Tuesday 8 March

Blue tit by Lossit Loch 6/3/22, Billy Stitchell

A late entry from yesterday of a kestrel on the Oa from Chris, not realising they are a relatively uncommon bird here. Sean also sent in a video of one hunting. Always worth reporting everything for our records. Magpies, for example, don't breed here.  

Today Chris spotted 2 long-tailed ducks in the distance off Bowmore, the female scaup again and a Slavonian grebe close by the pump station.

John emailed in with his sightings from today: "In spite of the gale, I still managed to see some interesting birds. First off was a nice subadult male hen harrier at Lyrabus, then a very bedraggled looking pink footed goose with barnacles up near Killinallan dunes. Later that morning I saw 8 chough briefly around the ruined buildings at Sanaigmore. Then I spent this afternoon at Loch Gruinart where two immature WTE were sitting out on the mudflats, while 38 whooper swans were trying to ignore the wind and a lone little egret flew by."

Malcolm was out with the International Goose Count today where he enjoyed a nice sighting of a jack snipe while on The Oa.  It was a difficult days count with the wind shaking the cars and the telescopes! 

Mark at Loch Gruinart got in touch to say there were no more sightings as yet of the great white egret, however a sighting came through from a visiting camera crew of a whopping 10 WTE in the treeline near Loch Gruinart at the weekend, so really it is a case of being in the right place at the right time!

Thanks to all for your sightings.

Mary

weds 2nd March

 Yesterdays sunshine gave way to a cold and overcast day.  Bitter SE winds really put a bit of a downer on the mood after the delight of yesterday! However there looks a settled spell ahead. Yesterday at Ardnave, Chris and co spotted a peacock butterfly on the wing. In my garden at Port Wemyss a neighbours honey bee visited the daisys.  Hope today they have both returned to shelter! A reminder though of the importance of the early flowers for some brave insects.  I am also reminded not to be tempted to tidy the gardens and flower beds of the dead grass and plant matter too early as many will be sheltering within. 

Rob Hughs located the cackling goose at Ellister. Chris and his group were today at the Woollen Mill where they saw a pair of dipper on the river there.  Later, 12 chough at Sanaigmor.  I counted a larger flock of around 30 curlew at Craigfad. By the house at Claddach, a pied wagtail.  There was one in the village last week, first I've seen for a while.

Local hobby-photographer and the source of all my photos, Billy, was at Foreland today and took the following photos of a group of 7 whooper swan resting up on the wee lochan there - Loch an Raoin.

I managed to look back to last years February rainfall from James to compare. February 2021 gave 102mm or 4 inches, compared with 188mm or 7.5 inches of 2022! What a difference!

Friday 17 December

red-breasted merganser, Ken Reeves

Cant complain about today. Very nice, weather wise, and my favourite day of the week too. I was out Christmas shopping today which took me to the new Islay Bakery. I made it before the shelves were stripped bare! A new island business, and will likely do very well based on the delicious cinnamon rolls...

Mark over at Gruinart counted 10 whooper swan and 3 WTE at the Loch today.  Later at a hen harrier roost count on NW Rhinns, 6 birds were counted. A good count.

Pete Moore has been in touch with sightings from today - a little egret and 2 WTE at Bridgend, and a further 2 little egret and 2 WTE at Loch Gruinart.  An Iceland gull, he thinks likely 2nd winter, at the head of Loch Indaal. Thank you Pete.

Friday 8 October

More barnacle geese skeins have been observed coming in along the west coast.  A steady trickle of an arrival this year rather than a sudden flood of wintering geese.  Similarly, no great numbers of whooper swan reported yet.

Teresa Morris was up at Kilinallan in the rain. At the locked gate at the road end, she saw a sparrowhawk, male hen harrier, barwit, 10 curlew, 2 heron, 6 oystercatcher, 1 cormorant and stags roaring in the distance.

James, Lauren and the RSPB volunteers, Liz and Neve, carried out the Loch Gruinart WeBS today. The highlights as follows; 17 red breasted merganser, 24 Ringed plover, 633 golden plover, 108 lapwing, 1 knot, 242 dunlin, 75 bar tailed godwit, 181 curlew, 32 redshank, 253 teal, 25 pintail, 16 wigeon, 2 whooper swans, 4 snipe, 7 shoveler, 6 black tailed godwits, 3 greenshank, a peregrine, a golden eagle and a white tailed eagle.

The Horwich Birders were out and about towards Machir Bay this morning where they saw 2 chough.  Later they set off to Ardtalla for the afternoon, en route by Bowmore they counted 30 pale-bellied Brent and around 30 red-breasted mergansers.  At Artalla they saw the 'usual' 2 mute swans, as well as 4 herons, 12 curlew, plenty seals about, as well as a lovely sighting of a female otter with 2 young.  At Lagavulin, 8 swallows were busy feeding over the buildings and nearby trees, and a flock of 14 collared doves in a nearby dead tree.   At Port Ellen, 5 pale bellied Brent. On their return a ringtail hen harrier at Loch Tallent and an other at Coull.

Yesterday Shona-Isla counted 26 ringed plover at the 'co-op beach' in Port Ellen. Thank you Shona-Isla.

Thursday 7 October

 An other day of mixed weather. Had some sighting from visitors, always lovely to hear from you and happy that you take the time to share your sightings during your stay.

John Wills spotted the red-breasted goose among a large flock of barnies at Loch Gruinart this morning, visible from the RSPB woodland trails viewing area. The Horwich birders were near Coull this morning where they saw a ringtail hen harrier hunting in the fields, plus a lonely whooper swan.  At Machir Bay they had a lovely sighting of 4 winter plumage sanderling feeding on the tideline.  Later in the afternoon, between showers, 8 swallows by Ballinaby feeding over the hedges, at Saligo a female merlin and a trio of roe deer in a nearby field.  The collective noun for roe deer is a 'bevy', which I've always enjoyed the chance to tell people!

Over at RSPB Loch Gruinart area Teresa Morris had a busy day. Juvenile red kite over the reserve flats, with an immature WTE over Craigens side. From the hides a ring-tailed hen harrier, which visited 3 times while she was there, 2 snipe, 11 lapwing, 12 greylag, 1 whooper, 27 pintail, 12 mallard, heron, hare, roe buck and doe.

On the Oa 2 merlin were seen over Kinnabus. 

At Claddach 3 chough were feeding on the beach. Out towards the west, skeins of geese continuing their journey to their wintering grounds.

Thursday 30 September

A lot of rain today, which is welcome on the one had after a very long dry spell, it might be nicer if it was spread out over a few weeks.

Exciting news from Tiree:  a rose-breasted grosbeak. A North American species and a first record for Argyll.  Though there is a lot more ground to cover, I'm sure everyone will be searching for any rarities on Islay.

Hannah found 2 whooper swan at Loch Skerrols. At RSPB Loch Gruinart, James counted 172 barnacle geese, 130 pale bellied Brent geese, 245 golden plover, 75 wigeon and 2 pintail.

Just in from walking the dog round Portnahaven and Port Wemyss. The seals are fairly howling tonight! I spotted my first seal pup of the season earlier at Claddach. Soon McKenzie Island will be speckled with the white pups high up on the grass, always amazing how high up some of the mothers will go for safety. If the past few years are anything to go by, the sea eagles will return to mooch for any losses.

As we see off the end of September, there is still time to tap into your artistic side or recall a summer adventure from your photos and enter the Islay Natural History Trust Community Peatland Project.  Poster below.

Tuesday 22nd December

Looking back on the blog for the figures for the December figures from previous  International  Goose counts and I found the entry and stats from last year were as follows

 32,017 Barnies, 6,325 Whitefronts and also 1,056 Greylags. The count for Dec 2018 came in at 31,623 for the Barnies (+394), 5,843 geese counted for Whitefronts ( +491) with the figure for Greylags was  1,177 (-121). Many thanks as ever to Morven and her team of counters for these figures about the geese, much appreciated... with the tally for Dec 2020 coming through as stated yesterday as 32,107 Barnies, 6,350 Whitrefronts and 703 Greylags.

This morning when out in the garage, I thought that I heard some Whoopers outsde, so a quick look outside and had a small group of 9 flying directly overhead. It was great to see them so close as they were only around 30 feet above me as they flew out over the Machir and out to the sea, no doubt flying on down to Ireland.

Lesley today had been in touch to say that she had "Flocks of thrushes, ie Redwing, thrushes and Blackbirds passing this morning. No Fieldfare seen so far. On telegraph wires and feeding on the fields around the cottage. Lovely. "

David Wood had seen some Iceland Gulls in the harbour at Bowmore today as well as some at Cornabus.  

James last night had  "seen the planets, a pretty good view."

The weather has been a lot better here today, hence the reason for some more birds for you to read about!!!!

Tuesday 15th December

 Some birds through from David Barr seen out in his garden in Lochearnhead...

"On Sunday we had 15 Long tailed Tits arrive together !!

Regular visits from 2 Mistle Thrush who seem to think they own the Rowan tree , very vocal and sometimes aggressive to any bird that comes along to feed !

Also a couple of male Bullfinches, absolutely stunning. Female shown up as well."

Today, James had been out helping to count the geese for the International goose count and sent me through the following

"Extra birds from 1^st day of goose count:

Merlin - Gruinart

WT Eagle juv – Gruinart

Hen Harrier male - Gruinart

Peregrine Falcon - Gruinart

THe folowing were seen up on Ardnave Loch

Otter

Whooper swans 9

Goldeneye 6

Little Grebe 1

The weather turned out a bit better for here at least for today, it was not that bad, but already the first ferry leaving Kennacraig tomorrow has been cancelled. Today,  I even managed to take wee tractor out and top/ cut some of the places that that have not been cut for some time... enough said !!!!

THursday 29th October

 Mike Bell's sightings came in for yesterday as follows;

Machir Bay: WTE 2 imm 0725 hr left East.

Gruinart: Teal 1100, Pintail 84, Gadwall 2, Shoveler 30, Little Grebe 2, WTE 1 imm, Hen Harrier 2(1male), Peregrine 1, Dunlin c850, Grey Wagtail 1.

Ardnave point East side: Snow Bunting 1 male

Mouth of Loch Gruinart:  5 (2 full summer plumage) GND , 14 RBM

Loch Skerrols: Mute Swan 25, Whooper Swan 186, wigeon 470, American Wigeon 1 drake, Teal 172, Mallard 17, Tufted Duck 45

Today, the weather has not been great, rather a wetting driving dampness with more to come, so possibly the rainfall for the month up here might get into double figures by the end of the month😞

Friday 16th October

Yesterday, David and Nancy had ben over on Jura and by the sound of things, I take it be that they saw more or less the same birds that Jonathan Alder had seen. Today David and Nancy had seen a few Scaup as well as some Common Scoter off  Blackrock. They also saw the Cackling goose round amongst the Barnies present at Ballinaby.

Peter was in touch to say that yesterday, he had seen a Curlew Sandpiper amongst some Dunlin, up on Loch Gruinart... Val Peacock had a Brambling on her garden feeders down in Port Charlotte yesterday

Today Richard Belter had seen a GND and also a RTD over at Claggain Bay. Just after the Dower House, he had a Fallow Deer out in front of him as it crossed the road...  Later on, he had counted 8 Scaup at Blackrock, 40 Common Scoter and also 2 Slav Grebes present there too...

Peter today had seen and counted the following birds when in at Loch Skerrols.... "The loch was very lively with at least 155 Whooper Swans and 350 Wigeon. Several of the Whoopers had yellow colour rings with black letters on that could be read when they up-ended! Two were Z J S  & Z H V. I'll start trying to find out where they are from and report back."

This morning, we had the W t Eagle sitting out on the old wreck, seen from Whin Park out towards Bowmore a distant bird but a definite W t Eagle for sure!! Better was still to come as just before we had our tea, we saw another W t Eagle being chased along the crag by many corvids, what a sight. About 30 minutes earlier on we had the male Hen Harrier flying away over the top of the Lamb Hill and also watched some Choughs gracing us with a noisy flypast!!!

Sunday 4th October

Peter Gill who contributes some birds when over on holiday, returned to Islay yesterday for the week. Peter had seen 2 Hen Harriers as he drove up to where they are staying yesterday...  Today round at Craigens, he counted 17 Whoopers with another 2 male Hen Harriers seen on the reserve at Gruinart. Finally he had 6 Choughs, seen together over at Saligo Bay. 

Another visitor, Nick Rentmore had seen a Yellow browed Warbler down on the Oa this morning.

All I can report tonight is that we had a very vocal group of around 10 Long tailed Tits seen this afternoon, once the rain had stopped.... this morning just before I had my breakfast, when trying to count the birds out on the feeders, they all got spoofed by the local Sparrowhawk as it flew past.

Wednesday 18th March

Mid afternoon today, Helen Brown saw 2 Whooper Swans land on Ardnahoe Loch.

Today, I  heard that Gary has decided to stop to take folk out around Islay, due to the Coronavirus bug that is sweeping all over the world at present. I believe that all the distilleries on Islay are shut to visitors, as is the Pottery at Persabus. There is even talk of the ferry services being cautious of taking passengers, but we will just have to wait and see.... Walk Islay is cancelled as is the Paps race on Jura and today we heard that the Feis is cancelled as well...

Monday 30th September

Thought that I had cracked the nut and should have been able to show you a couple of images but my pc has other thoughts on the matter, perhaps tomorrow...

The other day, Mandy had seen a juvenile Golden Eagle take off from one of the fields up at Carnduncan and it flew on towards Culbuie and then today she had seen a couple of Whitefronts fly over her house.

Peter had counted 140 Whitefronts fly over his house at Bruichladdich, the same geese I presume were seen by Fiona. Fiona had also seen 6 Whoopers as well, where though I was not told....
James was in touch to give his goose numbers, a count of 1767 Pink footed geese
flying in from the West through to the East. with 785 landing down on Loch Gruinart itself. James also had 23 Whoopers as  well as 3 Barnies as well... A sure sign that the Winter is not that far away...

Wednesday 27th March

Some birds through from Distillery Dave, seen over the weekend. Round over below Carnduncan, he had seen a male Hen Harrier, while close to Coull, a Merlin zipped across the road in front of him. On Loch Gorm, he had seen some Goldeneye, 16 Tufted Duck, 6 Whooper Swans and also 2 Cormorants. On Sunday morning, he watched 30 Whoopers fly in and land on Loch Gorm.

Yesterday, Margaret had a male Sparrowhawk on the garden fence, here at home.

David Wood e mailed in to say that they had counted the number of feral goats while they were out on the survey yesterday, with the tally being more or less the same as in previous years.

Saturday 8th December

The wind dropped considerably today as forecasted....

This morning, Margaret saw a male Hen Harrier fly over the bird seed crop, on beyond the wee pond and on its way out over the rushes, just nosing around with no drop ins for some fat wee birds!!! Shortly afterwards, while out in the garden, I counted 14 Whoopers as they flew overhead on their way to the sea and on towards Ireland. This afternoon, while coming over on the midday ferry from Kennacraig, coming up the Sound of Islay, just after Mc Arthur's Head, John Miles saw an immature White tailed Eagle as it flew across the water.

Sunday 11th November

Back on Friday, Mark and ShonaIsla Macintyre had carried the WeBS count on Loch Gruinart, the following were their birds counted. 2 Cormorant, 3 Heron, 18 Shelduck,  84 Wigeon, 43 Mallard, 18 R B Merganser, 177 Oystercatcher, 161 Lapwing, 14 Ringed Plover, 114 Sanderling, 8 Dunlin, 114 Barwits, 60 Curlew, 46 Redshank, 53 Turnstone, 3 Snipe and 2 Little Egret. They also saw 3 Common Seals as well. 

Yesterday, James had counted 93 Whoopers, a male Hen Harrier and a Kestrel on the reserve at Gruinart.

Today, Peter Roberts had counted 175 Whoopers in a field,out on the low road out of Bowmore. Distillery Dave was saying that the pond has returned down at where you can park your car up when visiting Machir Bay, not surprising when you know that we have had 3.4 inches (86.4mm...) so far this month, with the last 30 hours being dry!!! Down there this morning, Dave had seen 9 Turnstone, a Sanderling and some Ringed Plovers as well. Along at the Rockside road end, he had a ringtail Hen Harrier, with a Sparrowhawk up at Rockside itself. Also this morning, up here at home, Margaret had the Sparrowhawk on top of the willows less than 4 meters away...This afternoon, Dave's wife Ann had a Peregrine at the Coastguards.

Sunday 21st October

Back to normal for a wee while, back to great expanses of Islay with little light pollution, with a coolish wind picking up speed through the day here. Some sightings through on the messages from folk in my absence. Back on the 4th, Bob had seen 15 Whoopers on the stubbles down at Port Charlotte. George Newall from Dunoon had seen 3 ? greylags with Red neck collars fitted to them at Rockside but they were too far away to be able to read the codes on the geese. I missed "old" correspondent Richard Belter who was over here while we were away... And also the Horwich Birders as well.. So, many thanks to you all for your birds, in my absence!!!!

Back on Friday, Eddie and Elaine Prince from Leighton Moss had the privilege to witness the arrival of 303 Whoopers at Gruinart in the space of around 90 minutes along with many skeins of Barnies arriving as well... Up at Ardnave, they had a count of 42 Chough as well as counting over 100 Twite up there as well... Bob yesterday, had seen 15 Fieldfare and then shortly afterwards 6 Redwing.

This morning, Steve Percival had a count of around 1,000 Whoopers, with 500  at Craigens, 300 along at Sunderland and over 200 next door at Rockside. Mike  Peacock was on the phone earlier to say he saw an Otter on Loch Indaal out from his house at Port Charlotte. This evening, we have seen numerous Swans heading out, but the light is now failing and so making it hard to get an exact count. We had a count of 36 Goldfinches on the feeders this morning, just as well that I remembered to bring another big bag home for them... No sign of the Siskins....

Tuesday 16th October

As promised the highlights from Noel and Ann Hands visit to Islay last week. Coming over on the ferry on Saturday 6th they had a Common Scoter, on Monday 8/10 they had the Little Egret on the merse at Bridgend,and down at Machir Bay, the Little Stint was seen along with a male Hen Harrier, Chough, 35 Ringed Plover with 6 Stonechat seen close by. The following day they counted 19 Whoopers at  Craigens, On the 10th, over at Lagavullin, a Swallow was there, a Redwing and also a Red Admiral butterfly. At Finlaggan, they had a flock of over 100 Twite, a ringtail Hen Harrier and a Golden Eagle.Up at Bunnahabhain, they saw 4 Gannets out on the Sound of Islay as well as 2 Kestrels together. Finally that day they had a juv Peregrine on prey at Coullabus and then a Merlin whizzed through.The following day they had a small fall of 19 Mistle Thrush along at the hedges, below Sunderland, and along at Rockside, they spotted a Pink footed Goose among the Greylags. At Machir Bay on Thursday the Little Stint was present along with 36 Ringed Plover, 4 Turnstone, 6 Chough,and a Grey Wagtail. On Loch Gorm, they saw 12  Whitefronts then at Bruichladdich they saw a Common Tern struggling in the wind and rain!!!Finally on Friday  they had 14 Whitefronts, 15 Curlew and a ringtail as well as a small family group of 2 adult and 3 juv Whoopers. Thanks for sharing your sightings with us.
Today Mike P had been down at Loch Skerrols where he counted 55 Adult and 4 Juv Whoopers, 18 adult and 4 juv Mute Swan and a count of 81 Wigeon.
I have got a tremendous list of birds through from Mark at Gruinart, seen by Phill Catton & Shona Isla but will give you it all tomorrow night....

Monday 1st October

Well that is another month in, and the rain gauge had 5.1 inches (129.5 mm) in it here at home.... Today or rather this morning, the weather was not too bad as I managed to cut some grass and a few more outside jobs, that was before the wind picked up and the rain started to fall again....

Yesterday, just after midday, Mandy had seen a Kestrel out hunting down at Springbank at Bridgend. This morning she counted 26 Barnies fly past down at Sunderland. This morning we had 3 Whoopers on the wee lochans below Rockside along with some Greylags. Sam had seen 6 Whoopers as drove to her work at The Woollen Mill from Ballygrant. Coming back home, we took the long road, round the other side of Loch Gorm and were rewarded by seeing 4 Mistle Thrush on the overhead cables below Sunderland, as one approaches "Canada" (one of the fields!!!). Just before Carnduncan, we had a Kestrel on top of a telegraph pole and a Stonechat on the verge side , just after Saligo. Finally , just before the Coastguards, we had a Merlin on top of a fence post, it took off across the field to return to another post as we approached. It did this a second time as we crept along, but this time it was quite content to sit and watch us drive past...Margaret this afternoon, saw a Merlin fly through our garden. Gary today had ben out with 2 American clients and had seen Scaup, Common Scoter and 5 Slavonian Grebe at Blackrock. Off Bruichladdich pier, they saw RTDs and also GNDs out on Loch Indaal with some Tysties back on the pier itself. Over at Machir Bay, they saw a distant Kestrel out over the crag, up behind the bay. At Gruinart, apart from the Barnies , they had 20 Whitefronts, with a male and also a ringtail Hen Harrier along the flats. James had a count of 725 Barnies, 15 Whoopers and 4 Pintail on the reserve at Gruinart today.

Tuesday 29th May

Some sightings through from James seen yesterday on the reserve at Gruinart, 3 Whinchats, 5 Stonechats, 2 Groppers, a Peregrine, a Spotted Flycatcher, and he also heard 2 Water Rails calling away. Out on the loch, he had 95 Dunlin, 113 Ringed Plover, 2 Turnstone, a Sanderling and also 5 Little Tern.

Today,  the Bolton birders had 35 Dunlin along on the remains of the pool at Saligo, with this spell of weather, it has almost dried up. Today also they had the Little Egret on one of the creeks as one approaches Bridgend from Bowmore on loch Indaal. Here at home the pair of Siskins, the pair of Redpolls and also the Greenfinches feeding young have been seen through the day. Late this evening,  down on a grass fields at Rockside, we  saw a single Whooper Swan and 50 Greylags.