Thursday 22nd December

A great one bird alert for you all.... George E Jackson this morning had seen a Gyr Falcon, at a close sighting of around 8 metres, fly past his son's house, down at Rockside road end...No need for the bins, George!!!!!

Fri 18th Dec

Yesterday, there was a probable sighting of a Gyr Falcon seen in the Loch Gorm area. The area round here is quite large with a big tract of land where there are no roads, so it may well be a good few days before the bird is seen again, but we will just have to keep an eye out for it!

This afternoon, James had a White tailed Sea Eagle fly over the reserve at Gruinart, it had yellow wing tags, which indicates that it would be a 2006 bird. Rather than a letter on the tag, it had a dot, so we will try to find out more information on this bird.

On the way out to Bowmore at lunchtime, there was a Peregrine sitting on top of a telegraph pole, and later, on our return a Merlin flew across the road in front of us.

Fri 3rd April

Our Aberdeenshire birder had seen the Green winged Teal on the floods in front of the hide at Gruinart yesterday.

Malcolm had been out Goose counting with Robin Bignall today on the "Gruinart Run" and just before midday on the Killinallan side of the loch, looking across it to the other side, to count the geese feeding at Garra-Eallabus, when they all got up in a panic. Malcolm also noticed that lots more geese, to the South near Gruinart Farm were also up in the air. It was then that he spotted a fast moving white bird flying quite low up the West side of the loch which flew on towards Ardnave. When they got round to Ardnave, about 45 minutes later, all the geese in that area were up in the air milling around. There was nothing obvious disturbing them, so they assumed that the Gyr Falcon was still around causing the upset. George came up asap, but to no avail. All George had to show for his troubles was a Kestrel.

All we could see today was our first Swallow of the year, down past Sunderland Farm. There were 19 Pale bellied Brent Geese down in Loch Indaal at same place as where the others were last night.

Thurs 2nd April

An image of Curlews over at Gruinart, taken at the weekend by Michal.

Another good, warm day over here although there is still an edge to the wind. At Loch Skerrols, I had my first Peacock butterfly of the year, but not much on the Loch itself, birdwise!

The Gyr Falcon had been seen earlier this evening, near to the phone box on the other side of Loch Gorm. Was it about to phone a friend, to get directions home, or has its' gps gone horribly wrong?

Down at Loch Indaal, there were 61 Pale bellied Brent Geese, with James commenting that he had noticed small groups moving through. He also felt that a few of our Geese have flown on, so it will be interesting to see the figures for this week's Goose counts.

Wed 1st April

March is now done and dusted, our rain gauge showed 4.25" for the month, which I felt turned out better than I thought it might have been, going by the initial wet days at the start of the month!

The Lancashire lads, Steven and Johnathan have headed back to the mainland, having enjoyed a few days with some good birds seen, many thanks for your input. Meanwhile our Aberdeenshire birder, had seen the Iceland Gull over at Bunnahabhain. He had been in conversation with other visiting birders, who by the sound of things had seen the Gyr Falcon. One of our neighbours who I saw this afternoon, had also seen the bird the same day as we had seen it, but had not realised what it was!

Tues 17th March

There was a reported sighting of an adult White tailed Sea Eagle over at Saligo this afternoon, while one day last week a visitor had seen a Gyr Falcon up at Ardnave. Both birds were seen by folk by themselves, so sometimes you can be fortunate and be in the right place at the right time!

Another sign that Spring is here, was that somebody has been out in Port Ellen cutting grass!!!

Sun 14th Oct- Tues 16th Oct

Sunday, in the afternoon, briefly, I was kept out of mischief, and from doing much work as the others helped to sort out the sheep and tag them.

There were several movements of Brent Geese, albeit in small numbers! On Loch Indaal, there were 32 Grey plover, 121 Bar-tailed Godwit and just over 200 Turnstone. Down on the Oa, there was a probable sighting of a Gyr Falcoln. RAS

A drive up the Glen road on Tuesday morning, with stops for walking and birdwatching, produced Crossbills, Siskins and Coal tits in the mature conifers with their prolific cones. Further on a ring tailed Hen Harrier was hunting, being watched by a Buzzard. Across the valley a Merlin was being harassed by a Hoodie crow. Later on a Golden Eagle was tucking into a rabbit, whilst a juvenile tried to get in on the act. When the juvenile took to the wing, it was dive bombed by a group of Buzzard. Stonechats were along the roadside, with a Kestrel overhead and finally 30+ Fieldfare flew in, looking for invertibrates in the field.
Later on on Ballygrant Loch, there were 6 Dabchicks and 4 Mute Swans. In the woodland, a flock of Siskin and Redpoll were feeding on the alders, and a pair of Bullfinches were also noted. Finally 2 Golden Eagle were seen from near Port Askaig across on Jura, whilst a late Arctic Tern flew down the Sound, where Shags, Eiders and a few Awks were also seen. C & TJ