Thursday 14 July

 

David D took this photo of a juvenile cuckoo near the Oa carpark. Instinct is an incredible thing, to be raised by meadow pipits but to 'know' they are cuckoo; to migrate and go onto lay their eggs in other birds nest without any of it learned from a parent...amazing!  When I was young, my parents hatched some ducklings from under a hen. She was most distressed when they leapt into water every chance they got, the instinct too strong to ignore. The same cannot be said for the chickens hatched out under a duck. 

 This evening at Claddach, a peregrine was being seen off by resident gulls. Similarly this morning a buzzard was being mobbed by a pair of herring gulls. A pair of lapwing were in the fields near the house.  out at the gulls, wheatear, rock pipit, meadow pipit, greylag geese, and gannet off shore. 

The unavoidable subject of avian flu is on everyones minds. The local charity 'Islay Development Initiative' among many things, clean the beaches. Today from just around a quarter of the The Big Strand they collected 168 birds (mainly guilliemots).  As ever the advice is do not touch or intervene. Report any suspected cases to DEFRA 03459 335577.

Mary

Thursday 7 July

 Cant speak for the whole island but certainly here on the south of the Rhinns, the heavy mist didn't lift all day.  Though it was warm.

Reports continue from Kintyre and Islay of several sick or dead birds along the coastline.  Nature Scot have gathered some to be sent away for confirmation of avian flu.

It does seem to be mainly guillemot at this stage. Difficult though it is to walk away, the advise is to not touch dying or dead seabirds but to report them to APHA.  See the government guidance by copying the following link into your browser:

http://www.gov.scot/publications/avian-influenza-bird-flu

At Claddach today whilst I was moving my cows, I heard chough through the mist in the direction of the beach.  The ringed Oystercatcher adult was in the field with its youngster. Sadly the adult has wool wrapped between its two legs, hopefully this will work itself loose as it didn't look tight.  The lapwing chick lives! And is finding good cover among the thistles it seems.  Down in Portnahaven this evening 2 grasshopper warblers were reeling.

Mary

Weds 23 Feb

 An other day, an other gale.  A few more waders about down the Rhinns - at Port A Rheidhlinn, Claddach, were around 20 redshank in a flock.  Further up the hill were one or two lapwing and a flock of 10 curlew, with an other similar sized flock at Craigfad.  At Currie Sands were 4 skylark near the house.

Will was out and about with his reported highlights 3 GN Diver Kilnaughton Bay and 1 Loch Indaal, 2 male Bullfinch Bridgend Woods.  Male Hen Harrier near Port Ellen.  Male Hen Harrier, 900 Golden Plover, 100 Dunlin, 2 Little Egret, 20 Fieldfare RSPB Loch Gruinart. Also 86 Pintail on the eastern edge of Loch Gruinart. 

Margaret reported a ring-tailed hen harrier over the "Kilchoman Reserve".

To add some colour to todays post, some images from Billy Stitchell taken a couple of days ago in the sunshine.

Monday 15 November

 

A cracking day today.  The photo above of one of my favourite stretches of coastline: looking north to Lossit Bay from Frenchmans Rocks.  In one of the gullies along this stretch my great-great Uncle took shelter with his skiff (fishing boat) as an over-familiar Orca had taken an interest in them.  Easily bigger than their wee boat, it's not hard to believe the young lad with him scaled the cliff face like a shot as soon as they neared land, without a backward glance! My great-great Uncle waited in the gully till the Orca left, the boat too precious to abandon.

Out walking here I put up 2 snipe from the long grass and was lucky to watch 2 otter feeding.  Overhead were separate small flock of twite, goldfinch, and  fieldfare. At Claddach Loch I counted 7 visible lapwing on the edges.

Ribble Bird Tours were out enjoying the day reporting the American wigeon and lesser scaup are still present at Loch Skerrols, while at Loch Gorm they encountered a ring-tailed hen harrier.  At Ardnave they counted 23 chough, an immature WTE over the loch at the car parking area, with another WTE over Nave Island itself.

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!!!

Saturday 21st March

Speaking with Bob earlier on today and he was saying to me that he "feels" that at present that there are more Curlews and Lapwings displaying and also calling away at present this year, something positive to speak about at present... Something else of interest was that James has been noticing some more Barn Owl pellets...

Tuesday 26th February

My good friend Armin sent me through an e mail the other day about a couple of Barnacle geese that are overwintering on Berneray this winter. "Normally" these birds should have been down on Islay. Steve Percival caught and fitted darvic leg rings to the 2 geese back in 2017 here on Islay, their leg codes are as follows, ZLN and ZLV.
At the weekend, my son Andrew who lives down in the Scottish Borders had a Sparrowhawk down in  his garden, eating a digestive biscuit, a plain biscuit with no chocolate for this bird....
Yesterday and also today at Gruinart, James had seen a White tailed Eagle harassing the geese. Today, with this great spell of weather, Skylarks have been heard singing away and also James had Lapwings displaying.
In the garden today, there were bees out flying around, butterflies seen out and also some Ladybirds as well.

Thursday 7th February

Yesterday, Ashley Saunders and his team from Oriole Birding had  amazing views of a White tailed Eagle at Gruinart, seen from the South hide there. Earlier on they had counted 26 Chough probing away, loking for food in the fields at Coull Farm. Down on the Oa, they saw  2 ringtail Hen Harriers as well as seeing a Golden Eagle there as well. Also yesterday, Gary and Wendy Ruffell had walked up to the old ruin at Scouller which is in beyond Daill Farm, up past The Woollen Mill. On their walk they had seen a small group of Whitefronts,  a few Buzzards, Rock Doves, Chaffinches, Robin and also Reed Bunting.

Today, we had a male Hen Harrier flying over the garden at around 8 am, boy it was on a mission with its wings being used to power its' flight, rather than just soaring along with not a care in the world to think about.... Mid morning, round at Ballinaby, there were several hundred Lapwings on one of the fields, I have never seen so many together before anywhere... The back of lunchtime, a Golden Eagle was floating about along the top of the crag and finally late afternoon, the Sparrowhawk, cleared all and sundry away off the bird table, not sure whether it caught anything.

The ferries are cancelled for tomorrow, so no newspapers tomorrow, so can catch up with any news off the web!!!

Tuesday 9th February

Peter returned at the weekend a taking a tour to the far East and thereafter spending sometime with his son and family in New Zealand.... Back here on Sunday, Peter had a new garden tick for his list at Bruichladdich, a male Hen Harrier flew over his garden. there were a couple of Fulmars out flying along the crag here at home yesterday morning, and possibly the same 2 were out again this morning! The Lapwing flock totalled 35 this morning, out towards the War graves, coming out of Bowmore at Gartmain there were over 70 Lapwing dipping their feet on the tide line early afternoon, not often that one sees them in the sea water! late afternoon, a quick run round Loch Gorm produced some Greenland Whitefronts at Coull, Ballinaby and over at Carnduncan. At Carnduncan, there was one with a neck collar on, but we could not make it out... Also mixed with these groups were a few Barnies. At Sunderland, there were Whitefronts on one side of the road while there were 15 Greylags on the other side of the road!

Friday 15th January

Yesterday, Bob had a flock of 175 Lapwing seen out in the fields in front of his house. He also saw 9 Fieldfare fly past, the first seen for a few days. Bob was also saying that on his bird feeders that he has been seeing a few Blue Tits and also some Coal Tits, birds that he has not seen with him for some time. Today down at Machir Bay, he counted 41 Chough flying over the dunes, at the pool beside the car park, 24 Curlew and 2 Herring Gull were present. Here at home this afternoon, there were 27 Goldfinches on the feeders. Michal, today had 50 Fieldfares, 2 Redwings and 210 Starlings at Gruinart, up on Ardnave Loch, 11 Whoopers were seen with 5 Lapwings and 160 Golden Plover in the fields around the Loch.

Sunday 27th December

Yes, the ringtail Hen Harrier was sitting on one of the garden fence posts again this morning, will try and get a happy snap of it tomorrow for you, all going well. There was a Stonechat on the roadside fence just after Coull today and earlier on 2 Whoopers were resting up at the edge of one of the pools in the fields... Late this afternoon, the chough came up off the machir as they headed to their roost and a small group of 14 Lapwing were tumbling around in the wind as well.

Sunday 3rd May

The cold east wind came on strong last night and half an inch of rain fell through this morning. All the birds were taking cover, the swallows and martins trying to catch the few insects in the lee of the woodland. A peregrine over Loch Gruinart and quite a few Lapwing chicks on the Gruinart Flats and Floods.

Saturday 10th January

This wild and windy weather continues, we had a gust of 66mph earlier on today. The wind has been over 35mph for most of the day, the sea has been spectacular to watch, with the rocks at Coull Point being covered by the breaking waves. Needless to say, the ferries, not just to Islay, but on the West coast never ventured out from the various ferry terminals, although the plane did make it to Islay this morning! The only piece of news on the bird front was that Ron from Islay Info had been out for a walk this afternoon through the woodland trail at Gruinart and saw around 200 Lapwing around the new hide. Mary had a large group there earlier this week as well.

Wednesday 1st January

A Happy New Year to you all out there, wherever you may be... Not much to report today, but there was a flock of around 100 Lapwing out over the Machir around the War Graves' graveyard this morning along with a few Barnies and some Whitefronts too. A Sparrowhawk flew along the front of the cottages at a great turn of speed, and later on a Merlin was down below Rockside, possibly the same one that Marc had seen chasing after the Reed Buntings. The rain this afternoon, did not deter folk going down to Machir Bay for a walk!!

Monday 16th December

Heard this morning, that the Reindeer got off Islay safely yesterday, relief all round! Today James did a count at Gruinart of the Geese present.... 5,413 Barnies (up on the last count), 342 Whitefronts (high for December), 49 Greylags, 11 Whoopers and 640 Lapwing. James was saying that there appear to be a few Whoopers still moving through, certainly on Friday I saw 4 at Coull and about 2 hours later they had moved on. Down at Rockside feeding amongst the silage for the livestock were some Whitefronts with Barnies in the next field, no sign of any Golden Plovers today!

Thursday 22nd November

More whooper swans moving through today- 22 moved south through Loch Gruinart and Malcolm reported some past Bruichladdich.
Earlier in the week a count of Loch Gruinart revealed - 421 lapwing, 176 golden plover, 188 oystercatchers, 53 ringed plover, 126 sanderling, 42 dunlin, 385 bar tailed godwits, 110 curlew, just 8 redshank, 46 turnstones, 38 pintail, 31 shoveler, 95 shelduck and 96 wigeon.

Tuesday 20th December

Mary And Crystal carried out a count on Loch Gruinart today, with the scores on the doors as follows, 3 Shag, 1 Heron, 157 Shelduck, 94 Wigeon, 79 Mallard, 1 Eider, 1 Goldeneye, 5 Red breasted Merganser, 41 Shoveler, 14 Pintail, 189 Oystercatcher, 11 Ringed Plover, 12 Grey Plover, 297 Lapwing, 71 Sanderling, 370 Dunlin, 524 Bar tailed Godwit, 166 Curlew, 130 Redshank, 36 Turnstone, 3 Greenshank, 211 Common Gull, 20 Herring Gull, 4 Great Black backed Gull and 1 Common seal. The count for Ardnave Loch was 2 Mute Swan, 9 Whooper Swan, 3 Mallard, 7 Goldeneye, 9 Wigeon and 4 Tufted Duck. James had done a count on the floods at Gruinart yesterday with his highlights being 157 Greylag Geese, 4 Little Grebe, 67 Mallard, 57 Pintail, 77 Wigeon, 4 Gadwall, 1,116 Teal, 19 Shoveler, 3 Greenshank, 800 Lapwing, 58 Golden Plover, 15 Mute Swan and 13 Whooper Swan. The count of Lapwing was a high count according to James. Down on the Oa yesterday David had a Golden Eagle, Merlin, Woodcock and Snipe on the reserve.

Wednesday 14th December

Normal service again out here folks, the wind has dropped down and the sea is relatively quiet. Needless to say, the water on Loch Indaal itself was rather dirty in colour and had thrown a lot of sea weed up round the edge of the Loch! By the looks of the forecast for Friday it is down South that may catch the brunt of the weather that day, and we look like getting another good day, great!! Today Bob had counted 1,000 Starling on the flats at Gruinart, also present were 1,200 Lapwing, 500 Teal and one group of 60 Redshank. Further on down at Traigh an Luig on Loch Indaal, there was a Knot, 8 Turnstone, 20 Oystercatcher and a poor looking Cormorant. At the weekend, Carl had a small group of 8 Long tailed Tits on the roadside below Rockside. This afternoon, the single Whooper Swan is still present at Sunderland, and it appears to be okay.

Tuesday 6th December

Forgot to say the other day that the blog passed another milestone, with the magic 1,400 entries being broken.... Yesterday David had carried out a Farmland bird count down on the Oa which produced the following figures, 510 Twite, 65 Linnet, 12 Reed Bunting, 32 Chaffinch, 6 Greenfinch, 120 Fieldfare, 30 Redwing and 8 Song Thrush. George yesterday had 90 Greylag, 50 Whitefronts and 2 Barnies on the fields up behind his house. An hour later, only the Barnies remained but their numbers were swelled in excess of 600!!! The Heron was present on his ponds too. Danny today counted over 300 Lapwing on the flats at Gruinart.

Sunday 24th April

George reported in to say that he has had Swallows, Sand Martin and House Martin today down at his house, including a pair of House Martin who were inspecting one of last year's nests! Yesterday on one of his ponds George had a Mallard with 9 ducklings. Far out on Loch Indaal, George counted 30 Divers, too far out for a positive id, but probably Great Northern and Red throated.

Carl yesterday had 75 Pale bellied Brent Geese at Gortan and while round Loch Gorm he had a Sedge Warbler, a Whitethroat and a Cuckoo. Today off Port Charlotte on Loch Indaal, Carl had 3 Razorbills and a Red throated Diver. Malcolm had also seen the Pale bellied Geese but noticed that there were some different birds from the other day as one had been rung.

Over at Gruinart yesterday, James heard 2 Whitethroat and also a couple of Cornrakes calling. This morning James counted 21 Greenland White fronted Geese. He also had a male Merlin and also a Water Rail. Later on he saw a Lapwing nest hatching out, wonder how long will it be before they are predated.

Back here at home, we had 9 Goldfinch and 3 Greenfinch on the bird table, there have certainly been more Goldfinch around here lately.