Monday 4 July

Well, what a lovely start to September we are enjoying in July! Still, I suppose we can't complain when we see the state of other corners of the world.  In short it was a rubbish day.  I nearly stumbled upon an eider duck near Port Wemyss, obviously a bit poorly given its movements.  On the nearby Lighthouse Island of Orsay, the Arctic Tern colony were making a huge commotion. From a distance there looked to be around 40 in the air.  Up at Claddach yesterday, a common sandpiper took the time to fly up from the beach to the house, where it sat atop a fence post alarm calling at me.  Despite the distance it evidently thought I was too close!  Also a pair of chough flying over my inby fields towards the loch, perhaps going up for a drink.

Billy was out on one of his hikes, this time to Loch Nam Ban, near Ardnahoe. He sent in some lovely images of a grey wagtail and a whinchat which I have shared with you here.

Alan is over with his partner this week and has shared his first day's highlights. Kilchoman Church, one chough, 2 twite, 5 raven. Kilchoman Distillery, one twite. Bruichladdich, one red-breasted merganser, one black guillemot.  Many thanks.

Ed reports of a sad Greenland Whitefront goose at Cornabus.  

Sightings are thin on the ground, but it not because of the lack of activity, simply a cause of lack of time for the local birders.  We are well into the summer season, despite my weather reports!  So any and all sightings from visitors are always a welcome addition.

Mary

Tuesday 1 March

 Pinch and a punch for the first of the month! And what a lovely start of the month it was - blue skys and sun all day. As I drove 'up country' this afternoon, at Craigfad I stopped in a passing place where there were mixed flocks of geese both sides of the road.  On one side 2 white-fronts were stood, one leg tucked up facing the sun with their eyes shut. It seems the sunshine was appreciated all round!

The white-tailed eagles also appear to have enjoyed the warm weather - over Portnahaven this morning a WTE flew over above the bay, causing all the gulls to rise up in a noise! 2 immature birds were perched on MacKenzie Island, with an other 2 adults on a hillock by Claddach Loch.  Over at Loch Gruinart, Chris reported an other 3 WTE on the mud at the head of the Loch.

Chris also counted 250 knot on the loch, a greenshank and a ring-tailed hen harrier. At Ardnave 25 twite, 14 whooper and 25 chough.  On the loch there was a little grebe.

James has been in touch with the rainfall figures for the month: "My rainfall figures for you – Feb was every bit as bad as you thought 188mm or 7.4inches".  

Billy Stitchell at the Lily Loch this morning enjoyed a busy male great spotted woodpecker doing what woodpeckers do best, and some long tailed tits. He kindly shared his photos, again. Thanks Billy!

Thurs 24 Feb

 

Mary-Ann sent the attached image of two WTE seen over Fairy Hill to the SE of the island.  She also counted 22 curlew at Ardbeg.

Gary had a nice count of 8 snow bunting in flight near Ballygrant.  At Scarabus an Iceland Gull, while at Gartmain he spotted a Glaucous.  Steve Williams reported 2 Iceland gulls at Uiskentui/Black Rock area.

Will Scott reported his highlights: 9 GN diver at Kilnaughton, WTE near the airport, 2 Slav grebes and 5 GN diver off Bowmore, and a long tail duck in flight.  Ring-tailed hen harrier and a little egret at RSPB Loch Gruinart. Over on the eastern side of Loch Gruinart, a GN Diver, both golden and WTE, merlin and 110 pintail.  At the Oa, a young WTE, peregrine and 50 twite.

Thanks to all for their contributions.

Very cold tonight, and the hailstones hammering the window don't encourage the notion that Tomorrow is to be a nice day! We shall see...

Perhaps inevitably though nonetheless sadly, bird flu (HPAI) H5N1 has been recorded on Islay from a Barnacle goose tested on the 9 February.  Nature Scot reminds us of the advice not to touch dead birds at this time, and report any single dead waterfowl, single bird of prey, or five or more dead wild birds of any other species to DEFRA 03459 33 55 77.

Thursday 27 January

 An other day into 2022 apparently! Malcolm pointed out my photo of the lovely snowy Paps yesterday was apparently taken in 2020 - I did say I haven't been up that way in a while!  A photo fairly cheers up the blog, but I will try and keep them up-to-date from now on. 

Alison and Nick were out with a successful day, starting by finding the cackling goose at the head of Loch Indaal. Also spotted was a WTE 'doing its thing' scaring the geese, and the other end of the scale: a merlin.  East of Blackrock, an Iceland gull.  Onto Ardnave point a single WTE, a distant view of 2 golden eagles, 4 purple sandpiper at the point, 19 twite and a good show from 29 chough.

Thanks both of you!

Wednesday 1 December

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month!  A view of a relatively calm Frenchman's Rocks above.  December came in with a blast of wind which did die away as the day went on.  The rocks feature often in the blog as an important vantage of the main migration route of autumn and spring birds.  In the summer they provide an amazing spectacle of hundreds of feeding gannets diving into the fast running waters that race between them and Islay.

Steve Lister found the cackling goose near the RSPB Loch Gruinart visitor centre, and it was later picked up by Chris in the same field. To the west of the reserve, Chris spotted 2 WTE and a male hen harrier hunting.  While he was on the Oa he noted a juv WTE, a ring-tailed hen harrier, and 50 twite, then near Bridgend he found 2 golden eagle showing well.  

Gary reported a greenshank below the power station at Bowmore, and a juv. Iceland gull.  

Mary Anne spotted a kestrel at Laphroig.

Finally, Morven over at Nature Scot kindly shared The International Goose Count figures from 23/24th November: 37,202 barnacles, 6956 white-front geese and 1326 greylag. 

Tuesday 16 November

The weather is a back to normal, wet and windy as seen in the view of Port Charlotte above. Still unseasonably warm though with the temperature hovering around 10 degrees. The wind is to get up for an other fierce day tomorrow.  Despite this the The Ribble Bird Tours were out and about, spying no less than 5 WTE over Ellister this morning, being mobbed by 2 ravens and a buzzard.  They also successfully located a cackling goose by Kilchoman Distillery and the 'star birds' at Loch Skerrols.

Mark at Loch Gruinart counted 1428 golden plover there today, that'll help him get to sleep tonight! Also 583 Greenland white-fronted geese were counted in a roost count yesterday.

David at The Oa reported a flock of 270 fieldfare there at the visitor carpark.  David also kindly sent in the following images from last Thursday when over 100 twite were ringed.

Tuesday 3rd November

The entry for yesterdays sightings was written on the second of November on the same day, but I forgot to press the corrcet button to publish it, say no more...

Ed Hutchings sent me through the following e mail this morning... "I managed to get off the island yesterday - two days after the group flew out! Several divers in Kilnaughton Bay yesterday morning - 3 Great Northern, 2 Black-throated and a Red-throated. I also saw a distant Cormorant which appeared to have more yellow on the bill and throat than Great Cormorant. I now see that there’s been an influx of Double-crested Cormorant into Irish waters. Worth checking out."

As ever, many thanks to Ed for sending your sightings through to me to use on the blog, the same applies to Teresa Morris as well. I often read the blog for Fair Isle Bird Observatory and see that there had been excitement up there the other day when a couple of Great Tits and a Blue Tit were seen, so what I often say to visitors here on Islay, "different place, different birds". I remember here that a good number of years ago, we had a Magpie out in the garden, which caused a twitch for us local birders...

Mike Bell had made the most of a "better sort of a day yesterday", not just the weather was better, but at least he did manage a day out, and not get too wet!!!!

He had counted various Whoopers which came to 138 leaving and just around 5pm Mike counted a further 27 arriving up at Gruinart... Over at Glenegedale, he had a Peregrine with a Merlin and also a Golden Eagle seen on the RSPB reserve on the Oa. Also there, he counted 350 Twite at Upper Killeyan and a count of a further 70 were seen at Kinnabus. Down at Kilnaugton Bay, he saw 2 RTD, 6 GND, 25 Redwing, a Mistle Thrush and also 3 Chough present there. Down on the croft walk, he counted 9 Redwing  and 8 Fieldfare and also a Hen Harrier. Mid afternoon, he had seen the Todd's Canada Goose amongst the Barnies seen down at the merse at Bridgend. Finally up at Gruiart, he had counted 430 Greenland Whitefronts which all appeared to be resting up, looking like that they had just arrived and looking tired out.

I forgot to mention last night, that I had a Merlin down at the roadend leading up to Rockside. This morning, out in the garden we had 10 Redwing in hopping around, a couple of Mistle Thrushes as well as around 6 "new arrivals" Blackbirds were present here as well.

Wednesday 14th October

David and Nancy Massie sent me through the following birds seen  by them yesterday..

"Loch Gorm: 6 Redwings

Loch Skerrols: 160 Whoopers, 48 Tufted Duck, 100+ Wigeon

Finlaggan: 16 Fieldfares

Glen Road: 20 Fieldfares

Gruinart, North Hide: 4 Black Tailed Godwit, 18 Bar-tailed Godwits, 300+ Golden Plover, 1 Wood Sandpiper, female Sparrowhawk tried to take a Lapwing right in front of hide-spectacularly close!"

Ron McNab who hails from Linlithgow had seen the Wood Sandpiper as well at Gruinart from the North hide yesterday.

There was a reported sighting of a Short eared Owl seen over at Gruinart from Jack Fleming. 

Richard Belter had the Wood Sandpiper at  Gruinart this morning, he also saw a Merlin chasing a pipit on the woodland trail at Gruinart and then  mid morning, he saw a Cackling goose amongst the flock of Barnies over at Ballinaby.

Our good friend, Bob Davison had ben looking out his kitchen window, just after lunchtime today had a Golden Eagle spoofing the geese up from the field below his house, down towards Port Charlotte. It continued on flying out over Loch Indaal towards the Oa..

Visitor Johnathan Alder too has been making full use of the better spell of weather which we are having on Islay at present...

At least 2 WTE at Ardnave, ringtail Hen Harrier, many Chough, flock c150 Twite, 2 Razorbills, Raven, Golden and Grey Plover.

Saturday 22nd August

 Visitor Andrew Kelly sent through the following list of birds that he had seen yesterday....

"Sightings other than 'regulars' from yesterday:

Loch Indaal shore just north of Bruichladdich: 2 eclipse male Eider

Machir Bay: dozen Sanderling, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 juvenile Dunlin

Road to Sanaigmore: juv Whinchat (and loads of Stonechat!).

Sanaigmore area: 2 Common Sandpiper, masses of Twite (mixed with Linnet and some Goldfinch), Fulmar off shore

Plenty of Buzzards  also seen while out and about!"

He also had seen a Common Whitethroat sitting on top of a dyke/ wall as he drove up to Sanaigmore. 

James today had been out doing a bit of birding looking out over Loch Gruinart where he counted the following birds...

"A few wader on Loch Gruinart

Dunlin -1040,  Ringed plover – 110,   Sanderling – 210,  Redshank – 26

Knot – 87 and Ruff = 1

A large flock of 40 Redpolls was interesting, being chased by a Sparrowhawk"

 

Tuesday 21st July

Gary had sent me though this list of birds seen by him at Finlaggan yesterday...

"4 Buzzard, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 White-tailed Eagle, 7 Tufted Ducks, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Red-throated Diver, and also a large flock of Twite (100+)."

Sunday 26th April

A couple of birds from yesterday, through from Gary. "A Kestrel flew over woods beside his  house this afternoon. Male Hen Harrier across road at Gartmain and  away along the shore."

Petr emailed through with the following, later on last night...
"At least 3 corncrakes calling here at 8.30pm this evening between Bruichladdich and Conisby."

Bob gave me a shout on the phone this morning.. and he was telling me that he had seen  a Golden Eagle flying over his house a few days ago. Down at Octomore, Bob saw 3 first winter Med Gulls following the plough. On his way to Bowmore, he had counted 22 Whimbrel just past Blackrock.

Also interesting. In garden have a male blackbird often in. Yesterday twice noticed him with a worm which he dipped in bird bath before flying off. Why, to clean it or to wet it as its been so dry ? Cannot say I have noticed this behaviour before. Certainly the bird bath in use for drinking by all the birds and also for bathing. Or like the pigeons simply settle down in it like a cool bath and a dose off.
Karen Graham  from Bearsden had in touch with her question...

David Livingstone heard a GS woodpecker drumming away this morning in the woods at Ardenistle over at Laphroaig.

Lesley e mailed  through some great sightings through as well
"We almost had rain today, but not quite. Still there is a few hours to go. Biting wind again. Walk at Kilchiaran. I stopped to check a bird disappearing into a hedge when a large shadow passed over me. Golden eagle. As I opened the car door at Kilchiaran first 2 birds heard and seen Sand Martins.  Second Whimbrel of the week in the bay. Linnets in pairs and small flocks of Twite. One pair with nesting materials. One bird was colour ringed. L O/Y didn't see R.
A Common Sandpiper on the burn and my second Grasshopper warbler heard on way back. Close and clear view of Sandwich Tern and a GN Diver L Indaal before Bruichladdich.
Another great day."

tuesday 10th March

Mark Dawson sent me through this e mail earlier on this evening...

"I arrived on Islay today for a couple of days of birding so have been following your blog in recent weeks to look for the best areas...
Thought you might like to know that at Ardnave today there were 25 Choughs (23 were together in 1 flock on the ground just before I got back to the car!). There was also a flock of around 40 Twite."

Wednesday 5th February

Some sightings in from yesterday, from our various different groups of visiting birders who have kindly sent them in for me to use... 

The "2 Steves" and Julie had been out in the strong winds down on the Oa, where they had a small flock of Twite and also a Peregrine. Later on, they had seen  2 juv  Golden Eagles when they were along at Claggain Bay over the moorland. Offshore, a Razorbill was present.

Chris Mills and his clients from Norfolk birding had seen 2 White tailed Eagles soaring past as they were getting ready to go out for the day where they are staying this week. Between Kilchoman School and Grainel, they saw a ringtail HH, only about 10 metres away from them...at Craigens, a male Merlin was present. Down on the head of Loch Indaal, a White tailed Eagle was sitting around... 2 Snipe, 6 Redpoll, 2 Crossbills and also 2 Tree creepers were spotted in at Loch Skerrols. Over at Bunnahabhain, they had another Crossbill, then down at Finlaggan a further 9 Crossbills were added to their list for the day. They then saw 3 Golden Eagles as they drove down the Glen road past Storakaig. On their way past Cash Kelly's house and in the bay at Blackrock, they had seen 6 Slavonian Grebes, 12 GND, 3 RTD, 3 L t Ducks, a Scaup and also a Tystie. To finish their day off,  they counted 20 + Chough flying in to the roost  at Kilchoman.

Returning birders from Hampshire, Gary and Wendy are back over for another trip... Round and about their cottage at Carnain, they had seen a ringtail Hen Harrier, 19 P b Brent Geese, Ringed Plover, Curlew, Shelduck, Snipe and some Dunlin.

Jack Fleming was telling me this morning, that he had been hearing a  Tawny Owl as well as a Barn Owl last night down at his house on the Gruinart Flats... 

Wednesday 23rd October

David Woods had sent through some sightings seen down on the Oa resevre... On Monday on Kinnabus Loch, a Long tailed Duck, 9 Whoopers and also a Wigeon were present. The first Whitefronts are back, with 145 at Kinnabus. Further along the road at Upper Killeyan which is also on the Oa reserve, David also saw 2 Merlin, 2 Golden Eagles and 2 Hen Harriers . Yesterday, he had seen 2 Pinkies amongst the Whitefronts at Kinnabus. He also managed to count the flock of Twite present at Kinnabus with his tally coming to 290 with a leucistic bird amongst them.

This morning, Lesley had a count of 15 Red legged Partridges in her garden.

No reports in today, so far, of the Snow Geese or of the Baird's Sandpiper seen by James yesterday.

The weather, this afternoon has gone from bad to worse, with plenty of rain bashing against the windows, glad to say that the fire is being kept in, just as well that there are plenty of dry logs inside to keep it going !!!!

Wednesday 2nd October

Keith Brockie was in for a cuppa this morning, great to catch up with you and also his wife, and their 2 dogs... They were telling us that on Monday, over on Jura, they had seen a Kingfisher at the mouth of the Lussa River.


Along at Sunderland Farm, yesterday evening,, Margaret counted 14 Whoopers on the stubbles there.

Distillery Dave had a Grey wagtail at Rockside .... he also had 2 Pinkies on the stubbles there and also a family group  of  3  Whoopers, 2 adults and a cygnet.
Phill had e mailed through to say that between the bird crops sown at Upper Killeyan and Kinnabus , both on the RSPB Oa reserve, 300 Twite have been present there.
Margaret this morning, had seen 6 Whoopers flying in from the West in off  the sea......

Another job, done here as the weather has remained dry and fine, was to cut the grass.... the wildflower crop is still got some flowers in bloom, while the crop sown for the birds to munch away at, well possibly has done its's job, so possibly just as well we brought some more bird food over from the mainland when we returned home last night!!!!!

Saturday 20th July

Another great day but already the fire is out of the sun, but so far no rain. Tomorrow is another day and we are due to get quite a lot of rain.. Forgot to mention that last night there was a tremendous sunset.

Yesterday afternoon, while down on Machir Bay, returning visitors Alec and Joan had watched a couple of Peregrines cavorting about, and had a distant Eagle soaring high up over the crag..

Just to annoy Alec and Joan, this morning I saw a total of 5, yes 5 Peregrines in total, 3 together and the other 2 appeared from nowhere... Shortly afterwards, I had a Fulmar out wheeling along in front of the crag. Later on, I had some Twite and quite a few Willow Warblers around as well.

Friday 15th February

Regular contributors this week, Richard and Hilary had been out and about yesterday .. Down on the Oa, they had seen a Golden Eagle, 4 Buzzards, a large flock of Twite seen on a stubble field behind Upper Killeyan. A walk out to the American monument produced Fulmars and a Gannet both seen well out to sea. Up at Bowmore, looking across Loch Indaal towards Bruichladdich, they saw 4 Long tailed Ducks. A female Hen Harrier was seen as they drove up the road towards Mulindry, while at Knocklearach they had had a Merlin fly across the road.

Some sightings through from Mandy, the other day she had seen a pair of Ravens displaying.  Later on the same day, she had a pair of  Hooded Crows displaying as well. Mandy's only comment was that she felt that the male Hoodie was not so good as the male Raven in its' display flying antics. Yesterday, as she was walking up the track to Carnduncan, a Sparrowhawk flew across the track, just ahead of her, almost too close!!! She wondered whether it had been hiding by the bank at the side of the track.

Today, The Rochdale birders had seen a male Hen Harrier over at Gruinart with a ringtail seen at Sunderland. On Ardnave Loch, 9 Whoopers were present. Down at Carnain, they had 2 Golden Eagles with  another one seen away out from Storakaig.

Hursday 10th January

Today, Gary had been down on the Oa where he had a flock of Twite, numbering "several hundred birds". He had also seen 4 Choughs down there as well. Coming back along the "Low road", Gary saw a male Hen Harrier close to the Machrie. Back up at Finlaggan , and he had another male Hen Harrier seen. Here at home this morning, and Margaret had a ringtail Hen Harrier float over the garden out from the big gable end window....  Fantastic, a real garden bird, it better be here for the "Big garden bird watch" at the end of the month!!!

Wednesday 14th November

The other week, Ivan & Jenny Harding from Lyme Regis were over on Islay on holiday when they saw 3 barnacle Geese with fitted darvic leg rings on which they managed to read. They sent the info through to me and the other day I forwarded it through to Steve Percival . Steve e mailed through to say that 2 of the birds had been rung in the same field at Gruinart back in October 2013 with other goose being rung by Steve and his family the previous day to Ivan and Jenny seeing it...
Yesterday, Paul and Jill Harris from Yorkshire had seen the Chough coming out from the roost up in the crag, close to here they are staying and counted 25 birds in total. Later on, down on the Oa they had seen a flock of almost 500 Twite at Upper Killeyan. Along at the car park, they had a male Hen Harrier, with another seen at Risabus with a third present at Claggain Bay. Coming back up along the low road and they counted 320 Whoopers at the north end of the airport. Finally at Blackrock, 29 Scaup were present.
Today, Mike P. had seen a 1st winter White tailed Eagle over the raised beach at Gortan. Along at Sunderland Farm, Mike had seen a flock of 200 Chaffinch and also a Brambling was there with them. At Machir Bay, Mike counted 22 Chough and he also saw a Sparrowhawk.

Monday 5th November

Yesterday, Mike Bell had made the most of a rather windy day, the remnants of the winds  from Saturday were still around...At Rockside, he saw a ringtail Hen Harrier, while along at Sunderland, he had a large flock of 260 Chaffinches along with at least 3 Brambling present there as well. Over at Loch Tallant, he saw an imm. Golden Eagle. Then down on the Oa, Mike had seen an adult Golden Eagle as well as another imm. Golden Eagle and then a Merlin just zipped past. Along at Upper Killeyan, Mike counted a flock of 470 Twite. He also saw 48 Hooded Crows. At Cornabus, he counted a flock of 97 Whitefronts, 16 were fitted with neck collars  and a further 3 fitted with transmitters. Up behind Port Ellen, he saw a male Hen Harrier. Over East Cragabus, he saw an imm. White tailed Eagle. Along at the former Kilchoman School, 60 Redwing were seen. Finally , up at Sanaigmore, Mike saw a ringtail, an adult Golden Eagle and also a flock of 55 Redwing. The Rochdale Birders had been out and about yesterday seeing 3 Sparrowhawks scrapping over a place to roost upon... They had also seen 3 different Hen Harriers and also 2 Merlin.

This morning, we had 4 Greenfinch on top of the hip hedge, making the most of the rose hips on offer. These were the first Greenfinch that we have seen here for some time!!! Shortly afterwards, the ringtail came through the garden, down quietly over the bird crop, spoofing all the wee birds, it then wheeled round to its' right and cruised away along the front of the crag.... forgot to mention last night that Margaret had counted 24 Pheasants fly away down to roost down in the reeds just as the light was starting to fade..