the 8th of October at Rockside, and it was seen quite often through last winter, mainly with the Barnacle Geese in and around Cornabus. The question is, could this possibly be the same bird or not, certainly last season's bird was at Blackrock at one point through it's stay here.

Sat 9th Feb

The Bar-headed Goose has been seen again in the fields at Cornabus over at Port Ellen, so it has not left us yet! Dave P.

The Glaucous Gull is still at Ballinaby, as are the Iceland Gulls in the Saligo area, as reported in the blog of Wed 6th February. There was a 1st winter Glaucous Gull seen off the pier at Bruichladdich, along with the following Divers, 9 Great Northern Diver, 4 Red throated Diver, 1 Black throated Diver, 7 Slavonian Grebe and 8 Common Scoter. On the Shoreline there were 12 Purple Sandpiper below the Distillery.

Up at Ardnave there was a group of 5 Snow Bunting on the track just beside the silage pit before you come to Ardnave Loch itself. An immature Golden Eagle was seen flying over RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve. Down at Avonvoggie, a male Crossbill was seen and heard singing, will it remain to breed, one asks? RAS

Up at Sanaig, there was a single Great Nortern Diver out in the bay and 20 Turnstone were on the shore. MAO

Wed 19th - Thurs 20th Dec

Yes, the Bar headed Goose ( or the Braehead Goose as some call it), that was initially seen back on the 8th of October has been spotted again today, Thursday. It was in amongst a field of around 2,000 Barnacle Geese over at Cornabus at Port Ellen, grazing away quite contentedly! It was good to hear that it was still around as I had recently asked through the blog if anyone had seen it lately. The last sighting was at Finlaggan by Steve Percival at the end of October, so where has it been for the last 2 months? Also seen yesterday were the Crossbills , 1 Red and 3 Green, over at Avonvogie in the Pine trees, only 4 this time whereas there were 5 earlier on in early November, or were they different birds? MAO

The Goose count at RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve on Tuesday, gave us the following figures, 6,059 Barnacle Geese and 412 Whitefronts which is a high figure for the reserve. Also seen were 31 Meadow Pipit, 76 Sanderling (another high count), 1 Sparrowhawk and a single Black tailed Godwit. 4 Hen Harriers were also seen on Monday, while this afternoon there were 2 Greenshank down at the hide, and 20 Twite were noted, again a high figure for the reserve. JRH

A Short eared Owl was seen over the moorland at Gruinart, a late bird as they are not normally here at this time of year. A Golden Eagle and a female Hen Harrier was also also noted at the same time as was a single Jack Snipe. CF

I have just received a copy of "Birds of Argyll" written by the Argyll Bird Club, a well written book by several contributors which will keep me reading for a wee while. IKB

Sun 28th Oct

Another week on Islay is past, so here are few notes....

Possibly the highlight of the week was this Little gull, a 1st winter bird heading south along the shore at Bruichladdich on Thurs 25th.

Barnacle geese appear to have had a reasonable breeding season, with around 11% of the flock being juvenlie birds, enough to give a small increase in numbers. Some intresting rings observed through the week, more than usual from both Ireland (caught by David Cabot on the Inishkea Islands) and Sutherland (caught by Carl Mitchell & the Highland Ringing Group at Durness), would indicate a good number of "passage" birds present on Islay. No new Svalbard birds this time but a couple of the regulars from there that seem to have moved permantly to the Islay population.

The number of White-fronted geese are low, are they possibly still in Iceland? No collars were read at all.

Canada Geese, at least 5, have been seen at various locations throughout the island.

An Arctic Tern was seen offshore from Bruichladdich on Monday 22cd, and also 3 Swallow heading south at Port Ellen. A Siskin was over at Coullabus on Tues 23rd, and there was 2 separate sightings of Golden Eagle, one an immature, the other an adult bird at different locations.

The Bar- headed goose was with the Barnacle Geese over at Finlaggan on Wed 24th. Also that day was a late Greenland Wheatear at Gruinart. SP

Fri 26th Oct- Sat 27th Oct

Over at RSPB, Loch Gruinart reserve here on Islay, the following birds were seen, 2 Hen Harriers, 1 Merlin, 20 Pintail, 2 Pale Bellied Brent Geese, 153 Golden plover, 205 Lapwing, 302 Fieldfare, 357 Whitefronts and 1 Polecat ferret! Off reserve, and a Barn Owl was seen out hunting. JRH
A Little Gull was seen off Bruichladdich and whilst scanning through the numerous Barnacle Geese, 7 Canada Geese were spotted, 6 Hutchinsii and 1 Parvipes which was along with 2 Hybrids. The Bar headed Goose is still around, having been seen at the top of Loch Indaal and more recently at Finlaggan along the other geese. There have been several other sightings on the mainland, are they all escapees or what? SP

Mon 8th Oct

On returning from Port Charlotte this morning, we just stopped for a moment for a quick scan through the geese that were grazing on the stubble field, mainly Barnies and Whitefronts along with the solitary Pinkfoot, and then a double take, what were we seeing? Certainly not a Snow Goose, but indeed a Bar-headed Goose, where it had come from is open to discussion, was it infact a wild goose, or was it one that had escaped from captivity? There is an interesting article about the Bar-headed Goose in the October edition of "Birdwatch" magazine, in which it states that this species is the highest flying migrant as it crosses through the Himalayas on its annual migration. You can see the large wingspan which it has in comparison to the Barnies.