Saturday 8th October

The goose count continues to rise. 9300 barnies, 21 white-fronts, 38 pb brents and a pink foot were with 16 whoopers and 14 blackwits at Gruinart this morning, all seen by James. Later, James had 580 golden plover, 8 whoopers and 2 WTE plus a peregrine.

Martin Newell continues to turn up some nice things,with a small race Canada goose amongst c1600 barnies at Bridgend, plus a juv arctic tern off Bruichladdich. 

Elsewhere, Lucy had 23 chough at Ardnave, David Dinsley had a good-for-the-oa count of 4 barnies at Kinnabus. As I write this, the now usual scene of bedlam at Gruinart as 2 WTE scare the bejesus out of thousands of geese around the Flats. Winter has arrived. 

Friday 7th October

The first serious arrival of geese for this winter overnight at Loch Gruinart. James had 1980 barnies this morning, with 3 large Canadas, maybe all Todd's? By the afternoon the barnie count was up to 6280 and rising, with 19 white fronts new in, and 29 pb brents on the merse. Also at Gruinart, Laura had 2 WTE and the (presumably long-staying) marsh harrier. 

Elsewhere, the whooper movement continued, Double D seeing 14 at Lower Killeyan and Hot Ed winning with 26. Ed also had 35 pink feet at Ballivicar. 

Visitor Martin Newell gets Bird of The Day with a med gull at Blackrock. 

Thanks to all. 

Thursday 6th October

Another day of breezy north-westerly winds and plenty of rain showers and cloud between very occasional brighter spells.

But the winds brought with them the first more obvious arrivals of winter. Most noticeable was a movement through the island of Whooper Swans. First reports were from David Dinsley, Dave Protherough and Ed Burrell on The Oa with 4 on Loch Kinnabus and 31 at Cornabus. This increased to 21 on Loch Kinnabus later in the day with some of the Cornabus birds heading off beyond The Oa. Mark Newell saw 17 coming in from the NW at Killinallan, later picked up by Mark Shields on Loch Gruinart, with a further 33 seen there by Lucy Atkinson later. These may have been the same birds seen by Malcolm Ogilvie flying over Bruichladdich, close to where Mary Redman saw another group of 8 at Uiskentuie followed by 40-50 in stubble fields between Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte. If anybody wants to hazard a guess as to how many individuals were coming and going I’d probably not argue with them, though I’d guess c.100 birds as Mark reckons at least 53 were involved on Gruinart alone.

Mark Newell up at Killiinallan also found the first winter Snow Buntings (2) plus 33 Brent Geese and 75 Barnacle Geese arriving onto the island. A bigger flock of 352 Barnies arrived into Loch Gruinart by lunchtime.

Away from the influx of wildfowl, were a couple of scarcer finds: Gary Turnbull reports a couple of Tree Sparrows amongst the small birds feeding on wild bird feed planted on field edges between Newton and Redhouses north of Bridgend and Laura Nicoll saw the female Marsh Harrier at Gruinart – assuming it is the same individual, it has been around on the island for quite a while now.

Wednesday 5th October

Another day of westerlies bringing cloud and rain in the morning (even a bit of thunder at midday), then brightening a little in the afternoon with heavy showers between blue skies and intense rainbows.

I was at the N. Hide this afternoon and met with visitor Mark Newell who had seen a Little Stint at Gruinart on last Saturday 1st Oct. we watched an ever-increasing array of wildfowl in the ever-increasing water levels of the floods - all in bright sunshine. There was a lone Whooper Swan and the Black-tailed Godwit group had risen again to 11 birds today. There were also 120 Lapwing on the wet fields nearby. Raptors put on a great show: a distant golden Eagle was mobbed by a Peregrine that came past the hide later. A female/imm Hen Harrier glided across the flats several times - or was it 3 different birds? The fence just out from the hide provided a wonderfully close view of a perched Sparrowhawk, followed by the best looks at Merlin I've had in ages. Out on the high tide over Loch Gruinart a single Arctic Tern paraded up and down for a while.

While in the hide, a message came through about a possible Turtle Dove at Loch Gorm. I went off in pursuit, but not having any detail of who had seen it, what time it was seen, or where exactly around the extensive perimeter of Loch Gorm it was seen, it was inevitably a bit of a wild goose chase. However there were some wild geese to make it worth the effort - the small flock of 54 Barnacle Geese that came in ahead of the crowds last week were assembled with masses of Greylags in a stubble field next to Kilchoman Distillery.

Elsewhere, Louise Muir reports a flock of 43 Goldfinches and a young White-tailed Eagle at Craighouse, Jura today. 

Tuesday 4th October

 Raining and grey until mid-afternoon when it brightened slightly. No observations today apart from a few notes from visitors Scott & Ruby who were watching Loch Indaal from Blackrock where they counted 50 Common Scoter, 20 Red-breasted Mergansers, a few Red-throated Divers and single Razorbill and a late "Commic" Tern.

I took a look at Loch Skerrols again as ducks seem to be on the increase on Islay at the moment, but there was nothing other than a few Mallard and Mute Swans.

Down at Easter Ellister, Mary Redman saw a quite late Wheatear.

Sunday 2nd & Monday 3rd October

 Sunday's weather was tolerable - a bit of dry and sunshine with light winds. Monday was a different matter, with overcast, rainy conditions by the afternoon.

Not a lot of birding going on, and understandably, no records at all today. Yesterday, apart from reports of White-tailed Eagles at Gruinart and Claddach (2) along with Peregrine and Choughs at the latter, the only sighting of note was a flock of 17 Brent Geese on Loch Gruinart in the afternoon. At least 2 of these had colour rings on, but despite a lot of re-positioning to try and get all the necessary details, they kept their distance.

Saturday 1st October

After more heavy rain overnight, today was squally with heavy showers between sunshine and a good SW breeze.

A look around the Loch Gorm area this morning located the small number of Barnacle Geese that have already arrived. There were 30 with 5 Pink-footed Geese tucked in with a flock of Greylags on stubble at Sunderland and another 15 with Greylags on stubble between Machir and Coull. At Ballinaby there was a single Whooper Swan with another bunch of Greylags.

This afternoon a check of the two hides at RSPB Gruinart was quite productive. The heavy rain has nicely topped up water levels and the wildfowl are coming in. The combined total for both hides was 94 Mallard, 48 Pintail, 277 Teal, 24 Wigeon and 4 Shoveler. There were now 4 Black-tailed Godwits at the N. Hide and the star attraction was a female / immature Marsh Harrier at the S. Hide.