Thursday 16 December

 Chough, Ken Reeves

The month is over half way through, which means 2022 is nearly upon us! The government is advising further restrictions over the next wee while, which makes bird watching the perfect hobby.  Even easier when you live here and can do a lot from you car window.

I was mostly driving today, passing near Black Rock I spotted an immature glaucous gull feeding in the burn there.  At smelly corner I was able to count 10 shelduck.  Over Ellister a pair of ravens were out flying together. 

Sunday 6th June

Alistair McCormick kindly sent this image of a pair of Shelduck and their family of young ducklings up past Craigens, taken yesterday evening.

James was telling us today that he had seen 3 Spotted Flycatchers on  the reserve at Gruinart on Friday. He was also saying that the rain guage there had talied inat 1.7inches for may, and a mere 1.3 " for April... 

Later on last night, after I had written the entry for yesterday on the blog, I saw 2 Whitethroats flitting around down beside our pond...

The weather has been a lot better here today, so we managed to cut the grass...

Monday 8th February

Peter sent this through later on last night, the birds were all seen yesterday...

" A belated note for birds at Loch Skerrols today:

·        A pair of Golden Eagles flying around together beyond Skerrols near Knockdon

·        A young WTE over the Loch

·    c.25 Tufted Ducks, c.45 Mallard and c.30 Wigeon and 8 Mute Swans on the Loch itself"

Lesley sent me through the folowing birds seen by her over at Gruinart today...

"4WTE feeding far shoreline LGruinart from new hide. Also large nos sm waders - Dunlin, + 31 Shellduck +

Close in Teal in sun in  pristine plumage. Also seen there was a Little Egret"

"Attempted to count the geese at Gruinart – but rather a lot of birds of prey:

2 Golden Eagles, 2 White tailed Eagles, although I believe Lesley had 4, 1 Merlin and 4 Hen Harriers"

Just before lunchtime. looking out on our grass another "tick" for the house list here, 23 Oystercatchers, more than the total number of Goldfinches, easily pleased I am sometimes!!! They stayed here for some time having a good probe/ howk in the grass before flying away. Mid afternoon there were still 9 present but down in the adjacent field to us...

Monday 25th May

A better sort of a day here today, I even took a wobbly and looked out a paint brush and started to paint the garage with some wood preservative, better still, yes, the correct shade too, might even get some more done tomorrow all going well...The Rochdale birders are back for another "Islay fix", yesterday on their travels round Islay, they had seen 4 male Hen Harriers. Today down at Bruichladdich, they saw 2 Shelducks taking their brood of 7 youngsters down onto Loch Indaal. Other returnees , the Teme Valley birders yesterday had seen a Cuckoo on a fence post at Machir Bay, needless to say a Meadow Pipit was mobbing it. Later on over at the reserve at Gruinart, they saw 2 ringtail Hen Harriers. Today, down past the Coastguards Houses, they counted 17 Greylag geese and the along at Coull, there were another 17 Greylags including the one with the red neck collar , again to far to read... Also at Coull were 6 Curlews. At Coulererach they saw their first Whitethroat of the year. As they went round Loch Gorm , they commented on seeing more Linnets and also more Wheatears than they usually see when they are here.

Thursday 17th July

Another great Summer's day again.... Speaking to Bob last night who was saying that he had a mixed flock of wee birds on the grass field out in front of his house, he reckons around 100 or so birds in total, about the biggest half were House Sparrows, with the others being Linnets, Twite, Goldfinches and a few Greenfinches. Mandy one of the "vols" at Gruinart was saying to me this morning, that the other day up at Ardnave she saw a Great Skua taking a Shelduck... Down at Bruichladdich this evening there was a pr of Shelduck proudly showing off their 8 ducklings. Back at Loch Gorm the Mute Swans still have got their 6 youngsters in tow...

Sunday 27th March

George had a Great Northern Diver out on Loch Indaal down below his house, while on the shoreline 2 pairs of Shelduck were displaying. Back on his bird table, there have been a couple of Greenfinches and also 2 Goldfinches of late.

Another friend who lives up the back of Bridgend was telling me today that they have had to stop feeding at their bird table as the local Sparrowhawk was being too frequent a visitor, and for the wrong reasons!

Tuesday 25th January

The other day, Bob had a flock of around 1,000 Chaffinches down at Gartbreck, just outside of Bowmore. Yesterday David Formby, our local dentist had a Long tailed Tit in his garden while today James had a count of 272 Shelduck at the head of Loch Gruinart. All I could offer today was seeing a Sparrowhawk, flying right past the house and further out up and way out over the gully was a Peregrine.

Tues 21st December

Still very cold as you can see, in fact yesterday it was -9.5C on the reserve. A count of Loch Gruinart revealed good numbers of birds using this mostly unfrozen habitat. Shelduck 113, wigeon 67, teal 132, pintail 19, oystercatchers 288, grey plover 4, lapwing 232, dunlin 178, bar tailed godwit 383, curlew 111, redshank 24, turnstone 29, greenshank 1, and a peregrine in the middle of the Loch. George has reported redpols, siskins, goldfinches, goldcrests, woodcock and snipe from Bruichladdich. Today I had 4 different hen harriers 1 male and 3 females at RSPB Loch Gruinart and received reports of a snow bunting on the Gruinart road and at Saligo, very seasonal.

Tues 15th June

This image of a Golden Plover was sent to me this evening by local birder Becky Williamson. It was taken over on the Glenegedale lots.

Today we have noticed some Shelduck out with their broods of very young ducklings. There was a pair at Bruichladdich on Loch Indaal with their young swimming directly behind. There were also a few family groups at "smelly corner".

This evening before the midges came out we were looking at a new Sand Martin colony, there are at least 80 nests, so we will try to keep an eye on them. While we were there 45 Greylag flew overhead.

Mon 10th May

A late entry came through last night from Carl. " There were grey seals in Portnahaven Harbour this afternoon. Common seals are more usual there. A few Arctic terns, a flock of a dozen Eider- and a Ringed plover desperately feigning injury to the human intruders and furiously attacking wandering Herring gulls. A steady passage of Gannets flying both north and south past MacKenzie island. Good numbers of Fulmar too. Greylag geese were on the island as were an indeterminate number of Whimbrel that could be heard calling. 6 Whitethroat, 2 Stonechat and 2 Reed bunting were heard singing between Port Charlotte and Portnahaven this afternoon. A buzzard was being mobbed by 2 ravens, and we found a long dead kestrel at Lorgba. The starlings in the Portnahaven whisky barrel have 3 young- you can see them through a wee hole in the top of the cask!"

Carl today had done a count of the Rookery in Port Charlotte with 40 nests being present, ten years ago there were only 14. James figures for the reserve at Gruinart were up by 20 nests on the year.

Today, coming back from Bowmore, and at "smelly corner" there were quite a few Shelduck around, could they be drakes with the females on the nest, certainly most of them appeared to be drakes when we had a quick scan through them.

Sun 4th April

Looking out the kitchen window this morning, and Margaret saw the Shelduck return to their nest for the first time this year, so we will keep you updated when we have any more sightings of them.

I heard today that a Swallow had been seen on Friday. Earlier on this evening, I checked up on Tony the Whooper Swan, he is still going in the direction of Iceland, but rather slowly!

The rainfall total for March was just under 4", a total for the year of only 8" so far, dry for out here! Malcolm told me that the Airport had their wettest day, last Tuesday, since mid November!

Fri 26th Feb

Catherine has had a busy week counting birds, she had two days back to back helping out on the Goose count and then another day carrying out a count on Loch Gruinart. As well as counting numerous geese, she also had 2 Golden Eagles high up in the air, up behind Ballimartin.

The tally for Loch Gruinart was as follows, 200 Curlew, 164 Wigeon, 355 Oystercatcher, 55 Redshank, 29 Turnstone, 39 Sanderling, 57 Ringed Plover, 43 Herring Gull, 26 Mallard, 404 Bar tailed Godwit, 6 Snipe, 20 Common Gull, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Heron, 792 Dunlin, 207 Shelduck, 14 Black headed Gull and 23 Lapwing.

Wed 16th Dec

Perhaps it has been cold today, but at least it has stayed dry, and the sky as I write is full of stars, another plug for Dark Skies!!

On our way out Bowmore yesterday, at Bunanuisg (opposite where Islay Farmers once traded from), there were 45 Pale bellied Brent Geese, probably the same geese that we had seen the other day, but over the far side of the spit on the Strand. There were also a few Turnstone to be seen. Further on, close to Carnain, and there were some more Shelduck around.

Wed 2nd Dec

Apologies for nothing being entered last night, but the broadband connection was playing up yesterday.....

To start the month off, look backwards to the rainfall in November and we only had 9", but the total for the year so far is 3" more than we had in total last year!

In between the showers and the wind I had to go out briefly, but I did manage to see a Merlin over at Grainel yesterday. Today, down at the top of Loch Indaal, there were 2 groups of Pale bellied Brent Geese, one of 40 birds, the other only 5 birds, and they possibly would join up together later on as they were quite close to each other. Further on, down at Carnain, (or "smelly corner" as we call it), the Little Egret was present again. Coming home at around 4pm, and there were 39 Shelduck present where the Little Egret had been earlier.

Mon 25th May

Want the good news, or the bad news first. Well, I think we really should start with the good news, this morning down at Carnain on the water, was a Shelduck with her brood. The bad news was that seconds before, I had just seen a Gull carrying off one of the ducklings, with the other Shelduck trying to mob the Gull, but to no avail.
Back at home and the Cuckoo has been calling for most of the day in and around the wood, with the female returning her call from time to time.
I had a chance meeting with Trevor Guy the other week who was over here on holiday. Trevor writes www.paghambirder.blogspot.com and has some cracking images, well worth a look at.

Mon 18th May

Over the weekend we have been noticing more activity with the Shelducks out on the crag. We initially thought that all we had, as in previous years, was just the "Springwatch" pair, but there have another pair flying around and inspecting various different possible nest sites, so could this be another pair thinking that this could be a good place to set up home?

Remember back to last Monday when I wrote about the Ravens, well I think that the young have now fledged as there certainly has been quite a bit of activity over in the gully.

Sun 12th April

Susan McGhie was on the phone this morning to say that she had heard her first Cuckoo of the year over at Ballygrant.

Back here at home, and Margaret yesterday saw a pair of Shelduck, coming into the nest, with the drake flying back out as a decoy while his mate dropped straight back into where they have been in previous years. Is this the same ducks that were here when BBC Springwatch was here, back in 2007?

Down at Carnain, there were 11 Sand Martins flying over the pools, and while on a quick run down from here to the Oa, there was not many geese to be seen. This was confirmed by James How this evening, as he had noticed a big movement of geese flying North up Loch Indaal through the day today. James also had a Willow Warbler on the reserve at Gruinart this afternoon

Fri 26th Dec

Too much food yesterday and hence no entry for Xmas Day, was it too much Turkey?

I forgot to say the other day that there had been 2 adult Whooper Swans along with their 2 cygnets on one of the small lochans at the roadside over towards Glenegedale.

Tony Johnson who was over in late October, and has just had the report back from BTO on a dead Guillemot that he had found on Loch Indaal on the 29th of October. It had originally been rung earlier on this summer, on the 21st of June at Castle Craig in the Highland region, around 258 km from here.

Today, whilst on a run over to Bunnahabhain, we had a good sighting of 2 Sea Eagles over the Sound of Islay. The were initially ahead and relatively close to us, but as we got closer they flew out over the Sound and away from us. We were able to note that they both had yellow wing tags, but we were unable to actually read them. Also on our way there, at Carnain, there appeared to be a few more Shelducks to be seen.

Fri 17th Oct

Michal is back with his camera again, with this image of a Greenshank.

Earlier on today, he had busy doing counts out on the floods in front of the hide. The tallies were as follows, 6 Mute Swans, 41 Greylag, 137 Wigeon, 7 Pintail, 670 Teal, 9 Shelduck, 50 Mallard, 55 Lapwing, 1 Gadwall, 1 Water Rail, 2 Litle Grebe and 3 Heron. Up on Ardnave Loch, there were 19 Whoopers, 4 Mute, 21 Wigeon and 8 Tufted Duck. This was the first of the returning Shelduck to be seen this Autumn at Gruinart reserve. There were certainly not as many Whooper Swans to be seen around today, with our fiends only reporting 4 seen down on the stubble at Rockside. They also counted 570 Scaup in Loch Indaal in 3 separate groups.

Thurs 29th May

As forecast yesterday, the Shelduck took their young from the nest this morning, so it has been a long day for us. Margaret was up at 3.30 am to check if the male bird was still guarding the entrance to the nest, which he had been faithfully for at least 14 hrs. Finally at around, 5.30 am, the female emerged with her brood of 7 or 8 ducklings, the exact number we were not sure of, as they were always in a very tight group, proving difficult to get an exact number as it is not easy to use the scope and try to get images at the same time! The whole family group were soon on their way, and this year reverted back to their usual route of turning left on emerging from the nest and heading out towards water. For those who remember, last year on Springwatch, they turned right and went overland to Loch Gorm and wrong footed us all! This year, in just under half an hour they were heading down towards the dunes and the sea at Machir Bay about 3/4 of a mile. No mean feat for youngsters, so young! MAB

Another visiting birder got in touch to say that he had seen the Osprey over Loch Gorm, just as I had thought that it had flown off somewhere else! There was also the the sighting of young Chough emerging from their nest for the first time today. Over in the verge at the side of the road at Coull this afternoon, I saw my first hen Pheasant out with her brood of 10 young. Meanwhile, James had 24 Arctic Tern, 4 Little Tern and a Manx Shearwater up at Ardnave, as well as an Eider out with her brood. Back on the RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve, Michael had a Spotted Flycatcher, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler and a Whitethroat all calling, while we were on the usual Thursday guided walk. Corncrake were also heard, and one was seen from the Visitor Centre on our return there. James contacted me this evening to say that he had seen Short-eared Owl on the reserve earlier on in the day. JRH

Overall it has been a busy day, with a lot of different birds emerging with their young, and the day is not over as tonight/ early Friday morning is the first count of the year for the Corncrake survey!