Wednesday 3rd January

Well, believe it or not, that is almost 2 inches of rain fallen this year with another wet day forecast for tomorrow.. and it is only the 3rd of January.....

Yesterday James had seen a second year Iceland Gull down on the Rhinns. Today at Gruinart, James had a White tailed Eagle, 2 Greenshank, 11 Whooper Swans, a Hen Harrier and also an Otter with her cub... Some highlights through from visiting birders, David and Jane Franklin... Today, they had seen the Iceland Gull down close to Claddach on the Rhinns, as well as another Iceland Gull, this one was up at Blackrock. Along at Whin Park, a Hen Harrier was present, 2 Dabchick seen nearby at the mouth of the River Sorn with 2 Slavonian Grebe seen out on Loch Indaal. Up at Ardnave, they saw 5 GND, 3 Tysties, a Gannet and also a Little Auk flying between Nave Island and Ardnave itself. They also saw a small flock of 20 Twite as they headed back towards their car. Finally, on Ardnave Loch, 10 Tufted Duck, 3 Goldeneye and 10 Mallard were present.

Monday 25th January

Many thanks to James and co for writing the blog while I have been over on the mainland this past week. Apart from the obligatory shopping, we even managed to attend 2 concerts at the Celtic connections held in Glasgow along with some time visiting friends too....
Some sightings from last week now... Dave had a Glaucous Gull down at Lower Killeyan on the Oa on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, Donald James MacPhee had Little Auk, found by one of his dogs, up close his house at Kintraw above Gortan on Loch Indaal. Visiting birder, Stuart Crutchfield saw a Cackling Goose close to Leorin amongst the flock of Barnies, the drake Green winged Teal was present out on the floods at Gruinart, a  1st winter Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay, around 20 Pale bellied Brents at the head of Loch Inndaal   with around 50 Common Scoter on Loch Indaal. On Sunday before heading off to the ferry, 130 Barwits were at the top of  Loch Indaal. Stuart also saw 7 Hen Harrier while he was over, and reported very large numbers of Common Gull as well. Today, Tracey e mailed through the figures from the International goose Count held last week on 19th/ 20th January, there were 41,736 Barnies, 4,680 Greenland Whitefronts and 473 Greylags counted. Thanks to Tracey and the team from SNH for these figures.

Tuesday 12th January

Just after 9am today, Mike Peacock spotted a Little Auk flying up Loch Indaal towards Bruichladdich. Here at home, out towards the War graves cemetery there were 25 Greylags present, one of which had a neck collar on. Late morning, Bob had around 80 Greylags seen from his house just out of Port Charlotte, one of which had a neck collar on too. Different geese, so their data is away to Bob Swann, and once we hear back from him, I will let you know of where and when they were fitted with the neck collars...

Sunday 10th January

Back on Friday, Mary had seen a Little Awk on the wee lochan past Claddach at Portnahaven. Yesterday, Gary had counted 67 Pale bellied Brent Geese between the burn at Uiskentuie and round to Bruichladdich. Later on, he had a Tawny Owl fly across in front of him at Bruichladdich Pier. This afternoon, on our way back from Gruinart, we had a Sparrowhawk fly alongside us beside the dyke (stone wall) at Grainel, a Buzzard fly past, close to Culbuie and another near to Rockside roadend. The weather today, has not ben that great, with rain on the windows for most of the day...

Thursday 7th January

Yesterday, over at Tarbert on Jura, Gordon Muir had found a dead Little Awk. Also yesterday, Louise had seen a Whimbrel at Saligo Bay. This morning the ringtail Hen Harrier carried out a low fly past over the garden, here at home. Later on our way to Gruinart, a Sparrowhawk was on top of the dyke beside the former Kilchoman school. On our way home, there was a male Hen Harrier at Carnduncan, with a ringtail seen close to Coull roadend a few minutes later. We also had 80 Whitefronts together at Ballinaby, there were more seen in other fields along the way, but this was our largest count. Bob had 4 Pinkfoots amongst the Whitefronts at Rockside and at Grulinmore at the far end of Loch Gorm, Bob had 135 Fielfares on the overhead wires. A Sparrowhawk was sitting on top of the bird table here at home, early afternoon. Over on the Oa, Dave had a Little Awk on Loch Kinnabus. It took off and circled round the loch before heading over the hill and out to the Sea.

Monday 4th February

Yes, the Fulmars must be a sign of impeding bad weather, as today it has been something else. I know it has windy, a gust of 63mph was recorded on Mike weather station at 06.53, and even now the wind is rolling around, fortunately no damage done. We are not alone as Calmac, our ferry operator on the West coast of Scotland, have got 10 ferry crossings cancelled out, including our service to Islay, there is one ferry sailing "normally" and the rest of the fleet on "amber alert", not that I would really want to go on the ferry when the wind is what it is like at present!!! Michal at the weekend had found a dead Little Auk on the shore close to Killinallan. I thought that the figures for the big garden birdwatch that we had were big, well today I think that we have had even more birds present including 3 Dunnock, 2 Robin and 12 Goldfinches. The Chaffinches and Greenfinches just kept rotating around and proved too difficult to count. The female Brambling was seen as well, nice to see it especially on the feeders close to the kitchen window! 

Mon 31st Aug

Another month almost in, and just to keep you all up to speed on the rainfall, well I am sure that this has been the wettest August since we came to live on Islay almost 10 years ago. If memory serves me correctly the November in 1999, we had the best part of 10", so possibly this is the second wettest month, say no more.

George phoned to say that he had seen a Little Auk on Loch Indaal this evening. When I met up with George, the loch itself was flat calm, the only problem was that the dreaded midges were out! Undeterred, we managed to locate the bird again, well out in the loch and swimming along quite quickly allowing for it being a relatively small bird. There were also some Razorbills off the pier at Bruichladdich, half a dozen Scotor on the loch too and George had 2 Red throated diver earlier on today. Down on the shoreline, not far from the coal yard there was a Whimbrel, a couple of Knot, 6 Ringed Plover and 22 Turnstone. There was a Gannet out fishing further down on the loch too.

Back home this morning, there was a male Blackbird with a rather tasty bramble in his mouth.

Sun 20th- Mon 21st Jan

On Sunday on a trip to Oransay, the small island south of Colonsay, the following birds were seen between Port Askaig and Rhuvaal, on the Islay side of the boat. 16 Black Guillemot, 22 Shag, 19 Herring Gull, 10 Greater Black back Bull, 4 Heron, 4 Mute Swan, 12 Oystercatcher, 2 Cormarant and 2 Great Northern Diver. The weather was tremendous and a flat calm crossing. Oransay is famous itself for it's shell mounds. MS

Also, at the other end of Islay, at the Machrie golf course a Little Auk was noted flying inland from the sea. AK

The weather here on Monday, has not been much to write about, as it rained steadily until mid afternoon, when it did fair up the birds were busy on the feeders, and the Paps of Jura had a fair covering of snow.

Tracey and Margaret from S.N.H. e mailed last week's Goose figures, 41,991 Barnacle Geese (+1,666 on the week) and 5,662 Geenland Whitefronts (+426). No sign of the Bar headed Goose recently. There have been no sightings of either any Snow Geese, or of any Red-breasted Geese for a few winters of late.