Monday 4 July

Well, what a lovely start to September we are enjoying in July! Still, I suppose we can't complain when we see the state of other corners of the world.  In short it was a rubbish day.  I nearly stumbled upon an eider duck near Port Wemyss, obviously a bit poorly given its movements.  On the nearby Lighthouse Island of Orsay, the Arctic Tern colony were making a huge commotion. From a distance there looked to be around 40 in the air.  Up at Claddach yesterday, a common sandpiper took the time to fly up from the beach to the house, where it sat atop a fence post alarm calling at me.  Despite the distance it evidently thought I was too close!  Also a pair of chough flying over my inby fields towards the loch, perhaps going up for a drink.

Billy was out on one of his hikes, this time to Loch Nam Ban, near Ardnahoe. He sent in some lovely images of a grey wagtail and a whinchat which I have shared with you here.

Alan is over with his partner this week and has shared his first day's highlights. Kilchoman Church, one chough, 2 twite, 5 raven. Kilchoman Distillery, one twite. Bruichladdich, one red-breasted merganser, one black guillemot.  Many thanks.

Ed reports of a sad Greenland Whitefront goose at Cornabus.  

Sightings are thin on the ground, but it not because of the lack of activity, simply a cause of lack of time for the local birders.  We are well into the summer season, despite my weather reports!  So any and all sightings from visitors are always a welcome addition.

Mary

Sunday 30th September

Just as well that some of the farmers took the option yesterday and got some combining done, as today the weather was not so good, especially as the wind has picked up again...say no more..

Today, Distillery Dave had headed over Gruinart for a spot of birding.. On his way there, he had seen 3 Golden Plover round at Ballinaby, a Hen Harrier, a Merlin, a Sparrowhawk and also a Snipe. He met in with Bob, and out from the South hide they saw a good number of Barnacle Geese in and more arriving, 10 Pintail (all in eclipse plumage), 2 Drake Gadwall, a  single Greenland white fronted Goose,  3 Curlew and a ringtail Hen Harrier and the best part of 800 Teal. Bob, on his way home has a Sparrowhawk as he approached his house up behind Port Charlotte. This afternoon James had counted 685 Barnies on the reserve at Gruinart, 125 Golden Plover, 7 Blackwit, 8 Pale bellied Brent and a Pink footed Goose there as well.

Forgot to mention last night that on our way back from Gruinart yesterday afternoon, Distillery Dave and myself had seen 6 Redwing just as we approached the Hedges below Sunderland, and this afternoon , Margaret spotted a single Redwing on top of one of the headstones next door in the cemetery.

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.

Saturday 7th May

Hope yesterday was not a one day wonder, as the rain has now come, mind you it will possibly help the potatoes which are poking their shoots through the ground, and also help the seeds sown yesterday as well. Gary emailed through last night to say that he too has had a couple of Siskins on his feeders, and like quite a few of us, he has been hearing a Cuckoo calling, from the adjacent wood and moorland behind his house with a Gropper reeling away on the other side of Gary's house. Peter yesterday had counted 40 Whimbrel down at Bruichladdich, flying between the rocks on the shore and the fields, but none were calling. This morning on a trip round Loch Gorm, Bob had seen a Whitefronted goose at Ballinaby. Also present were 8 Whimbrel, 30 Golden Plover and 3 Dunlin. Down at the field where the geese were the other day with me, Bob saw another 2 Whitefronts, the 3 Canadas and 34 Greylags. Back at home Bob has got 4 pairs of House Martins checking out some of last years' nest sites. Up on Bolsay Moor, Bob saw a Curlew seeing a Peregrine off and later on, a male Merlin was spotted. Also, on the Moor, Bob had his first Stonechat chick out this morning, he has already had young Blackbird out in his garden for over a week. When Bob was in for a natter this morning, a Siskin was out on the feeders along with the Goldfinches.

Thursday 14th April

James did a Loch Gruinart reserve goose count on Monday and the total was 2923 barnacle geese and 77 whitefronts. Yesterday Carl Reavey had a willow warbler at Bruichladdich, greenshank at Gortan, chiffchaff at Foreland, great northern diver and sandwich tern at Port Charlotte. Today another sedge warbler was heard at Gruinart. Yesterday Mary saw a short-eared owl on her buggy prowl near Claddach, and this morning 3 Canada geese and she also heard a willow warbler. Garry did a bit of birdwatching from his garden at Ballygrant and saw/heard 2 fieldfares, 3 willow warblers, 2 chough. He also saw a ring-tail hen harrier and a barn owl in Ballygrant Valley.

Today we received an e-mail from Carl Mitchel from WWT who has been studying Islay white-fronted geese in the past few years and he reported that two of the GPS tagged whitefronts left Islay last Sunday at 9pm and headed for Iceland. However strong easterly wind pushed them off the course. Half way between Islay and Iceland they changed the direction and must have been flying directly into the strong wind. They finally landed south-east of Reykjavik. Total crossing time was 48 hours! Migration across open ocean is surely not a fun... See the attached image. Thank you Carl for the information. You can find more info here:

http://telemetry.wikispaces.com/Greenfront

Thurs 25th Feb

Another image of a Greenland White fronted Goose but with it facing into the driving snow which persisted for most of yesterday. Today it has been slightly warmer, so it was rain, but this evening it is falling as sleet!

Our friends had a count of almost 400 Golden Plover in 3 different fields this afternoon between Coull and Ballinaby, including a few with black chest/belly to be seen.

With this prolonged cold snap continuing, the bird table has been busy, still no Siskin, although friends up the back of Bridgend had seen one at their feeder at the weekend and there was 4 seen today at another garden set of feeders not far from where they live. This afternoon, there were 14 Pheasants out on the grass here at home.

Thurs 11th June

A few sightings in from James over the past few days, on Monday he had a Water rail on the reserve at Gruinart, Tuesday and he heard 2 Red Grouse calling and saw a female. It is good to hear that are still a few left here on Islay. Wednesday, and he saw a Redpoll, a Whitefronted Goose, 33 Ringed Plover, 28 Dunlin, 18 Arctic Terns as well as an Adder! JRH

Earlier on in the week, down at Glenburn, at the top of Loch Indaal, I saw a Barnacle Goose, but as the road was busy I was unable to stop and get a better look at it. Tonight, as it is a calm evening, Margaret and myself are going to do a quick Corncrake count round our patch, and hopefully be back in by 1am! More figures from that on tomorrow's blog.....