Saturday 7th March

A final e mail  from "The Rochdale Birders" with some birds seen over the past few days seen when over here for this visit...
"13 Crossbills at Finlaggan around the house garden, 1 Goldcrest  at Avenvogie, a Female Hen Harrier at Gruinart and also 5 Hares seen boxing at Port Charlotte"

Gary e mailed some sightings seen by himself yesterday....
" Over at Bunnahabhain all three divers, 7 Great Northern, 2 Red throated & 1 Black throated Divers.
Also 7 Common Crossbill in the fir trees."

Tuesday 3rd March

Gary sent through some sightings  for me to use on the blog for you all to appreciate...
"Some sightings from yesterday,
Bunnahabhain - 5 Crossbills in fir trees at distillery,
Finlaggan - 6 Fieldfare in fields around steading,
Esknish - 2 Lesser black backed Gulls amongst Common Gulls in field after Barnacle Geese had moved on."

Friday 31st January

Well in a few hours time that will be the end of January, so I wonder how much rain that we have had in comparison to previous tallies for January, as ever, you will just have to wait in suspense until the blog tomorrow, when all will be revealed..

Gary had faced up to the cooler winds today and in at Finlaggan, he had 7 Crossbills. And then shortly after that he saw a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2 Bullfinches and also a further 5 Crossbills along the track up behind Bunnahabhain.

Up here at home the ringtail was present today, again having a meal.. The Barn Owl was seen last night staying there for over 3 hours and has been in already for the best part of an hour so far. No need for the winter watch series on the TV!!!

Tuesday 31st December, Hogmany

Some sightings from yesterday & today, through from Gary...
Yesterday, 1 juv Glaucous Gull & 2 White tailed Eagle were seen at Gartbreck. Today, 1 Golden Eagle, 5 Buzzard, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1Cormorant, 30+ Teal & 1 White tailed Eagle seen at Finlaggan. 9 Crossbills were present in the plantation there as well.

Up here at home, we had a close fly by of a ringtail Hen Harrier, the pesky Sparrowhawk was seen, whether it was this one or another but someone nobbled a Goldfinch in the feeding station, but on a more positive note we counted a charm of 36 Goldfinches on the overhead power cables, mid afternoon with a distant Buzzard away out on its' usual post on the deer fence out on the hill...

I notice that someone had seen an "Egret" yesterday morning down on the merse at Bridgend, on the  comments at the foot of yesterday's entry. 

Before I forget, may I take this chance to thank all our contributors who have sent sightings through of birds and wildlife seen in and around on Islay and Jura over the past year, much appreciated and look forward to meeting up with some of you again in 2020, a Happy New Year to all our readers...