Sat 7th Nov

James was in touch with some sightings from the past few days. On Thursday, apart from the Cattle Egret at Blackrock, he had a Coot on the reserve at Gruinart, perhaps common on the mainland, but not that common here. James also had 64 Whoopers passing through.

On Friday, James carried out a goose count on the reserve, 12,880 Barnacle Geese, 775 Whitefronts and 31 Greylags. The count for the Barnies was quite high, while the whitefronts were almost 100 up on last year at the same time, with more juvenile birds to be seen, so perhaps they have had a better breeding season this year. On the mud flats there were 665 Golden Plover.

Today in the wood beside Gruinart Farm, James had a Chiffchaff, a Treecreeper, a Woodcock and 2 Mistle Thrush.

Fri 6th Nov

Only a brief entry tonight to say that the Cattle Egret is still here, back in the field where it was first seen a fortnight ago! The blog is light as I have been busy doing books on the computer and have not been in touch with any of the others! Sorry folks, but....

Thurs 5th Nov

James had spotted the Cattle Egret again this morning on his way down to Port Ellen, down at Blackrock, but when he came back the bird was not to be seen. Undeterred, we went down later on, and took a different tack and had a look from a different viewpoint, and after looking around for a few minutes, hey presto, the Cattle Egret was in a different field. It was still there late this afternoon, where it has been since last Wednesday I do not know, but it is still here for sure!!!

Malcolm had an e mail through from Clive McKay who used to work at RSPB Loch Gruinart. Clive had seen on the WWT website about tracking the Whoopers, and that one had left Iceland at 15.00 and was on Islay the following day before 12 noon! Another Whooper tale was by Andy Schofield on the Oa, who had seen the Whoopers fly past the other day, as did the Golden eagle who was a bit hungry and had a go at trying to catch one of the juvenile birds, but with no joy!

Wed 4th Nov

This Redwing was caught in camera this afternoon below James's house at Grainel. I was on the lookout for the 3 Yellowhammer that were close by earlier on, but no luck! James had counted 365 Golden Plover and 520 Lapwing resting up on the mud on Loch Gruinart shortly afterwards, and the Green winged Teal was seen on the floods today by one of the vols.

Malcolm had 13 Pink footed Geese at Rockside while carrying out the goose count round Loch Gorm. They were in 3 different groups, rather than all together.

Several different groups of Whoopers have been seen today, the largest in number being 35 flying down Loch Indaal around 15.30, seen by Malcolm's wife, Carol. These were possibly the same birds that were seen earlier, on Ardnave Loch at lunchtime.

Tues 3rd Nov

One of our visiting birders last week had a good sighting of a Merlin, the downside was that it was eating its prey at the time, a Meadow Pipit. Another regular visitor yesterday had seen 7 different Otters while he was out and about yesterday! Back to today, and the weather has been a bit mixed with squally showers, with a definite drop in temperature too. There have been some more Whoopers on the go again, but not as many as yesterday. Today was the first of this week's goose counts, so it will interesting to see if any more Greenland whitefronts have arrived.

Mon 2nd Nov

Thank goodness the rain did stop, we had 1.75" up to 9 am today. The footbridge across the burn down at the Machir Bay was not to be seen as it was underwater, and today the burn was back down almost to its correct level, with no sign of any damage done, I thought that the banks might have got washed away in places, but thankfully no!

Back to the birds, and a great day for Whooper Swans, just after 9.30 am and we had 83 fly directly over the house. There were several other large groups, James had a total of 81 birds at Gruinart, while Malcolm had 2 groups, 38 just after 1pm, and then 46 around 16.40. James reckons that Malcolm's first group were originally from Gruinart. We had 33 just below the coal yard, and had counted 138 in total through the day along with several smaller groups.

Apart from the Whoopers, one of the vols at RSPB had seen a Kingfisher down at the mouth of the River Sorn as it enters Loch Indaal below Bridgend. One of the other vols had a Brambling on the track leading to Grainel. On the game crop at Grainel, there were 150 Twite and 50 Linnet. There was also the sighting of a Merlin chasing after the Twite! James also had a Taverner's Canada Goose on the reserve at Gruinart today.

Sun 1st Nov

The total rainfall for October here at home was 4.25" in all, it might have been less but I normally empty the gauge out at around 9 am. At that time this morning it was raining quite heavily and had been prior to that time. Since then, there has been 1.5" and it is only gone 6 pm!
Steve Percival was back in touch with an update of the goose ring that was on as an image a couple of days ago, VHZ. This goose was initially caught and run by Steve and his colleagues back on 10th November 2001. It is a male bird and over the years been seen on Islay a total of 95 times, the majority of which were at Gruinart Farm, a few times up at Ardnave and once over near to Loch Gorm. As Steve says, "a very site faithful bird". It was retrapped on 26th Oct 2006, when its image was taken. It was also very faithful to his wife and partner, UNR. Steve had indeed seen VHZ every day last week, through from Monday to Friday inclusive! Thanks for the info, Steve.