Sunday 8th May

A great day out here after a bit of a sluggish start, mind you I am not complaining... Yesterday, Peter reported through to say that he had a cracking view of a Corncrake calling away as he walked down to the South (old) hide, better still he had it in the scope for about 5 minutes. The Lesser Yellowlegs was still present out from the North (new hide) yesterday seen by Mandy. Today, Mandy had seen 13 Whimbrel at Rockside, and this evening there were 41 Greylags on the barley field there. Earlier on, Mandy heard a Corncrake in the reedbed leading to Machir Bay. Bob today carried out the WeBS count from Bowmore to Gartbreck, so here are the scores on the doors... 1 Heron, 5 Shag, 3 Cormorant, 1 Greylag, 1 RT Diver, 1 Mallard, 1 Pale bellied Brent, 2 RBM, 99 Eider, 12 Shelduck, 20 H Gull, 4 BH Gull, 6 GBB Gull, 2 LB Gull, 3 Sand Terns, 6 Arc Tern, 35 Oystercatcher, 5 Curlew, 4 Whimbrel, 5 Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 189 Dunlin, 6 Lapwing, 115 R. Plover and 3 Turnstone. Along at Gartmain, Bob counted 58 Barwits. Back at home, he had a male Merlin. Up towards Bunahabhain today, Gary and Sam had a male Hen Harrier and several Common Sandpiper were on the shore at Bunnahabhain itself.  Round at Finlaggan, they heard Whinchat singing away, spotted an Osprey over the far end (South) of the loch, with the Ring necked Duck still present amongst the Tufties at the visitor centre end.

Wednesday 4th May

Did not manage to write the blog last night, so here goes with it. On Tuesday, Michal had heard 2 Cuckoos, a Sedge Warbler and also a Grasshopper Warbler he walked between Moulin and the Office along at Bushmills. Mandy was in touch to say that she had heard 2 Corncrakes calling down  between the road and Loch Gorm, just along from the cottages at Rockside roadend. She too has seen the Lesser Yellowlegs as has Fiona back on Monday evening. Gary had been over at the hide and saw the Yellowlegs too. On his way along he flats at Gruinart, he saw a Peregrine trying to flush a Snipe out of the reedbed at the roadside. On his way home Gary had a flock of around 100 Meadow Pipits fly across the road close to Carnain. Mary now reports that  there were a couple of calling Corncrakes, one beside the Church at Portnahaven, the other was heard along towards Port Wemyss. Peter too had seen the Yellowlegs yesterday afternoon again present at the North hide, also there 42 Dunlin and 2 White Wagtails. From the old hide/ South Hide 2 Pr of Wigeon, 1 Pr of Tufted Duck and 29 Blackwits. Louise had a count of 19 Pale bellied Brent Geese over Jura

Tuesday 3rd May

Thanks to James for sharing his images of the Lesser Yellowlegs which he had taken yesterday evening. The bird is still around today, with the Leigh birders, Michal, Dave and Bob all spotting it today. Forgot to mention that there were 20 Greylags on a barley field which was recently sown at Rockside. We also saw a single Barnacle Goose over at Craigens. Yesterday evening, Bob had 28 Blackwits at Gruinart and a further 15 in at Port Ban, one of which had plastic leg rings on, so will send the info through to BTO and see if we can get any information back on its' history

Monday 2nd May

Yesterday, Carl had a single Whooper on Ardnave Loch,  he counted 130 Barwits at Tayvullin. Back down close to Garra Eallabus, a Cuckoo was heard while in Bridgend Woods, Blackcaps and also Bullfinches calling. Back over at Port Bhan, 25 Whimbrel were present. This morning, Bob had 28 Blackwits opposite St Kiaran's Church and also the same number of Whimbrel present along at Port Bhan. This afternoon, we had 3 small groups of Whimbrel, 5 seen past the Coastguards towards Coull Farm, 7 at Ballinaby and then 15 over at the Killinallan gate. A couple of male Hen Harriers were over the East end of Loch Gorm. At home, the Greenfinches  were on our feeders, but no sign today of the Lesser Redpoll. Early this evening, James had seen a Lesser Yellowlegs out from the new hide at Gruinart , also present were 4 White Wagtails and 2 Gadwall. Back at Mill cottage, ( James's house) while were having a cuppa and catch up, 2 Common Redpolls were on James's feeders along with Greenfinches, a BlueTit and Goldfinches.

Sun 26th April

A phone call from Michal, alerted us to a "twitch" over at the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart this morning. Not just one bird, but at the end it turned out to be a twitch of 4 different species. The initial call was for a Lesser Yellowlegs and a Long billed Dowitcher, and these were easily found after prompting from James, as they were quite close to a Shoveler, but skulking around the rushes in the floods in front of the hide. The next shout was for the Green winged Teal, and more was to come, in the sense that at one point, all three birds were in the same field of view in the 'scope at once, at 60x magnification! They were seen by quite a wide range of folk, as the Argyll Bird Club were over on Islay for a weekend meet, and several of their members were fortunate to be there. Some visiting birders also saw the birds and equally impressed. The other species that James had seen briefly was a Spotted Redshank which he saw briefly around 6am. JRH

Back to our usual birds, and Margaret and myself had seen several Golden Plover, some Ringed Plover and a few Dunlin in a ploughed field over at Ballinaby yesterday evening. Whilst over at Gruinart this morning, we noticed 54 Shelduck and 44 Barnacle Geese mixed in with some Gulls on the salt marsh below Craigens Farm. Back here at home, before breakfast, the Cuckoo was in full song. Later on I had another first, and I had to double check, a Wheatear on a bough of a tree. I have seen them often on the ground, on a rock or on a dyke, even a fence post but never before on a tree!

Sun 6th May 07

This morning at Loch Gruinart, there were 75 Gannets, 5 Arctic Terns, 2 Little Terns, 40 Bar Tailed Godwits, 12 Dunlin and a solitary Whimbrel. J.R.H.

In the early evening, from the hide, a superb Lesser Yellowlegs was observed along with a pair of Garganey and yet another 2 Ruff.

3 corncrakes heard from the hide, more calling birds are now being heard around the island. J.R.H., G.J., M.S., J.S.A., I.K.B. & M.A.B.