Monday 7th March

Some rain through the night, but it soon turned to be a be a not bad day, and no, I never saw the "Northern Lights" last night, mind you the stars were twinkling away, a great sight none the less!!! Peter had been down on the Oa yesterday, seeing a pair of Golden Eagles mating. On one of the stubble fields, there were 70 Twite present. Gary yesterday had a Song Thrush singing in the trees at the side of his house. Over the hills behind his house, Gary had a White tailed Eagle fly past, 3 Buzzards and also a Sparrowhawk. In the fields around Finlaggan, over 300 Common Gulls were counted with 12 Yellowhammers, "loads" of Coal Tits and plenty of calling Great Tits in the actual plantation. Also yesterday, we had a Merlin at Gruinart farm, a ringtail Hen Harrier just at the car park leading down to the hides at Gruinart, and then another ringtail along at the gravel track leading to Culbuie. Today over at Kildalton, Mandy had a distant pair of Golden Eagle over the far hills. A Tystie was at Claggain Bay. Round at Ballinaby she had a male Stonechat. Her friend Jo, who had been over for a few days , had 2 new ticks while she was here, Chough and also Hen Harriers.  Finally today Fiona McGillivary had seen a White tailed Eagle down at Blackrock. The said Eagle spoofed  the resting geese from the shoreline..

Sunday 6th March

Another great day here folks, but there is a slight edge to the air yet, can't have it all ways... Another sighting/ hearing from earlier this week, Chris Mills had heard a Water Rail calling down at the reed bed down beside the Coastguard's. Peter yesterday had seen a White tailed Eagle up past Ballygrant. On the fields round on the far side (?North side) of Loch Gorm, 80 Skylarks were counted, also present were 12 Ringed Plover. Later on, in the afternoon, Peter saw a Red Grouse up behind Port Charlotte on the moor there. Today, under ideal weather conditions, Mike carried out a count on "inner" Loch Indaal from Port Charlotte round to Gartbreck and on to Laggan Point. his tally came through at 13 GND, 12 RTD, 45  Eider, 2 rafts of Common Scoter totalling 76, 2 Tysties and a Razorbill. James today had Skylark singing on the reserve at Gruinart with the Lapwings displaying there as well.

Saturday 5th March

Around midday, as we were returning home from Bridgend, we had a great sighting of a juvenile Golden Eagle after McNicoll's croft and before Rock Mountain. This evening coming back in, just after we had seen the Eagle earlier in the day, a Barn Owl was out hunting, great.. Round the corner, a Red Deer hind was looking over the dyke, watching us drive past.... Back at home, as came up to the house, 4 Hares were seen and then out in front of the house, 4 Rabbits were  on the lawn, just as well that most of the trees that I have planted have got guards on them!! Almost forgot to mention that we went down to our pond this afternoon, and Margaret saw 6 different "clumps" of Frog spawn

Friday 4th March

A not bad day out here today, the air might have had a slight edge to it, but at least it remained dry, the snow on the tops of the distant hills was a reminder that Spring has not really come yet....Chris Mills along with Norfolk birding group had a count of 100 Redwing in a hedge, close to Islay House earlier this week. Today they had seen a total of 5 Hen Harrier, the first was a cracking male was down at Sunderland Farm, with others seen as they went over to Bunnahabhain. They also spotted 3 Golden Eagle, one was perched less than 20 metres away as they came over the hill from Gruinart down to Carnain, the other 2 were seen over the hills, South of Port Askaig. At Blackrock, there were 16 Pale belied Brent, close into the shore and we drove to Bowmore, there were some small groups of Wigeon tucked into the edge of the shoreline there. Back at home, the Lapwings were displaying away this morning, and late afternoon, 20 Greylag were out on the Machir, another  yard or two and I could have classed them as "garden birds"!!!

Thursday 3rd March

It started off a not bad day with the weather, but as predicted it started to rain at 3pm exactly...This morning, we saw 3 Whoopers coming in from the sea, 68 Lapwing and 20 Curlew over at Coull Farm, on our way home there was a Golden Eagle soaring on thermals way above Rockside Farm. Chris Mills along with the team from Norfolk birding, also had a good day as well. They started off seeing 3 Fulmars along the Kilchoman crag. Down towards Machir Bay, close to the stock feeders, 40 Twite were seen. On their way down there, a group of around 20 Whitefronts were spotted and along with them were 3 Pink footed Geese. On their travels today, round Islay, they saw 3 Golden Eagles. Down in the Cornabus valley, outside Port Ellen while scanning through around 2,000 Barnies, Chris found the Cackling Goose for his clients and also a single Pale bellied Brent goose amongst them as well... Below the Car park at the Oa, 100 Twite and a couple of Linnets were present. Finally they had seen 2 LBB Gulls over Loch Indaal, we saw a couple of GBB Gulls along the front of the Kilchoman crag yesterday.. another sign that Spring is on the way...

Wednesday 2nd March

Forgot to mention last night that on our way out, we counted 10 Hares between our house and the road end leading to Rockside, coming home not so many were seen, there were some dirty hail showers kicking in, but all the same there were 4 Hares out  beside the house! Today, not been that great a day with the weather, windy with the odd dirty shower in the mix. All the same Mandy had heard a Skylark singing at Coullabus, and then she saw an Iceland Gull in the dunes behind Traig Nostaig up on Ardnave

Tuesday 1st March

As we are in a new month,(and now "Spring") the first thing I usually try to keep you up to date was the rainfall tally for the previous month, and here we had 4.75 inches. Today has not been that great with the wind picking up tonight. The Norfolk birding team had seen some Fulmars in from the sea yesterday...They also saw a Yellowhammer as they went in towards Loch Skerrols. Mark Holling had a Glaucous Gull on Loch Indaal before he headed for home. Carl today, had a Sparrowhawk at Port Charlotte. Mandy had been carrying out one of the goose counts with Malcolm today, at the edge of Bowmore, they also had seen a Sparrowhawk and then further on at the Laundry Loch, 8 Whoopers were present. The Norfolk team had a Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay today. Here at home, late this morning, a Peregrine was after some Rock Doves, the first Peregrine that we have seen for some time now! Tonight the "bird nerds" had their annual meal/get together, usually we hold  it in January, but time flew past and it was delayed until now, 23 folk attended including the 8 visitors from Norfolk birding, a great time enjoyed by all and food was just great as well...