Wed 7th Oct

As I mentioned in a previous entry, the geese that are here are certainly not staying solely at Loch Gruinart, this morning there were over 2,000 Barnies on Minister's Field, the adjacent field to ourselves over on Rockside. We often see large numbers of geese there but usually later on. Perhaps the geese are making the most of the shed grain and secondary growth too.

We had a Merlin on a telegraph pole at the back of lunchtime and later on there was a Peregrine having a play with the Rock Doves, just up to pure devilment rather than going in for a straight kill!!!

Tues 6th Oct

Just a few of the Whooper Swans up at Ardnave Loch having a difference of opinion! There were only 14 in total, consisting of 10 adult birds and 4 young, a far better ratio than the group seen down on Rockside last week. I did not manage to see the Snow Buntings, not that I looked that hard mind you!

Coming back home and there was the odd sighting of a large group of Barnacle Geese out on the heather down beside the lochans at Rockside road end! I somehow feel that the Geese are spreading themselves around Islay a lot quicker compared to other years, although they are not down the Port Ellen end yet!!!

This morning Malcolm had a Swallow out in front of his house, and also an Arctic Tern also at Bruichladdich.

Mon 5th Oct

George had been up at Ardnave on the lookout for the Snow Buntings yesterday, and had seen a few Reed Bunting as well as a handful of Chough.

Back to today, and this morning James had a count of 14,365 Barnacle Geese on the reserve at Gruinart. Later, on our way down to Bowmore, there was a large flock of Barnies on the water at Loch Gorm, while down on the mudflats at the head of Loch Indaal, there was an even larger flock there. Possibly all the geese were resting up after having made use of the full moon over the past couple of nights and grazing/ eating through the night!

There was a flighty group of Wigeon on the water too, who could not settle for any length of time, as well as few Turnstone at the water's edge. I have not seen any Whoopers over the past few days, or any Brent geese passing through either.

Sun 4th Oct

These are some of the Barnacle Geese resting up at Gruinart, taken on Thursday afternoon.

Today, thank goodness, the wind has died down and it turned out to be quite a decent day, although a bit cooler!

Catherine had also seen 6 Snow Buntings up at Ardnave yesterday afternoon, in about the same time as James was there, but different birds as they were in different places. Today, visitors here for the week had seen a group of 8 at Ardnave, as well as 2 yesterday afternoon on the dunes at the back of Machir Bay. Also later yesterday afternoon, there were a group of almost 50 Chough in the same area. This evening, possibly the same birds were seen heading in for their roost.

James had a Merlin on the reserve at Gruinart this morning and another Merlin close to Blackrock just after lunchtime. A male Hen Harrier was out hunting over at Rockside while a ringtail was out quartering over one of the game crops. There were also a few Goldfinches on seed heads down towards the reed bed close to the Coastguard cottages.

Sat 3rd Oct

As forecasted, we certainly caught the strong winds and also a drop in temperature too....

James ventured out up to Ardnave this afternoon, and saw 6 Snow Buntings, 2 Lapland Buntings as well as an adult Iceland Gull. There were also 4 Arctic Terns on the wing up there too. George is still spotting his group down at Bruichladdich, while we saw 4 at Blackrock, just after 6 pm tonight, are they the same or different birds? George had also seen the large flock of Greylags round Loch Gorm while amongst the Barnies and Whitefronts at Sunderland, he had a single Pink footed goose.

Fri 2nd Oct

I managed to take this image yesterday of Rock Doves on a roof of an old ruined cottage. There were just short of 150 birds in all, and no Peregrines hanging around either!

There was a large flock of Barnacle Geese down at Sunderland Farm this morning, as large a flock as I have seen away from the main roost sites at Gruinart and Bridgend. James's count late this afternoon, on Gruinart reserve tallied out at 7,320 Barnacle Geese, 18 Greenland Whitefronts, 1 Pink footed Goose, 1 Canada Goose hutchinsii sp, 172 Pale bellied Brent Geese and also 11 Black tailed Godwits on the floods.

Thurs 1st Oct

Another month in, on the positive side of things, we have had less than 2" of rain, actually only 1.9" in total, a lot drier than August. Perhaps we never really had a lot of rain but it seemed to be more than that with some miserable days!

There appeared to be more geese in again today, the sight over at Gruinart was quite impressive with most of the geese quite content to be rested up on the estuary as the tide was out. The geese did not appear to be worried about the Peregrine who sitting along side them on the salt marsh! On the guided walk today we also had 8 Snipe fly overhead, a family group of 4 Chough came and landed on a chimney pot at Gruinart Farm, and back down on the estuary there were quite a few Dunlin around. Earlier, on the overhead wires there was a large group of Linnets, possibly the same birds that James had yesterday.

After lunch, Margaret and myself took a quick run up the Craigens side of Loch Gruinart, and further on there were a good number of Oystercatcher, Curlew, Godwits and a few Mallards on the water itself. On the way back, there was a Peregrine on the overhead wires briefly, a sight neither of us had ever seen before! We did not see any Whoopers today at all.