Thursday 11th April

An right early entry for once, not even had an afternoon cupa yet, but here goes.. 'cos I am away out shortly for an evening meal with the family and friends!!!

Yesterday, Peter did a quick count of the Tysties seen at Bruichladdich Pier noting 8 birds in all. In the afternoon, Peter noted another feeding frenzy out on Loch Indaal with mainly Gulls seen , 5 RTD, and a Common Guillemot with 23 GNDs present there at the same time. Also yesterday, Mike had counted 4 Sandwich Terns between Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte. Phill had the folowing birds down on the Oa, again yesterday, Sand Martin, Canada Goose, GND, Kestrel, Golden Eagle, 3 Eider, 43 Tysties and also 25 Twite. 

This morning, Mike had heard 3 Willow Warblers calling away, when he was walking along  the track leading out to Bolsay. Phill this morning had 25 Lapwing, a male Hen Harrier, 3 Sand Martin, 2 Curlew and also 9 Snipe, all down on the Oa reserve.

Sunday 3rd April

Yesterday, Peter Gill had heard and then saw a Chiffchaff at Gruinart. Later on, outside the "new hide", 2 Greenshank and 3 large Canada Geese were present. Up at Ardnave, Peter saw a White tailed Eagle fly past and on the loch, 2 female  Goldeneye were there. Today, here at home there were a pair of Siskins on the feeders. Gary had been down to the Woollen Mill and reports through to say that he had seen the Mandarin Duck, a Dipper and also a Grey Wagtail there on Friday.

Tuesday 13th October

Yesterday Mike and Elspeth had seen 4 Mute Swan, 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe and a Cormorant with a Great Tit carrying food close by. Along at Loch Allan, they had a further 2 Mute Swan with a Treecreeper present there as well. From Blackrock today, they saw 32 Scaup, 10 Red breasted Merganser and 3 Slavonian Grebe with a further 5 divers out on Loch Indaal but identifying them proved difficult because of the sunlight! Down on the Rhinns they had 2 Golden Eagles on the wing and also 2 Chough and returning later on through Bruichladdich, 13 Ringed Plover and 3 Turnstone were present. "Our" George Jackson had been up at Ardnave Loch and counted 30 Whoopers, 12 Mute and 140 Wigeon. Returning birders, Anne and Noel Hand had seen the Rose coloured Starling at "the Hedges" below Sunderland Farm this morning. Gary had been over at Gruinart on the Eastern shoreline where he saw a small Canada Goose amongst the Barnies and also 3 Pink footed Geese amongst the Brent Geese there. The Bowland birders had 35 Scoter as they set out this morning on Loch Indaal, over on the Oa their birds included 2 Ravens, 12 Eider, 10 Chough, Rock Pipits,40 Twite, Kestrel, 2 Buzzard, 1 Golden Eagle, with a Wheatear seen at Mid Cragabus. On their way home, with the tide coming in on Loch Indaal, birds seen included were Barwits, Barnies, 150 Golden Plover, 8 Ringed Plover, 25 Dunlin, 4 Knot, Teal, Mallard and Wigeon. Here at home 2 flocks of Lapwing flew past early this morning, of 50 Birds and other group being only 12 in total, no sign of any Whoopers on Loch Gorm, 13 Chough tumbling around late afternoon. Earlier this morning the "local" pair of Chough, were sitting on a wall, cheekily watching me as I walked by them, less than 5 metres away, no need for the bins!!! By the way, it has been another great day with the weather again, working away outside in shirt sleeves, not bad for almost the middle of October....

Thurs 31st Dec

Another image sent through by Richard Bonser who was over here on Islay the other weekend. He saw this vagrant Canada Goose in the middle of a flock of Barnies.

Back to today, and Eion Brown the Farm Manager for RSPB at Gruinart had seen the Little Egret, so it is still with us. It has been here all month, and back into November too, so probably making it the longest staying Little Egret on Islay!

The poll closes at midnight in the www.forargyll.com 2009 awards, so if you have not voted yet, time is running out on you! All will be revealed tomorrow......it's great for the bird blog to be a finalist!

At this point, before signing off tonight, I would like to thank the many folk here on Islay who have contributed through the year, especially James How who looks after the blog while I am away, but also thanks to the visitors who have sent their sightings and images through to share with us all. All your contributions large or small make it all worthwhile, thanks again to you all.

Wishing everyone a Good New Year and all the best for 2010

Sat 14th March

James had a few sightings off reserve today as he went down to Bridgend. At Lyrabus, he had a Peregrine falcon, coming across the flats he saw a Merlin and also spotted the Canada goose again. Coming home and he was on the lookout for any Greenland whitefronts with collars round their necks, and managed to see 5 in all, 3 at Lyrabus and 2 further on at Craigens. Not bad going, especially as there have only been a few fitted with collars.

On getting home, James had another tale to relate. Basically his daughter, Eleanor, had gone out for a ride on her bike and James had tagged on behind to see that all was okay. She went round the back of the steading on her bike and a Peregrine took off from being on the ground, and then there was a "thump" on the ground. The Peregrine had drooped half a Rock dove back onto the ground!

Fri 20th Feb

James is back from a few days break on the mainland, and managed to get out of the office for a wee while today, and had seen the Canada Goose which is still around, as well as a Black tailed Godwit on the floods in front of the hide at Gruinart. JRH

Back here at home, there has been a Song Thrush out in the wood the last few mornings, giving air to his vocal chords, to good effect! Also, down over the dunes at the back of Machir Bay, there were 20 Chough out on the wing along with some Jackdaws. Yesterday, near to Saligo Bay, there were several Skylarks singing away to their heart's content. Coming home last night from Port Charlotte, a Barn Owl was out hunting down at Foreland.

Mon 14th April

Here is an image of a Canada Goose, hutchinsii sp, kindly sent in by Steve Percival who was over last week. As some you may recall Steve did his PhD thesis on Barnacle Geese here on Islay, and has returned annually to ring more Geese and to monitor them.

The weather remained dry, cold but sunny today, allowing the folk taking part in Walkislay to enjoy some more walks here on Islay, infact we were only 1 short of 70 folk walking at the same time. Good going, with many new faces, one from Canada, no not the Goose, another from Holland as well as some new walkers from around the UK ,along with several returning folk mixing in the ones participating from here on Islay itself.

Fri 4th April

After a dull start to the day, the weather picked up mid morning, and so allowing this Song Thrush to give us a tune!

I spent some time over at the hide at Gruinart and enjoyed the Pintail doing their synchronised swimming routine, other ducks present were Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Shelduck and Shoveler. A pair of Red breasted Merganser were also seen. Later on a Hoodie Crow was seen briefly before being sent packing by several Lapwing. Around the viewing platform, in the flowering Gorse there were several Robins singing and also Wrens being very vocal too. Up at Ardnave, I had an odd sighting amongst a flock of Barnacle Geese, I had to check twice, but right enough there were 2 Greater Black backed Gull with them. On my return the Geese had flown away, but the Gulls were still there! The Canada Goose was with the Barnacle Geese at the back of the farm steading at Aoradh. While coming home over the moor, we had a really close view of a male Hen Harrier, flying away from us. IKB

George reported in today, having a Goldcrest at his house at Bruichladdich, while Michal had 8 Whooper Swan flying North up Loch Indaal while waiting at the Airport. GJ &MS

Mon 3rd - Wed 5th March

Well, I woke the other morning and looked out the window, just to see a Magpie, was I dreaming? No, I was back being your Paisley correspondent for a few days, so not really an Islay bird! But here goes for the birds seen on Islay. Before going over to Paisley, we had a pair of Buzzard mating, and also that day there was a Golden Eagle being mobbed by a group of about 15 Chough. Back at home here on the lawn there was pile of black feathers, possibly from one of our Blackbirds that had been a victim of a "birdstrike" IKB

On Sunday, at RSPB Loch Gruinart Reserve, there were 2 Merlin, a male Hen Harrier and over 100 Skylark. The next day, up at Ardnave 32 Chough were seen and also a Peregrine Falcon. We were wondering why the Snow Bunting numbers were declining from 6 to 4 last week, and now down to only 2. Roger Boughton, a sound recordist who was over here working for the BBC, may have solved the problem as he observed a male Merlin taking and eating one of them.

A Sparrowhawk was seen at Gruinart on Tuesday taking a Starling.

Finally, on Wednesday at Gruinart a Canada Goose, Hutchinsii sp was seen. JRH.

Latest goose figures from SNH are, on 27/28 Feb. there were 42,391 Barnacle geese and 6,102 Whitefronts and on 3/4 March there were 37,990 Barnies and 4,879 Whitefronts. Thanks to the team at SNH for these figures.