Monday 1 November

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.  A nice nip in the air, though it is still relatively warm and plenty of rain with it. Chatting to someone from the Ballygrant area today, they were telling me they had hailstones this morning! It's been a very odd year, weather wise.

Mike Bell got in touch with his sightings:  "2 golden eagle at Kilchoman first thing. The cackling goose was by the road at Aoradh at 0900 hr, the long-billed dowitcher was on the flood with 5 black-tailed godwits, more ducks with 1600 teal, 280 wigeon  57 pintail, 18 shoveler, 1 little grebe and a male hen harrier. 23 Whoopers on the estuary with another 26 arriving at 1325 hr, 1480 golden plover on the fields. In the channel at the mouth of  Loch Gruinart there was a little auk which gave nice views, a lot of seabirds far offshore." Dan Brown also had the dowitcher, seen from the North Hide at Loch Gruinart.

The drake American wigeon was sighted today (Neil McMahon) at Loch Skerrols, and the Cackling goose was very obliging today with good views from the roadside for many.

Julian Cook

Neil also reported 4 golden eagles, one WTE and a merlin looking towards Jura from Port Askaig this morning, at Loch Skerrols a ring-tailed hen harrier and 30 siskin.  5 pochard on Loch Gorm, 2 WTE from the South Hide at Loch Gruinart, and one golden eagle above Kilchoman Distillery.

Dan was at Ardnave, noting an exceptionally quite day with only 4 chough and 55 twite.  On the drive up, a male hen harrier.  This evening at Loch Gruinart flats, an other male hen harrier plus a ring tail, 4 golden eagle and one barn owl.

Driving from Bowmore this afternoon around 4pm, the tide was very high though I still spotted a WTE opposite Whin Park turning and a little egret at smelly corner. No need to even stop the car.

Teresa shared an other stunning shot of the heavy squalls overlooking Loch Gruinart from Craigens. She noted 31 whooper swans heading south today.

A small pod of bottle nose dolphins were high into Loch Indaal around lunchtime today with good sighting from Bruichladdich pier for those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. As I was waiting in Port Charlotte, a heavy shower was making its way up the sound. A large flock of geese flew over the village heading east towards Laggan Point. Not much salt marsh to roost on with the high tides, so Plan B is in place for the night.

Friday 29 October

A busy day for Islay today with a handful of rarities spotted.

A long-billed dowitcher was seen at the North Hide at the Loch Gruinart Floods.  Seen by James and by visitors Mark and Alison Cockburn, and again by Garry Wilkinson who heard it from a group of birdwatchers on a bus tour from Northern Ireland! A very obliging bird indeed.

Slightly out of focus but the best picture of the day of the dowitcher from Mark and Alison. Thank you.

The second rarity of the day was a red necked grebe first reported by Dave and Sian Nevitt, and seen again by Peter Roberts. Dave and Sian also counted 15 Slavonian grebe, 2 black throated divers, 9 long tailed duck, a black guillemot and the 'usual suspects' of scoters, scaup...

While Peter was out he got to chatting with visitors who told him of an American wigeon and 2 ring necked ducks seen yesterday at Loch Skerrols. He swiftly went to check and found them quite easily along with 55 whooper swan. He was able to get this photo of the wigeon:

Again, a classic grainy bird watching photo but clear enough to see the bird!

Last (known) rarity was a yellow browed warbler heard but not seen on Wednesday in the Gruinart area by  Ed Hutchings.

Teresa today was down in the bays between Ardbeg and Ardtalla. She noted no wind and a high tide which produced at Rubha Buidhe 52 greylag, 5 curlew, 7 red-breasted merganser, 1 wren, 3 redshank, 1 heron, one golden eagle, and 20 seals. Further east at Ardmore point were very large flocks of redwing making pigs of themselves on the rowan berries, wren, cormorant, one seal, one great northern diver, one cormorant, 7 fallow deer.  Then in Ardtalla bay and Claggan, 4 goosander, 6 cormorants, one wren, one red-breasted merganser, 4 seals.

As I was driving later this afternoon (around half 5) I saw the unmistakable silhouette of a white-tailed eagle feasting on something on a small patch of salt marsh just off smelly corner at the top of Loch Indaal, and a little further along the beaming white figure of a little egret.  Then, about an hour later in Bowmore Harbour, an otter was quietly fishing.

I did say yesterday I would try find out the name of the burn at Uiskentui - it is called Abhainn Ghlas or the Grey River.  Thank you Malcolm, it annoyed me that I couldn't recall it yesterday! It earned is name in the 1840s when the channel was being dug as part of the project to reclaim the Gruinart flats for agriculture. In doing so they disturbed the clay within which turned the water grey.  

Thanks again to all the reports everyone, we couldn't keep the blog updated and maintain it as a resource for locals and visitors without contributions. If you look to the right on our home page, you will find the number to join our WhatsApp group, or indeed the email to let us know any sightings and photos you'd like to share. What's common for you could be an Island twitch for us! Plus with all these rarities reported today, there could well be more out there, and it's a big island to cover.

Monday 1st May

A great day over here with plenty of different birds seen today. It all started off with the Argyll birder spotting this Little ringed Plover, only the second one ever here on Islay, we believe. Mary found a Ring necked Duck at Ardnave Loch as well as a Long billed Dowitcher there too. Not to be outdone, James had a Tree Pipit on the reserve at Gruinart. Peter and Pia had a male Yellow Wagtail beema sp also on the reserve, from the new hide this afternoon. Peter also had 15 Ringed Plover at Coull and then around 200 Golden Plover at Ballinaby, the Argyll birder counted a total of 212 Plovers present there. The Argyll birder also had a Whinchat at Grulinmore and several groups of Whimbrel, 11 at Ardnave, 18 at Bruichladdich and 98 down at Nerabus. Bob this evening counted 30 at Octomore. Peter also had 3 Grasshopper Warblers and a Whitethroat at Foreland. James had a Merlin at Ardnave this afternoon, and we had one at Coull this morning which put the flock of Golden Plovers up. Yesterday Michal had a male Hen Harrier displaying down on the Oa. He also had 2 Golden Eagles,a Red Grouse, a Sedge Warbler and several Willow Warblers. He also seen "loads" of Meadow Pipits and also Skylarks there too. Bob had a Golden Eagle yesterday up behind Sunderland. Bob's friend Chris had 95 species seen on his 2 day trip to Islay.

Thurs 7th Jan

Yesterday, James carried out a count of the geese on the reserve at Gruinart, and the numbers tallied through at 6,120 Barnacle Geese, 209 Greenland Whitefronts, 5 Greylags and also the ever present Lesser Canada Goose, hutchinsii.

The Long billed Dowitcher was seen again this morning on Loch Gruinart. George had a Purple Sandpiper on the foreshore down at Bruichladdich today, and on his fields George saw a Curlew, 8 Lapwing, 5 Snipe, 2 Woodcock and also a probable Jack Snipe. George is fortunate that he has a small ditch that runs through his fields which has not frozen over so he has been getting some birds in for a drink of fresh water.

Tues 29th Dec

An image of an adult Iceland Gull taken by Richard Bonser over at Bunnahabhain last weekend. While he was over Richard, had a couple of Pink footed Geese in amongst our winter visitors, as well as the male Green winged Teal over at the reserve at Gruinart. James had also it today, as well as a Golden Eagle fly over. He also had 83 Golden Plover in one flock on the reserve and commented on seeing other smaller flocks off reserve.

Malcolm had a visiting birder call to say that there had been a probable sighting of a Long billed Dowitcher over at Loch Gruinart. They also had seen the Little Egret lurking in some of creeks over at Gruinart, so it has not left us yet! The Tree Sparrow was also spotted by them down on the Oa.

Many thanks to various visiting folk for sharing their sightings with us.

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!