Friday 7th April

Scotland, by Alastair Reid

It was a day peculiar to this piece of the planet,

when larks rose on long thin strings of singing

and the air shifted with the shimmer of actual angels.

Greenness entered the body. The grasses

shivered with presences, and sunlight

stayed like a halo on hair and heather and hills.

Walking into town, I saw, in a radiant raincoat,

the woman from the fish-shop. ‘What a day it is!’

cried I, like a sunstruck madman.

And what did she have to say for it?

Her brow grew bleak, her ancestors raged in their graves

as she spoke with their ancient misery:

‘We’ll pay for it, we’ll pay for it, we’ll pay for it!’

from Inside Out – Selected Poetry and Translations (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2008)

That's enough culture. On with the birdies. 2 newly arrived willow warblers were mingling with the hordes doing the Easter Egg Hunt at RSPB Loch Gruinart's Woodland Trail. Elsewhere around the reserve, skydancing harriers, my first adder of the year, Northern mining bees, drinker moth larvae and beauty and wonder everywhere. In the evening, 11 blackwits, a ruff, 3 gadwall and a greenshank were at the North Hide. 

Out in the Finlaggan area, there was a merlin, more skydancing harriers and at least 9 buzzards making the most of the thermals.

Double D got this great pic of a sat-tagged white-tail at The Oa. He also got a house martin at Kinnabus, and a magpie at Upper Killeyan (BOTD). Steve Rogers saw 2 sandwich terns at Kilnaughton and our very own Peter picked up 4 manxies close to Islay from the ferry as he headed off for his Easter hols. Mary had a swallow in Port Wemyss.

That's yer lot, thanks very much to all the above. Happy Easter to everyone that reads or contributes to the blog. 

Thursday 6th April

 The wind has gone round to a light NW in a beautiful sunny day. 

But the wind may not be to the liking of the remaining Barnacle Geese. Malcolm O. noted : "A flock of about 100 circling noisily over Bruichladdich this lunchtime wondering where all their friends have gone, and doubtless hoping today's north-west wind won't last too long, which it doesn't look as if it is going to." Mark Shields also noted some lingering Barnies - 800 at Sanaig and 550 at Craigens - so still a few to get on their way.

But the emphasis is on summer with the first Swallow of the year on Islay - seen by David Dinsley at Ineraval out on The Oa this morning. He also had a female Wheatear at Kilnaughton. A second Swallow was notched up by Annie Rudd at Loch Gruinart at lunchtime. 

Other odds and ends up at Gruinart included 3 Little Egrets and a couple of Sand Martins seen by Mark. 

STOP PRESS: Mark S. revised his count of Little Egrets having just seen a total of 6 - certainly the highest number together on Islay, equalled I think only once before in recent months. 

Wednesday 5th April

 A pleasant mild spring day - drizzly to start with, but dry and moderately sunny later with light winds from the south and west. 

There is a little bit more detail about the Irish WT Eagle that overflew Islay recently, kindly provided by Tom Lowe.Apparently it came by on 23rd March, was on Rathlin at about 12.30pm, an hour later was over Port Ellen and an hour after that was over Loch Gruinart. It was flying at various elevations from 97 - 126 metres up at speeds varying from 25 - 70 kph. It doesn't sound as if it stopped here long?

Today David Wood had 3 Willow Warblers, a Goldcrest and a Redwing at Risabus on the Oa. 

As the sea was calm, I took a look over Loch Indaal from Port Charlotte up to Bruichladdich. The place was very busy with all sorts of feeding seabirds. Amongst the odd Black Guillemot, Gannet, gulls including quite a few Kittiwakes, Eiders and RB Mergansers were a total of c.60 Red-throated and 10 Great Northern Divers, over 100 Razorbill in tight feeding groups of 10 -20 spread across the loch, and 2-3 small, active flocks of Common Scoter totalling 42 birds. Far over the other side were many small black, white and black-and-white dots of birds that were too far to identify, but presumably more of the same: it would be fascinating to know what the actual number of all these species was................... 

Calling, fishing and perching on the rocks around Bruichladdich were 8 Sandwich Terns.

Tuesday 4th April

A breezy southerly wind with a spattering of rain and quite a bit of cloud at times. The wind gives us a  link to the only bird news today - a note from Mark Shields ...........

"Yesterday's strong SE wind appears to have had an effect. Only 732 Barnies and 45 White-fronts left at Gruinart this morning. Eerily quiet"

So there we are - winter is over with the bulk of the geese gone north, hopefully to have a summer free of bird flu. All we need now is some warmth and a few more summer migrants to arrive.

Monday 3rd April

 A good bit breezier and cooler today, but not much in the way of rain. 

The only bird news to share today comes from the Irish White-tailed Eagle re-introduction programme that has been going for a year or two based on the Shannon in the SW of the Republic. Apparently one of the young birds released there has been wandering far and wide - a bit like the young WTEs released on the Isle of Wight. This particular bird has already been clocked, via its satellite tag, making the following journeys all around Ireland and up to Scotland where it has roamed extensively as shown in this picture:

The picture below shows what it has been up to more recently - another journey north to Scotland, but this time instead of going north via Kintyre, it has island-hopped over Rathlin and up through Islay and on to Colonsay before reaching Mull. Fascinating stuff!!

Sunday April 2nd

 A pleasant sunny dry and mild spring day, though very little to report from the birding front. Gary T. was up and about early for a Sunday morning and noted the Glaucous Gull still stuck to its spot at Uiskentuie. A little later Marc Eden found Islay's first Willow Warbler of 2023 singing at Laphroaig. In the afternoon David Dinsley had another Sand Martin at Kinnabus, while Gary T. finished the day with a report of a Shoveler in the pool where the Gartmain burn meets the beach - an odd location.

In other news, Steve Percival informed us that a radio-tagged Barnacle Geese he has been monitoring left Islay yesterday heading north towards its breeding grounds. It won't be long now before they are all gone for summer..................

April 1st

The day started fairly inoffensively: mild, dry with sunny spells, but deteriorated into grey and occasional drizzle by evening. The weather wasn't so awful to stop the regular boatload of birders crossing over from Northern Ireland who seemed to have enjoyed their time seeing the usual and expected goodies - harriers, eagles, choughs, barnies a Peregrine and 2 Little Egrets. 

James How reported in from Gruinart with a similar account, adding single Sparrowhawk, Gadwall, Brent Goose and Great Spotted Woodpecker to the list (presumably the latter not at the same time and field of view as the other sightings!) He also upped the Little Egret tally to 5 and had a total of 67 Whooper Swans. He scooped the prize for "B.O.T.D." with another sighting of the long-staying Red-breasted Goose.

Billy Stitchell had been up to Loch Ballygrant seeing much the same as I did yesterday (aka. not seeing a Ring-necked Duck), but has provided a couple of lovely photos for the blog - thanks Billy.