Friday 4th June

Before I forget, I saw a House Martin flying past yesterday aftenoon, no sign of it today, possibly because of the fact that it was not as warm, and not so many insects around for it to eat.... 

I saw a small charm of 4 Goldfinches here at home this afternoon which was great to see, especially as one of them was showing off its' BTO leg ring. And then the local male House Sparrow came past, it too has a BTO leg ring on it as well...

Friday 19th June

Gary was in touch earlier on this evening to say that the Rose coloured Starling was still present in the same garden in Bowmore today again. He has also been seeing a small group of 6 Chough flying past his house most days recently.

George E. Jackson e mailed some interesting news regarding a House Sparrow which was caught and rung up at Shepherd's cottage on the 6th of August last year as a pulli from one of the nest boxes. It was caught down in Somerset on the 2nd of April, so quite a distance for the wee bird to fly, and better still it was still alive..

Sunday 13th January

I might have joked about winding the camera up in last night's entry, well today  was not exactly the day to go and use it, 2 small problems, the weather and there was not a lot of birds out there to get some happy snaps taken... may be tomorrow..

Bob was on the phone at lunch time with some birds... Yesterday, he had a couple of Mistle Thrush in Gleann Mor up beside his house. Bob too has been having Barn Owls visiting him. In his garden he has been seeing 2 pairs of Collared Doves and today he counted 50 House Sparrows in his garden.

Distillery Dave and his wife Ann were round for a natter, over a well deserved cuppa this afternoon. Round at Rockside, they saw a Kestrel and then a ringtail Hen Harrier down at their road end when they came up to here. Later on "DJ"  and Derek dropped in for a "newsie", great to see you folks..

On a footnote, the wind is still puffing away good style outside at present....

Saturday 12th January

2 sightings through from Mandy which she told me about today while in for a cuppa and catch up...

She had seen a juv Glaucous Gull down in one of  the fields below her house at Carnduncan at the tail end of last week. On Wednesday, when she was out helping with the Goose count, she had seen a Whitefront with a neck collar fitted to it. Once I hear back from the folk in charge of the Whitefronts, I will let you know of where and when it was originally fitted with the collar.

Malcolm had emailed through earlier on today to say that he had 31 Collared Doves in on his bird food, before the holidays he was only feeding 20 of them so wondered where the "extras" had come from.. Another point of interest through from Malcolm was that he counted 55 House Sparrows. SNH had published some stats earlier this week which show that the population of House Sparrows had increased by over 50% between 1994 to 2017, down in England and Wales over the same time period, the Sparrows had declined by 20%. I know our numbers are well up here at home, but do not have any base period to relate to... George E Jackson caught and fitted rings to 92 House Sparrows up here this year over a total of 11 sessions, and there are still a lot of them with no bling on yet.... So may be that could be a wee job for tomorrow, to try to count who is about, better go and wind the camera up!!

Thursday 20th July

Yesterday, James had a Peregrine over the reserve at Gruinart, he also had a Swift. Yesterday too, Gary had scanning over the sands (tide out!) between Bridgend and Bowmore seeing over 100 Oystercatchers, 65 Curlew and 17 Barwits. Gary has also been spotting some Swifts as well while he has been out and about over the past few days. This morning, we saw an Osprey perched on a post down on the side of Loch Gorm . On our way home, we saw a ringtail Hen Harrier as it flew across the road in front of us below Coulererach. At home, mid afternoon I counted 47 House Sparrows on the fence below the hut... Been a not bad day with the weather here today, although it might be a different story tomorrow, with rain forecast from midday onwards, we will just take what comes...

Friday 30th December

David Willis, who has been over for a few days, saw 2 small Canada Geese over at Eorrabus yesterday, and today Peter saw one up the Mulindry road at Ballitarsin. At Gartmain this morning, Peter had a count of 53 Pale bellied Brent Geese, along with 8 Long tailed Ducks, around 12 Slavonian Grebe, 1 Black throated Diver and 10 Common Scoter. This afternoon, he had a male Merlin up at Ardnahoe and saw the Iceland Gull at Bunnahabhain. Today the weather has not been great, no sun, but plenty of the wet stuff, rain, rain and more rain, how much can we take? Out on the bird table today there were 3 House Sparrows, after saying a couple of days ago that I had not seen any for a while! This evening out in the garden there is a Guillemot on the grass, now about 30 minutes later it is looking a bit more alert, sitting up and preening itself!

Friday 11th March

Rather cool over here today with the odd shower of hailstones thrown in for good measure...

Bob was on the phone, earlier this evening with some sightings. The last couple of days, Bob has been out Goose counting on different "routes" around Islay. Yesterday down in the Cornabus area behind Port Ellen, he had seen the 2 large Canada geese amongst the other geese present. He had seen 2 different Golden Eagles on his travels yesterday and today whilst doing another route, at the other end of Islay, he had seen a White tailed Sea Eagle, and on Ardnahoe Loch 4 Goosanders were seen. Back at home and on the feeders in his garden, Bob had a count of 30 Goldfinch, 40 House Sparrows and a few Greenfinch. Like George, a Greenfinch is not that common to Bob's garden. Over in the fields beside Bob's house the Lapwings are displaying and the Curlews, or Whaups, as some folk know them as, are calling away. A sign that Spring cannot be that far away!

Friday 4th March

The mist kept rolling in and out from the sea today, sometimes you saw the crag and other times not at all, just have to put up with it I suppose...

George had managed to see out to his feeders. 2 Grenfinches were present, a Coal Tit too, along with a Siskin, the first for this winter, 15 Chaffinches and 2 House Sparrows. The number of House Sparrows having dropped off lately. In the trees just behind the feeders, there was a Long tailed Tit.

Back here at home, the Pheasants are hanging about a lot, must be feeding them too much grain!

Mon 15th - Tues 16th Sept

If Sunday was a right off, Monday turned out to be worse, with consistent rain for most of the day and evening, but Tuesday came and we have had a good day.

Paul Hathaway, on his way home from the Visitor's Welcome evening on Monday night, had spectacular sighting of a Barn Owl along with it's prey on a fence post on the roadside.

Back here on Tuesday morning, the Rock Doves flew past at great speed, hotly pursued by a Peregrine Falcon. Still on raptors, the Sparrowhawk chased a House Sparrow against the kitchen window, the Sparrow was shaken but not killed as the Sparrowhawk did not follow into the window!

The resident Swallow population, here in our Summer, appear to have flown off to warmer climes, as there are only some House Martins to be seen, including a brood still being fed on the nest. Also in the bushes and trees in the garden, there appear to be some more Robins around, with some singing away trying to claim territories!

Fri 11th May 07

Time for reflection with our garden birds, on the bird table especially. During the winter months more was seen of Great, Blue and Coal Tits, not in such numbers now, but still getting up to 8 Goldfinches in at one time, along with the odd Greenfinch and Chaffinch mixed in too. There are still the regular 4 Siskins, while the Goldcrest and a Treecreeper were both seen the other day.The Blackcap that was here through the winter has not been seen for a few weeks. Newcomers to the table now are a pair of Collared Doves while the House Sparrows have now mastered the nut feeder! S. McG.