Saturday 1st February 2025
Some not quite Islay records have been sent in by visiting birder, Will Scott, on the ferry from Kennacraig this afternoon, from which he saw 21 Great Northern Divers (mostly near the mainland), 6 Black Guillemots, 7 Guillemots, 3 Kittiwakes and a Fulmar. He said he's looking forward to the next week on Islay and we wish him some very good birding while he's here.
Friday 31st January 2025
My apologies to George Jackson who, responding to my appeal for records at the beginning of the week, e-mailed some sightings to islaybirds@gmail.com which I forgot to check! And what's worse, he e-mailed them four days ago!
Anyway, on 27th January, he saw an adult WT eagle west of the road below Ardnave, four Redwings flying out of trees near Rock Mountain on the Kilchoman road, and finally, on Loch Finlaggan, a single Whooper being harassed by two Mute swans.
Tuesday 28th to Thursday 30th January 2025
Thank you, Clive McK, for contributing the first bird record this week! And it's an interesting one. From his house on the west side of Loch Gruinart, at sunrise on Thursday he spotted a pair of adult Great Black-backed Gulls to the ESE, high over the hills behind Corsapol (red pin on map). They were sticking very close together and flapping constantly all the way. Instead of dropping in at Gruinart, but they just carried on >WNW, eventually going out of sight over the hill towards Sanaig/Ardnave. As Clive says, one thinks of this species as being quite sedentary. This seemed an unusual flight line, from somewhere in north-east Islay heading to the north-west.
I hope you all carried out the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch at the start of the week. I did mine, as usual, just after I had put out the food for them and had good totals of 55 House Sparrows, 43 Starlings, 22 Goldfinches, and 13 Collared Doves, as well as single figures of several other species. I am, though, surprised at how few Collared Doves I've fed this winter so far. Last year at this time it was 40-45, but the maximum this winter has been no more than 15. So, has anyone else noticed a big drop in dove numbers or, of course, a large increase?
Friday 24th to Monday 27th January 2025
No sooner does Peter go away, leaving me to look after the blog, than the bird records dry up. There was a bit of an excuse on Friday what with Storm Eowyn blowing in with some force (maximum gust at the airport of 91 mph, somewhat less than forecast but still bringing down some trees, removing tiles from roofs and sheds from gardens, as well as, much worst of all, flooding parts of Port Ellen). I don't think the birds were staying indoors, but the birders very sensibly were, and no-one has posted anything for these four days. I am therefore reduced to informing the world that, with Peter away and not filling his feeders, I have benefited from more Goldfinches than usual at my bird table, to a maximum today of 22.
I hope for some more records tomorrow - please!
Thursday 23rd January 2025
The only bird records received today were from Morven Laurie of NatureScot sending the results of the goose census covering the whole island carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, 21st and 22nd January. The totals, averaging the counts of the two days, were 28,669 Barnacle Geese, 4066 Greenland Whitefronts and 1192 Greylags. The comparable count in December found 27,585 Barnacles, 4852 Whitefronts and 1434 Greylags. The drop in the Whitefront total is disappointing as this population is struggling, and not helped by there only being about 3.5% young in the flocks this winter, following a very poor breeding season in west Greenland. This is well below the 10+% needed just to stop the population declining further.
The weather today was bright and breezy from the south-west with occasional showers. The forecast for tomorrow is for Storm Eowyn to arrive in the very early morning with increasing storm-force south-west winds with gusts between 95 and 100 mph, the strongest being from about 9am to 2pm. Winds of this strength are not unheard of here but definitely rare and we must hope that any damage is limited. Please take great care if you venture outside.
Two more pleasant winter days - some rain this morning, but otherwise quite light winds, dry and sunny at times. It is difficult to believe that we are supposedly in for a really ferocious storm on Friday!
Birding news yesterday was the re-sighting of the Cackling Goose over at Cornabus by Ed Burrell - it hasn't been seen in weeks, but then, nobody has gone looking for it.
Billy Stitchell commenting on his feeders up at Caol Ila said that there was "not a lot of activity", mentioning 6 Siskins amongst other things. Well it is all relative, as I was delighted to have the first Siskin ever on my feeders here at Bruichladdich this morning.
Clive McK. was watching a lovely pair of Bullfinches eating the first buds on Willow up at Creag Mhor today and Mandy H. commented that she had watched the same up at Carnduncan today.
James H. had been out counting geese around Gruinart today and noted 5 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Golden Eagles, a Merlin, Peregrine and Hen Harrier plus the Green-winged Teal still with us.
Two further days of dry, not too cold or windy weather with splashes of sunshine between the clouds.
Despite OK sort of weather, there is nothing startling to report. Nobody is out there birding - myself included as I rush to try to get my book on the birds of Islay and Jura ready to send off to be type-set before I head out for 3 weeks to Tanzania when Malcolm O. will be taking over the blog in my absence.
However, in response to the note about Goldfinches at bird feeders, Billy Stitchell up at Caol Ila kindly wrote in with the following:
"Have had about 15-20 Goldfinch for the past week, nothing today though, just the normal Blue & Great Tits, 2 Coal Tit’s in and out at high speed. Nice to see a few Siskins feeding, not seen them for a while! Even the Wren has been checking out the feeder!? About 6 Dunnock feeding on the ground from the spill from the feeder. Two pair of Bullfinch striping the new growth in the garden"
So that adds a little to the known Goldfinch population of Islay, though I'm sure there are plenty of others on Islay with feeders where Goldfinches are present? (Incidentally, 6 Dunnocks and two pairs of Bullfinches are both quite good records for two species that people rarely mention or note!).
