Saturday 7th March

A final e mail  from "The Rochdale Birders" with some birds seen over the past few days seen when over here for this visit...
"13 Crossbills at Finlaggan around the house garden, 1 Goldcrest  at Avenvogie, a Female Hen Harrier at Gruinart and also 5 Hares seen boxing at Port Charlotte"

Gary e mailed some sightings seen by himself yesterday....
" Over at Bunnahabhain all three divers, 7 Great Northern, 2 Red throated & 1 Black throated Divers.
Also 7 Common Crossbill in the fir trees."

Friday 6th March

Sarah Bedford had sent through the WeBS counts which she had carried out today...

Species	Ardnave Loch	Loch Gruinart	Floods
Heron			1
Great-northern diver		4
Shelduck		66	1
Shag		1
Tufted duck	1
Wigeon		299	41
Mallard	2	26	4
Goldeneye	6	5
Red-breasted merganser		13
Oystercatcher	3	221
Ringed plover		1
Lapwing	4	1	143
Sanderling		33
Dunlin		396
Knot		22
Turnstone		33
Bar-tailed godwit		161
Curlew		41	19
Redshank		57	3
Common gull		105
Herring gull		43
Lesser black-backed gull		3
Great black-backed gull		1
Goosander			1
Greenshank		5
Mute swan	2		4
Whooper swan			5
Teal	7		313
Little egret			1
Greylag	10	8
Black-headed gull		28
Pintail		2	51
Shoveler		3	31
Moorhen			1
Snipe		2

THursday 5th March

Some  sightings seen yesterday by Gary
"From Finlaggan 4 White tailed Eagles high up, 3 Golden Eagles, 11 Buzzards, 1 Hen Harrier, 3 Sparrowhawks & 1 Kestrel.
At least 9 Crossbills."

Christine Menzies had seen the following birds yesterday as well...
"2 Golden Eagles and 2 Buzzards down past Kildalton Cross in the afternoon."

Wednesday 4th March

Marsali has kindly sent me though her rainfall tallies for January and also for February from over at Mulindry..."The rainfall for January was 115mms or 4.6” and for February 235mms or 9.4”   The paper we get said that it was the wettest February since records began but we had a wetter February in 2014.   I think it depends on where you live and how much water actually reaches the gauge".
The rain gauge at Matt Jackson's house at Rockside road end came to 6.35 inches for February !!!.

The Rochdale birders had sent some sightings through from Monday and Tuesday..
"On Monday, we went to Claggain Bay .  Black throated and Great northern Divers. Good view of male Peregrine, on a wall at Leorin on the High Road. Adult and juvenile Golden Eagle at Cladville on the Rhinns. On Tuesday, at Storakaig... 3 Golden Eagles together over the hills, with a male Hen Harrier quartering its patch. Down at Finlaggan, 4 Crossbills were present.

Mark Shields commented on the following today

"A nice day on Islay for the first time in a long time. The flats at Gruinart are suddenly full of frisky lapwings! Also around the reserve…436 Dunlin, Greenshank, 4 Sanderling, 109 Skylark and a single Sparrowhawk" 

Tuesday 3rd March

Gary sent through some sightings  for me to use on the blog for you all to appreciate...
"Some sightings from yesterday,
Bunnahabhain - 5 Crossbills in fir trees at distillery,
Finlaggan - 6 Fieldfare in fields around steading,
Esknish - 2 Lesser black backed Gulls amongst Common Gulls in field after Barnacle Geese had moved on."

Monday 2nd March

Richard Wesley had been over last week  leading a group from Lorn Natural History Group
"We recorded 91 species during that period, slightly down on my expected total, but the weather was against us most days, including a snowstorm on Wednesday.  The records include our return journey from Port Ellen to Kennacraig.

We met Ken Reeves and his fellow birders from Leicestershire and exchanged a few sightings, they seemed a knowledgeable group.  We all enjoyed our stay on Islay with excellent accommodation and as always fabulous birds.  If you're interested in any of our photographs from our visit they can be found on the 'Lorn Natural History Group' Facebook Group page."

If I can remember correctly "Ken and the Elite 5" had a tally of 95 different species seen.

Sunday 1st March

A few comments back through from Ken Reeves who led "the Elite 5"

"This was, for me, the best year for birds even though every day the sun shone, it rained, it snowed and the wind blew ! Ken managed with help from Steve Lister to record 3 x Greenland Whitefront  neck collars  and 27 Barnacle darvic leg rings . 

With birders from Leicestershire, Yorkshire and Norfolk , it was mind blowing !!"

Many thanks for your birds folks...

Gary who owns Wild Islay Birding had sent through some sightings seen when he was out over the last couple of days 

"Yesterday, along coast north of Bunnahabhain – juv White tailed Eagle, 2 Kestrels, 1 Merlin & 1 Otter. 

Today – Kilnaughton – 21 Shag, 3 Cormorant, 7 GND, 3 RTD, 1^ST Gannets (11) of the year.

Cornabus – 300 Barnacle Geese, 31 Herring Gull, 10 Common Gull, 21 Black headed Gull, 1 Great black backed Gull & 1 juv Glaucous Gull, numerous Lapwing, 30 – 40 Skylark & male Hen Harrier.

Bowmore harbour – Red breasted Merganser, Goldeneye, Slavonian Grebe, Long tailed Duck & Red throated Diver (all in harbour)."

 

This morning, Helen Brown who lives up at Ardnahoe had seen a Mistle Thrush in her garden, the first that Helen has ever had at Ardnahoe..