Friday 10 September

 Better late than never! Mobile network was down on the island most of yesterday and through the night. Appears to be better for now although I can't seem to upload photos. Perhaps Pete will have more luck today.

Yesterday was quite a still day with rolling fog but there was some activity with 11 wheatears feeding on the track near Claddach Loch. Jim had a count of 18 on there drive round Loch Gorm.

More pale-bellied brents appeared: a flock of 57 on Loch Gruinart with potentially an other 53, a further count today will confirm. The curlew sandpiper was still present, and the osprey still in attendance. Must be getting plenty fish! James had peregrine as well as 33 meadow pipits in the fields about his home. 

Jim had some lovely views of the Octofad carrion crow, showing a "touch of grey hybrid features".  Louise then reported a carrion crow in Port Ellen.

Monday 2nd November

Some birds seen from Mike Bell yesterday... 

"Coullabus: 25 Redwing.

Near Skerrols House: 4 Pinkfeet in a field on their own.

Lack of wee birds Ballygrant woods to Loch Allan, best sightings 1 Woodcock, 2 Grey Wagtail & 2 Redpoll with 5 Dabchicks on the loch.

Near Keills: 1 male hen harrier

The lack of eagles in the air was particularly disappointing until the Ballinaby pair showed well at 3.45 pm. "

Ed Hutchings sent me through his birds seen yesteday...

"I braved the less severe weather today and saw the following: 2 Chough on the putting green in front of The Machrie at noon, with a further chattering of 3 seen at Machir Bay an hour later. On the way I encountered the large Chaffinch flock between Sunderland Farm and Kilchoman Distillery with at least 1 Brambling still present. After lunch, I drove the northern route around Loch Gorm. Lots of Barnacle, Greylag and White-fronted Geese on the fields south of the road, as well as 9 Fieldfare, a female Kestrel and an adult Whooper Swan. A ringtail Hen Harrier flew over the moorland north of the road. A deceit of 70 Lapwing was on the fields around Sanaigmore. A Raven was in the small glen north of Port Wemyss mid-afternoon."

Gary yesterday had seen the followings birds seen when out and about...

"Male Hen Harrier over moorland at airport, WTE over fields above the Gaelic collage, Adult Golden Eagle at Tallant plantation on high road, Male Sparrowhawk on Cruach Rd, Male Hen Harrier there also. Sub. ad WTE at Finlaggan, Male Hen Harrier at Aluchga"

Yesterday was Teresa Morris's final day of this trip.... "sadly but been a fantastic day for the birds. This morning over Craigens Cottage was the male and female Hen Harrier and Golden Eagle ! A walk to the more sheltered east side of Ardnave this afternoon was superb with great views of 7 Snow Buntings, 4 Ring Plovers, 10 Turnstones. Several Barnacle Geese were still flying in from the Atlantic battling the gales. Back on the flats a large flock of Golden Plover approx 500. 

A few days ago worth noting I saw a lone Bridled Gulliemot at Ardnave point. "

Nick Gates sent this list of the pick ofthe birds seen by him  yesterday...  

A few more sightings from today: just outside Bowmore today I had an adult male goldeneye, 3 GND (summer plumage), a Tystie (winter plumage), Eiders, Scaup and RBM. 

 Dan Brown had ben out and about over the last couple of days...

"We did a little storm watching at Portnahaven on Saturday - very impressive and we kept our fingers crossed for the young seal pups on the island getting battered by huge waves. Not a lot to report bird-wise though.  

I was on the flats all day yesterday; my sightings were: A Curlew Sandpiper with Dunlin in the golden plover flock, a Brambling over, Todd’s Canada Goose with the Barnies, and on the floods - 6 Greenshank and a pair of Gadwall. Impressive numbers of waders roosting on the floods this evening with the very high tide inc 15+ Grey Plover. Birds everywhere."

Some sightings through from Gary today:

In at Loch Skerrols, the Amercan Wigeon was still present, he also had a Golden Eagle and also a WTE there as well, and also he had at least 80 Whoopers, 2 Goldeneye and 50+ Tufted Duck. When parked up in the lay by at Gartmain, he had a continual stream of  573 Whoopers flying overhead, all flying south. After that wee bit of exitement, 12 Yellowhammers along the road towards the Gaelic College.   Further exitement just in on from Gary, late Monday afternoon, to say that he had seen a COMMON CRANE flying overhead and then when speaking to me , he saw a probable MARSH HARRIER, nice ones Gary!!!

Sunday 18th October

 Richard Belter had the Wood Sandpiper seen out from the North hide at Gruinart again today..

Bob Davison had carried out his WeBS count from Port Charlotte round to Blackrock today with his tally coming to as follows:

2 Grey Heron, 2 Gannets, 5 GND, a single raft of 40 Slavonian Grebes, 20 Shag, 2 Cormorant, 17 Herring gull, 3 Gbb Gull, 12 Curlew, 26 Oystercatcher, 2 Purple Sandpiper, 9 Turnstone, a single Eider, 9 Mallard, 6 R B Merganser and also 40 Common Scoter.

Steve Percival saw a single Todd's Canada Goose over at Gruinart this morning.

Mike Hill this morning saw a flock of Goldfinches and also 12 Redwings over at Kilchoman.

Eddie and Elaine Prince had   e mailed trough some sightings seen today...

"We spotted 2 Harbour Porpoises off Ardnave today, which prompted a closer inspection of our corpse than we had made earlier, revealing that it too was one of the same. Very little left of it now though, and the sand has almost buried that. 

Two Curlew Sandpipers were on the sands of Loch Gruinart"

Friday 16th October

Yesterday, David and Nancy had ben over on Jura and by the sound of things, I take it be that they saw more or less the same birds that Jonathan Alder had seen. Today David and Nancy had seen a few Scaup as well as some Common Scoter off  Blackrock. They also saw the Cackling goose round amongst the Barnies present at Ballinaby.

Peter was in touch to say that yesterday, he had seen a Curlew Sandpiper amongst some Dunlin, up on Loch Gruinart... Val Peacock had a Brambling on her garden feeders down in Port Charlotte yesterday

Today Richard Belter had seen a GND and also a RTD over at Claggain Bay. Just after the Dower House, he had a Fallow Deer out in front of him as it crossed the road...  Later on, he had counted 8 Scaup at Blackrock, 40 Common Scoter and also 2 Slav Grebes present there too...

Peter today had seen and counted the following birds when in at Loch Skerrols.... "The loch was very lively with at least 155 Whooper Swans and 350 Wigeon. Several of the Whoopers had yellow colour rings with black letters on that could be read when they up-ended! Two were Z J S  & Z H V. I'll start trying to find out where they are from and report back."

This morning, we had the W t Eagle sitting out on the old wreck, seen from Whin Park out towards Bowmore a distant bird but a definite W t Eagle for sure!! Better was still to come as just before we had our tea, we saw another W t Eagle being chased along the crag by many corvids, what a sight. About 30 minutes earlier on we had the male Hen Harrier flying away over the top of the Lamb Hill and also watched some Choughs gracing us with a noisy flypast!!!

Tuesday 8th September

The Rose coloured Starling was seen in Bowmore today by Samara Johnson who is one of our local vets, so needless to say we all now are asking the question, is it the same bird that we have had all summer???

Gary sent me the following birds seen today by himself...

"Some birds from Bridgend merse. There has been at least one Osprey fishing the shallows and larger creeks on the merse the last few days. There has been two WTE also frequently on the sand out from the merse scavenging any debris left when the tide goes out.

Loads of wader movement, Curlew, Whimbrel, Black tailed & Bar tailed Godwits, Greenshank, Dunlin, Ringed Plover.

Small flocks of Meadow Pipit & Twite on the grass on the edge of the merse.

A regular Peregrine hunting small waders"

Jim Dickson sent through his birds as well

"A Carrion Crow at Octofad, female Sparrowhawk at Lyrabus, 1 Osprey, 2 Peregrine's, 121 Pale bellied Brent's, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Golden Plover at Gruinart, 1 Osprey, 2 White tailed Eagles, 1 Grey Plover, 40 alba wagtails at Bridgend flats, 1 Greenfinch at Portnahaven.."

 

Sunday 6th September

 Jim Dickson is back over this week again and has sent through his sightings seen today...

"A quiet morning sea-watch at Frenchman’s Rocks 06.20-07.10  included  3 Arctic Skuas, 65 Manx Shearwater, 28 Kittiwakes, 18 Fulmar, 11 Common Scoter, 2 Great Northern Divers, 1 Red-throated Divers. Good numbers of finches around Portnahaven including 100+ Goldfinch, 45 Linnet, 25 Twite, 22 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Siskin. At Nerabus - 45 Chaffinch. At Gruinart – the adult Bonaparte’s Gull still showing well, 2 juv Curlew Sandpipers, 5 Wheatears, 1 Lapland Bunting."

Meanwhile Karen Graham is up North and sent me though her birds seen when out today..

"A morning walk along the shore gave me a flock of Twite with some Goldfinches mixed in.

Sparrowhawk following on along shoreline.

Wheatear also on shoreline along with up to 20 Pied  Wagtails commonly found here. House Martins are still around. 

Large numbers of mainly Herring gulls gathering in firth so suspect fish shoals are coming in. No sign of dolphins yet."

Friday 4th September

 James How has whetted all our appetites by sending this e mail through recently...

"Gull Friday at Loch Gruinart – 2 very pretty juv Sabine's gulls in the Loch as the tide came in. Also: 2 Curlew Sands, 1 Greenshank, 4 Arctic Terns, a total of 19 P b  Brents, 14 Blackwits, 14 Turnstones, 1 Osprey, 1 Peregrine and lots of other waders."

So wonder what will turn up tomorrow/ over the next few days????

Thursday 10th October

Yesterday, Nick and Kath had seen a Merlin up towards Ardnave, and then later on they saw another Merlin sitting on top of a rock at the side of the road. They had also another Merlin dash across the road just South of Port Charlotte. The other day they had seen some Swallows around and now reckon that they could be feeding young on the nest... Robin Andrews and his wife, (another visiting birders), had seen a Pale bellied Brent and also 2 Barnies along with around 100 Greylags on their way out from The Machrie Hotel. Down on the Oa, out towards the American monument they had seen 2 Snow Buntings, and then along at the Kildalton Cross they had seen 4 House Martins and also a Swallow practising their flying skills. As Robin said, they were quite "surprised" to see them as all the Hirundines left them in North Yorkshire about 10 days ago. In around Kildalton, they also had a Yellowhammer and also a Greenfinch.

This morning, we watched a male Hen Harrier out on the wing flying over the Machir. Coming back from "Cake o'clock" at Gruinart, we had counted 52 Barnies resting up on a stubble field at Ballinaby along with over 120 Greylags. Along towards Saligo Bay, a male Hen Harrier was spotted flying quite high up and not spoofing or worrying anybody else...

Robin Andrews and his wife, Hilary today had called in for a cuppa, and Robin quickly told us that the sun would be shining by 4 pm, needless to say, we doubted him, but right enough at 15.58 the sun came out. Robin had seen 2 Curlew Sandpipers down the shore of Loch Indaal and also 6 Barwits earlier on, before coming up to visit us. They also had seen Redshank and Dunlin present there as well.

Richard Belter had seen a RTD and also a single Eider off Kintra.  Later on, while on the Oa he had seen Merlin, a Sparrowhawk, Rock Doves and also 3 Chough. At Upper Killeyan, a large flock of Twite was present. Back at Gruinart, Richard had counted 800 Barnies present and he also saw a Swallow out in front of the visitor centre there as well.

Wednesday 9thMay

Not to much to report tonight, as the weather has not been that good, but still some birds seen. Off Bowmore, Andrew and his wife had seen 25 R b Merganser swimming together doing some synchronised swimming as they all dived in a group, and then appeared on the surface in a oner.. They also had a GND on Loch Indaal as well. James Butcher had seen 2 Curlew Sandpiper out in front of the North Hide at Gruinart. Out over Loch Gruinart, he saw 2 Bonxies fly past. Here at home, we had seen 4 Tree Sparrows, a new tick for the garden bird list!!! The Greenland Wheatear was still present along with the Linnets and some Twite. A pair of Greenfinch were added to our list for today, along with a Heron that flew past.

Tuesday 8th May

Yesterday, on the reserve at Gruinart, James How had seen 3 Grasshopper Warbler, 2 Cuckoo, 3 Stonechat, 7 Whitethroat, and 3 Whinchat with a count of 335 Dunlin on the floods. Today, James had 33 Blackwit on the floods and a Little Tern seen out on Loch Gruinart itself.  Visiting birder Zul Bhatia today had 8 P bb Geese on the beach just North of Bruichladdich, they then flew off out on to Loch  Indaal. There was also an Arctic Tern perched on a rock there. Round at Whinpark out on the shoreline he had seen 2 Sanderling with 54 Dunlin counted there in one of the muddy inlets. Yesterday evening, James Bucher had counted 343 Dunlin,  23 Blackwit, 25 Ringed Plover and also saw a Curlew Sandpiper out on the floods at Gruinart. Gary had heard 4 different Corncrakes calling down behind Bruichladdich last night. Andrew and Amanda had seen many Gannets streaming past Frenchman's rocks, 8 Whimbrel seen there too. Also seen by them were several Common gull, a rare bird to them.. Eider and also 10 Turnstone were noted at Currie Sands . A Cuckoo flew past them as they drove back to their holiday cottage. This evening, here at home, by chance we saw a Peregrine perched up on the crag, earlier we saw a Kestrel away far away out above the crag, and I counted a small flock of 23 Linnet on the piece of worked ground where we had some bird seed sown on Sunday. There was also a Greenland Wheatear there as well. I took the chance today and sowed the Bumblebee mix, up beside the house, so we wait in hope for both the 2 small plots producing the goods, the bumblebee mix should also be quite colourful as well. Distillery Dave had seen 34 Whimbrel round at Ballinaby with 3  Blackwit on the pools beside the gate to Smaull.

Friday 29th September

Quite a lot of birds seen again today, so here we go...

Gary had been down on the Big strand, not much around apart from 2 Turnstone and a Common Tern. Later on, Gary had a male Hen Harrier close to Mulreesh with another close to Coal Ila. Up behind Bunnahabhain a White tailed Eagle and also a Golden Eagle were present. Bob Mc Millan had a count of 200 Brent Geese at Gruinart, while on the flats Bob saw a Curlew Sandpiper, 14 Blackwits and 11 Ruff. Mike had spent a couple of hours sea watching down at Frenchman' Rocks from 10 am to midday. Top birds seen on passage were 11 RTDs, 217 Brent flying past along with 2 Golden Plovers. On his way home, Mike had a Sparrowhawk in Portnahaven. Visiting birders from Jersey, Sam and Bryony Nolan had seen a Swallow over Bowmore, with a Red breasted Merganser out from the distillery as well. Up on the Grinart estuary mid afternoon, they saw an Osprey, a Peregrine taking a Dunlin, a Sparrowhawk from the old hide, 2  pair of Stonechat with 2 Wheatears seen up towards Bun an Uillt. Today was a Richard and Kate's final day of their visit... Up at Sanaigmore, they saw  a ringtail Hen Harrier, 2 Chough, a Brent goose, a Snipe, 2 Raven and also a Grey Wagtail, on one of the streams there. They also had a further 2 Chough between Port Charlotte and Kilchiaran. James had done count round Gruinart late afternoon, with his tally coming to 21 Barnies, 125 Brent Geese, 12 Blackwits, 14 Ruff, 2 Curlew Sandpiper and 295 Lapwing. Late afternoon, we saw  2Wheatear over at Borichill Mor, up from Lagstoban..

Wednesday 20th September

One thing for sure, today I very much doubt if any of the combines were cutting any crops, perhaps they moved the machines from one location to another. The rain gauge is now over 4 inches so far this month, at one time we always used to say that September a better month for getting some decent weather, not true in 2017...

This morning Nicholas Watts from Vine House Farm sent me through an image the Tree Sparrows eating the Red Millet on his feeders, I reckon that there are over 200 sparrows in and on the actual feeders. Nicholas too is having his hands full trying to finish off his harvest as well..

Mike Peacock had been down on Machir Bay today, seeing a mixed flock of Ringed Plover, Sanderling and Dunlin. Mike also saw a Curlew Sandpiper amongst them as well. Up on the dunes, beside the bay, a Sparrowhawk was present, spooking everything all around. Wonder if it was the same bird that was having a look see, up here late afternoon???

Monday 19th September

Back on the 9th of September, Dave Wood had seen 2 European Storm Petrels and also a Sooty Shearwater from the ferry as he went over to Kennacraig. On Saturday, Jim Dickson had seen 3 Slavonian Grebe, 38 Common Scoter, on Loch Indaal out from Uiskentuie. Along at "smelly corner", Jim had 3 Little Stint and a Curlew Sandpiper and out from Bowmore, 67 Barwits, 44 Knot and 181 Wigeon were present. Finally, up at Loch Gruinart, 79 Lapwing, 71 Barwits, 18 Blackwits, 17 Heron and 2 Arctic Tern were counted. A Greenland Whitefront was seen amongst the flock of Greylags at Craigens. This afternoon, David wood had seen a Lapland Bunting flying over amongst some Meadow Pipits down at Glen Astle.

Tuesday 6th September

Yesterday, visitors to Islay had seen 3 Curlew Sandpipers up at Ardnave. Gary, this morning had seen 3 different Ospreys at Bridgend and the head of Loch Indaal. Michal had a ringtail Hen Harrier over the flats at Gruinart this morning. Late evening, last night I counted 24 Swallows out above the game crop.

Tuesday 23rd September

Yesterday, Bob saw several groups of Golden Plover flying in, high up and later on heard his first Deer rutting of this Autumn. James today had 2 Curlew Sandpipers over at Loch Gruinart. Per Anders is over with 3 friends from Sweeden, mainly to do some birdwatching and with the odd Distillery thrown into the mix as well... This morning they had walked from Port Askaig through the woods past Loch Allan and Ballygrant Loch, ending up at Ballygrant. They saw the following birds on their walk, 10 Long tailed Tits, 10 Coal Tits, 6 Mistle Thrush, 20 Song Thrush, 25 Goldcrest, 3 Linnets, 3 Treecreepers and a Collared Dove. Later on at Bowmore, they saw a Bar tailed Godwit. As forecast, we have had some rain today, not a lot, but enough to lay the dust for a wee while anyway, and it is raining outside at present as I write this entry....

Friday 12th September

No records broken today with the temperature only rising to 18 degrees early afternoon, but there is an outside chance of seeing the Northern Lights later on, but it is rather cloudy outside at present, so we will just have to wait and hopefully see... Paul our visiting birder had a busy time today. Down at Frenchman's Rocks he had count of 400 Gannets fly past in an hour along with 15 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Fulmar, 1 Kittiwake and some Guillemots. Later on, at "Smelly corner" Paul had 80 Dunlin, over 20 Ringed Plover, 3 Sanderling, 1 Curlew Sandpiper and a Little Stint. Finally over at Ballinaby he saw a male Hen Harrier. On his travels today, he also saw 5 Wheatears, possibly birds moving through. He also reported seeing more Stonechats around than during other visits at a similar time of year.

Wednesday 3rd September

Blue skies over here today and if the weather forecast is correct for tomorrow, more of the same is due! Yesterday James had a Curlew Sandpiper, 69 Knot, 1 Ruff, 1 Merlin and an Osprey all on Loch Gruinart. Here at home, there were 3 Dunnocks (Hedge Sparrows) in at the feeders.

Thursday 22nd May

Another good day here, although I was told it had been raining down on the Oa....Yesterday, Ken and Sal had headed over to Claggain Bay where they counted 17 Arctic Terns, a GND, 2 prs of Buzzards and also an Osprey, with a Cuckoo calling away there as well. They heard a further 2 Cuckoos close to Kildalton Cross and also a Chiffchaff there too. Along at Loch an t-Saillein they saw another Osprey but wondered whether it might have been the same bird. Back over this side of Islay, at Sanaig they heard a Corncrake calling, another Cuckoo, 1 GND, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Chough, 12 Sanderling and 4 Dunlins. On the way back to their cottage, the newly sown field beside the Coastguard's still had the Ringed Plover as well as the Dunlin and also 3 Sanderling present. Peter and David had the Velvet Scoter on the Rhinns yesterday as had the Bowland birders who spent some time close to Portnahaven where they had 6 Maxies, 7 Turnstone, 2 Fulmar, over 20 Gannets, Guillemot, Razorbill, Shag and Cormorant. Graham & Jo had been on the Oa yesterday and saw 2 Stonechats, 2 Whinchats, 4 Ravens, 2 Northern wheatear, Sedge warbler and 2 Golden eagles, later on at Ardilistry Bay, they had 2 Common Sandpipers and a Red breasted Merganser. Yesterday, Michal had a Chiffchaff sing at Moulin, on the reserve at Gruinart, today between Ardilistry and Kintour Michal had heard a Cuckoo, seen several Blackcaps, Whitethroats, and heard a Redstart singing in the Oak woods there, back at Lagavulin, another Cuckoo was calling. David Livingstone today had 2 Golden Eagles down on the Oa, and we had 2 Golden Eagles as well over the crag, here at home. On the reserve at Gruinart, James had a Temminck's Stint and a Green winged Teal on the floods and out on the estuary amongst the Dunlin, was a Curlew Sandpiper, a good way to finish this entry....

Wednesday 14th September

The wind has dropped, it is dry again what do you want, some birds no doubt.....Robert Daw, a visiting birder from Bristol, over on Islay for a few days had been down at the hide at Gruinart yesterday and reported to say that there were a few Snipe, Lapwing and Herons present. He also had both male and female Hen Harrier and down at the hide itself, a Swallow flew in one of the windows while he was there, it did get out later on safely! Robert also had a couple of Arctic Skuas flying South while he was at Gruinart. Talking of Swallows, and here at home we have picked up 4 young today, and sad to say they were all dead, whether they had not had enough feeding over the last couple of days or what I do not know. Peter had been down for another 100 minute fix at Frenchman's Rocks this morning, his tally was 895 Gannets (some even were actually fishing!), 743 Manx Shearwater, 5 Fulmar, 202 Kittiwakes, 2 Awk sp, 2 Great Skuas, 1 Arctic Skua, 2 Great Northern Diver and 4 Red throated Divers. Another visitor had seen a Dipper on the Sound of Islay between An Claddach and MacArthurs Head today. Michal counted 45 Barnacle Geese on the estuary of Loch Gruinart today, there had been around 40 on Minister's field at Rockside this morning around 8.45am. James had counted 423 Greylags , 1 Pinkfooted Goose, 2 Ringtailed Hen Harriers, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Peregrine, 1 Little Stint, 38 Knot and 6 Chough on the reserve at Gruinart today. Yesterday he had 5 Curlew Sandpiper on the estuary. This afternoon, Michal saw over 200 Grey Seals and pups on Nave Island.

Sunday 11th September

The weather out here today has not been top class, nor has it been bottom of the class either as I have seen it a lot worse, all the same it has not been that great, certainly not for going out birding. We had a really heavy shower around 3pm, and the burn has got up quite quickly. Luckily Bob was out yesterday, and had seen a Curlew Sandpiper down on Machir Bay, along with 2 Bar tailed Godwits. There were around 100 Ringed Plover there too, but 80 or so were up on the grass, close to where you can park your car up. On his way home just out of Port Charlotte a Sparrowhawk flew across the road. At Claggain Bay today Bob saw a Great Northern Diver, as I said earlier not a day for seeing much!