Thursday 7th January

Yesterday, over at Tarbert on Jura, Gordon Muir had found a dead Little Awk. Also yesterday, Louise had seen a Whimbrel at Saligo Bay. This morning the ringtail Hen Harrier carried out a low fly past over the garden, here at home. Later on our way to Gruinart, a Sparrowhawk was on top of the dyke beside the former Kilchoman school. On our way home, there was a male Hen Harrier at Carnduncan, with a ringtail seen close to Coull roadend a few minutes later. We also had 80 Whitefronts together at Ballinaby, there were more seen in other fields along the way, but this was our largest count. Bob had 4 Pinkfoots amongst the Whitefronts at Rockside and at Grulinmore at the far end of Loch Gorm, Bob had 135 Fielfares on the overhead wires. A Sparrowhawk was sitting on top of the bird table here at home, early afternoon. Over on the Oa, Dave had a Little Awk on Loch Kinnabus. It took off and circled round the loch before heading over the hill and out to the Sea.

Wednesday 6th January

This afternoon I gave Bob a hand while he was carrying out thee NEWS survey on Loch Indaal. We did the Carn section south of Port Charlotte with the following birds seen, 4 Greenland Whitefronts, 4 Cormorant, 1 Heron, 41 Lapwing, 1 Redshank, 1 Snipe, 3 Curlew, 16 C. Gull, 16 H. Gull, 3 GBB Gull, 14 Rock Dove, 3 Rock Pipit, 1 Blackbird, 40 Jackdaw, 42 Rook, 3 Raven and 2 Reed Bunting. Earlier on I saw a single Whooper Swan fly past, flying on towards Ireland, no doubt, trying to catch with old friends...

Tuesday 5th January

A not bad day out here today, and as it was dry I planted around 30 metres of hedging which hopefully through time will provide some cover for the birds and also some food for them too, fingers crossed only time will tell... The ringtail Hen Harrier flew past today and had no luck as the bird table was quiet at the time. Mid afternoon, I looked out, boy what a lot of wee birds were feeding away, nothing of note, I had hoped that by now a Brambling would have dropped in. The Ravens over the crag have been quite vocal the past few days, the Chough were their inquisitive selves while I was planting the hedge, a Hooded Crow was down on the garden with the Jackdaws in trying to scoff anything they could...

Monday 4th January

This morning, I caught up with Gary and Bob who were already at the South hide (old hide) or Taigh deas as it is called in Gaelic. The main birds that we saw from there were a Green winged Teal, 2 Little Grebe and a Goldeneye. From the North hide, (new hide/ Taigh tuath) we had a Greenshank fly past with 83 Sanderling counted out on the estuary. Going back down to Bob's house, they had seen 3 small groups of Pale bellied Brents between Gortan and Bruichladdich, totalling 27 Geese.

Sunday 3rd January

A good day here a home for sure, the Sparrowhawk came round for a look see at the bird table, nobody at home, so it just double checked and kept going. Closer to lunchtime, the male Hen Harrier came by, close in, less than 5 metres away, over the top of the feeders, and it too flew away over the wall. The Pheasants present just hunkered down! Out in the field there were 79 Whitefronts and 10 Barnies. Mid afternoon the Barnies were up to over 200 in number, with the Whitefronts being the same in number. Gary and Sam had taken a walk down on Machir Bay today. Around the pool beside the carpark, 2 Sanderling, 17 Turnstone & 33 Ringed Plover were present. Down on the Bay itself a count of 45 Oystercatcher, 100 Curlew with a couple of Mipits and 2 Pied Wagtails foraging on debris. Gulls seen in the dunes were 4 GBB Gull, 21 H Gull, 9 Common Gull, 5 BH Gull and the Glaucous Gull. They also had a flypast by 30 Chough.. On their way back to their car, 40 Twite were seen on the track

Saturday 2nd January

Marsali Thomson sent trough her rainfall figures from Mulindry for the year. Her tally came in at 67.2" for 2015, a bit drier than the previous year when it came to 70.24", see these folk that live near the hills... Visiting birder Dave yesterday had seen 2 Long tailed Ducks, 1 R T Diver, 3 GND, 1 Slav Grebe, 79 Scaup, 30 Common Scoter and a Siskin fly over Loch Indaal. Over the hills on the top side of the road towards Ballygrant from Bridgend, 2 W T Sea Eagle with a pair of Golden Eagles displaying as well. Further on down the Glen road, over the hills another pair of Golden Eagles displaying and talon locking , watched for an hour! Also seen out there was another WTSE and also a ringtail Hen Harrier. Over at Ardnave, over 40 Chough were present, 9 Golden Plover with 8 Whoopers and 10 Goldeneye on Ardnave Loch. Loch Gruinart held another ringtail, 6 Pintail and 5 Whoopers. Gary and Sam had seen the pr of WTSE as well, probably the pair that Dave and Sian had seen. Gary also had Ravens and a Buzzard out behind his house. In their garden, the bird feeders have busy with Blue Tit, Great Tit & Coal Tit with Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch present as well. Redwing and Fieldfare were moving through the wee wood behind their house and also some more Blackbirds noted too...Today was visiting birders George and Pat Jackson's last day before leaving this afternoon. A final few birds from them included 34 Golden Plover, 7 Knot and a single Rock Pipit seen along the Big stand. Before heading to the ferry, they had a cracking male Hen Harrier following the stream out in front of their son's house and then it flew directly over the house... Mike Peacock today had a count of 45 45 Pale belied Brent on Loch Indaal up below the coal yard. Yesterday, Mike had 7 Kittiwake flying South past Port Charlotte and a new tick from his living room, a Peregrine.

Friday 1st January 2016

Well, as predicted last night another year has just passed by.... I did manage to tally the rainfall for December up and it came to 7.8" and for the year, the total was 56.75". The really surprising fact is that 56.65" fell last year, so a difference of only 0.1", say no more!! News on the bird front today is none, but over the past year, many thanks to all the folk that have sent through their sightings, it is your birds that make the blog. A "Happy New Year" to all our readers wherever you are....