Monday 7th March

Catherine phoned in some sightings seen down on the Oa this past week, Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle, 2 Buzzards, 8 Chough, 156 Twite, 54 Rock Dove, 149 Starling, 286 Greenland Whitefronts, 3 Goldeneye, 13 Tufted Duck, 80 Fulmar 4 Raven, and the Tree Sparrow. A good cross section to get one going...

A visiting birder gave me through a few of his sightings over the past few days, 100 Gannets off Portnahaven, 20 Lesser Black Backed Gulls on the flats at Bridgend, at Killinallan 45 Skylarks and 180 Twite. Ardnave Loch, the other day had 28 Whooper Swan and 3 Mutes. This afternoon on Loch Gorm, there were 30 Tufted Duck and 5 male Pochard. Coming over on the ferry on Saturday 26th February, he had seen a Mediterranean Gull. If I remember correctly he has seen 117 species so far....Still time for a few more....

Sat 6th Feb

I was speaking to Malcolm this morning, and the topic of the Goose count came up. Malcolm had done the count round Loch Gorm this week, and there had been relatively high figures for Gorm, so the figures will probably balance themselves out with the low count that James had yesterday on the reserve. We will just have to wait on the figures through from Tracey!

Some visiting birders in off the ferry this afternoon had seen an adult Mediterrean Gull down beside McArthur's Head as the ferry entered The Sound of Islay. One of them was well pleased as he saw his first "Scottish" Chough as 4 flew past just when they arrived. There were 13 birds in total going to the roost.

Thurs 28th Aug

Last Sunday, Andy Schofield had a stint of sea watching, and over a 5+ hour spell he had a passage of 10,000+ Manx Shearwater flying south west to possibly Ireland after returning from a feeding foray into Scottish waters! There were also 3 Sooty Shearwater observed at the same time, all off the south east coast of Islay.

Yesterday, Andy saw a second year Mediterrean Gull at Gruinart, the first for the RSPB reserve, and only the third record for Islay. This afternoon, down at Carnain, he saw an adult Osprey fly over from the head of Loch Indaal, and it continued to fly inland. Is this still the same bird that has been seen quite often over the summer? Also at Carnain, with tide being fairly close in, were numerous waders including Dulin, Knot and Sanderling. There is now one Dunlin less than before, as a Sparrowhawk was seen taking one! Andy also had a further 2 Sparrowhawk at different locations through the day, today.

Finally, Andy has been seeing Crossbills over the last few weeks, over 200+ since mid July. Andy thinks that they are not the same birds, as the group size is not always the same, varying from 3 up to over a dozen, the make up is different too, relating to the adult birds to juveniles and finally their flight pattern varies, some high fliers, and others lower fliers and others on trees too. He was also saying that a visitor had told him of seeing 3 Otters all in the same bay, possibly a family group. RAS

Tues 25th March 08

Andy from RSPB reports in today saying that there has been quite a passage of both Song , Mistle Thrush and Blackbird. Also noted were increase in numbers of Goldfinch and Stonechat.

This female stonechat was taken yesterday sheltering from the cold wind in a dyke.

Andy also gave us the following sightings, 2 Wheatear, 1 at Lower Cragabus the other at Ardilistry Bay, 6 Lesser Black-backed Gull along with 1 Adult Mediterranean Gull in Port Ellen Bay.

3 White Wagtail were seen on the RSPB Oa reserve, while at the weekend at Ardbeg a Magpie was seen, the first for a few years. RAS

There were 35 Chough counted at Machir Bay at the weekend, and I noted a Chough taking wool into a nest site, was that because of the cold winds to line the actual nest better?