Monday 7th January

You can always tell when I write a lot of woffle about the weather, the ferries and soon you realise that I have few reports of birds being sent through, well tonight is one of those days .... the morning ferry diverted up to Port Askaig, the beauty of having 2 ferry terminals on Islay... Yes, I suppose it was quite windy and a lot worse up North with several ferries being cancelled.

The only bird that I can speak about is... yes, the Sparrowhawk was sitting on the wall down beside the bird crop,watching and looking for any wee birds, but they, I presume had gone in to hiding, as I certainly did not spot any... Needless to say, he too eventually took off and flew away!!!

Sunday 6th January

The weather has been gie dreich out here today, with the mist struggling to get off the top of the crag!!!
Yesterday, James had seen5 Purple Sandpiper when up at Ardnave.
This morning, I counted 15 Pheasants down in the birdseed crop, there is still plenty of food in the crop for them to root about for. Later on, I saw that pesky Sparrowhawk  having a fly past on a look and see basis, as it never deviated from its' flight path at all!!!

Saturday 5th January

Forgot last night to mention that I had a Snipe take off down in our garden.... Another thing that should have been mentioned was that we too have got snowdrops in flower, sorry James!!!

Today, another day and the Barn Owl was out and about at the back of 6 am... Lesley came up for a cuppa late morning, and we had a couple of Kestrel out on the wing over the bird crop, and then when I was checking up on something else, Lesley saw a Linnet just beyond the bird table... That was in the morning...Mid afternoon, and Mandy came for a welcome catch up... She had just seen a ringtail Hen Harrier over at Saligo, on her way to here. Better was still to come with a cracking view of a male Hen Harrier following the fence line round the edge of the garden.. To finish off Mandy's visit, there was a Sparrowhawk sitting down below the Pheasant feeder... Margaret saw a Merlin crash into the kitchen window,  it flew away none the worse for wear!!

Friday 4th January

Forgot to mention that James has got his Snowdrops flowering at Mill Cottage, and yes I can verify this as we saw them back on Tuesday when we were round visiting him...

Not a lot on the bird front today... But this morning, the ringtail Hen Harrier floated past over the bird seed crop and kept going, not like the Merlin yesterday!! Down on the rocks just out of Bruichladdich, there were 2 Curlew perched up as I went down to Port Charlotte around midday.

Thursday 3rd January

Yesterday, James had seen an adult White tailed Eagle making a nuisance of itself as it was chasing the Barnies around to no real avail...

Mike today e mailed through to say that he had seen the leucistic Common Gull down on Machir Bay, and over at Gruinart the adult White tailed Eagle was harassing the Barnies again!!! Here at home, a quick glance out of the window, and I saw a Merlin zip past and then it did  a sharp turn back round the bird feeders and nobble a Dunnock. Say no more on that subject... Yes, life can be tough sometimes!!!

Wednesday 2nd January

Good friend Marsali, sent through the figures for the rainfall in December over at Mulindry. Being closer to the hills than we are here at Kilchoman, Marsali's tally for December was 6.68 inches, while the total for the year came to 55.8 inches. Marsali also told me that the annual total was the driest since 2010, say no more, Mrs T!!!

Yesterday, Mike had seen a pair of Bullfinches eating the willow buds while he was out on the track leading to the Forest up behind Bunnahabhain. Today, he bettered yesterday figures by seeing 5 Bullfinches while on the track  to Bolsay up behind Port Charlotte... Gary today had seen 2 Golden Eagles chasing the geese over Keills. Bob, was up visiting us today and just after he left here, he saw a female Kestrel. Just after lunch, we had 3 Greenfinches out on the feeders, up here at home.

Tuesday 1st January

Well, as promised the rainfall figures for December.... The tally for the month came to 5.1 inches with the total for 2018 coming to 48.55 inches or 1233 mm if you understand metric measurements...

The total figure was slightly drier than normal, as we usually think of a figure of around 50 inches in

total.. the tally for 2017 came to 51.75 while back in 2016 was 45.9 inches..

On the bird front, today at home, we have seen 2 different Hen Harriers up here at home, a Raven came in to take pole position up on the top of the gable end of the old church next door,  there were 3 Buzzards circling around over the crag mid afternoon. Also seen were some Goldfinches, a Great Tit and later on a Blue Tit on the feeders as well as numerous Chaffinches and House Sparrows.