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 8th Jan

The Canvasback duck was seen again this morning amongst the Scaup at the head of Loch Indaal. It was originally seen by John Armitage, who contacted Andy Schofield and Louise Gregory from RSPB. Later on, it was also seen by James How and Michal Sur. It is the first sighting of this bird on Islay, and Argyll, and had only been seen 7 times previously in the UK. If confirmed by the rare birds committee that would bring the tally to 8. RAS

While down looking at this duck on Loch Indaal, James also had seen 5 Long tailed Ducks, 1 Black throated Diver, several Great Northern Divers along with several Red throated Divers. There was also a large flock of Scaup present too, as well as 5 Slavonian Grebe. Back at the Gruinart, and the lesser Canada Goose, hutchinsii sp is still along with the other geese on the flats. JRH