Mon 30th June

Michal and his team had done the second count of this year's Corncrake survey here on Islay, and tallied up over 80 calling males, 15 more calling birds than last year. On the overall picture here on the West coast, only Tiree has also had an increase over the year, some of the other places were holding their own but some are definitely down. MS

I was speaking to Louise from Jura on Saturday, and she was saying that she had seen 10 Short eared Owls over on Jura that morning, the figure also included some youngsters too which was encouraging. LG

Sun 29th June

Apologies for not putting on an entry for all this week, but I did return from Paisley on Tuesday, and I have not done it. In my absence, many thanks to James How for keeping the blog going. It may take a day or two for normal service to return. I have had 2 separate phone calls this afternoon asking what was happening, so you will have to bear with me!

Earlier on in the week, James had a Greenshank and 10 Black tailed Godwit at the hide over at Loch Gruinart. Back here at home, one set of the Swallows have already fledged, but return each night to roost, the other nests in the sheep shed and in the garage are not far off flying now too. Even although we are in mid summer, there are a lot of Greenfinches still making use of the feeders along with the other birds that come too.

One big difference that I noticed on my return, was that everything had freshened up as we have had some rain, now almost 3" for June, just in time to bulk up some of the crops for the farmers. Some of us have made a start to clipping the sheep too, when and if one can get a window in the weather to clip the sheep when the wool is dry.

Sunday 22nd June 2008

A wet day at last, the puddles have filled for the first time in ages. I think the grass, the flowers and the birds are all enjoying the ground softening. Not to much to report today due to the rain, other than a female hen Harrier hunting around Loch Gorm. Friday 20th was a good day, a count around the Grunart Flood areas revealed: 14 Lapwing, 37 Mallard, 15 Redshank, 8 Mute Swans, 1 Oystercatcher, 1 Greylag goose, 1 White fronted goose, 1 Moorhen, 3 Shoveler, 5 Grey Herons, 1 Teal. Other reports from the Gruinart area included a Greenshank, a female Shoveler with chicks, Red Throated Diver, several blue tailed damselflies, golden ringed dragonflies, a lizard and a Quail! on the flats.

Thursday 19th June 2008

Some mixed weather so far this week, even a little rain. The wind dropped on the evening of the 17th to enable a quick corncrake count: 10 calling at Gruinart plus a spotted crake, grasshopper warbler, water rail and moorhen. A barn owl was seen on the Gruinart flats and a short eared owl. The rain brought out the toads and seemed to liven up the snipe, with drummers everywhere.
Whilst on the Flats counting corncrakes in the moon light an otter popped out from the ditch and ambled across the field.
Other sightings include, 4 barnacle geese, little terns and arctic terns at Ardnave. A willow warbler standing on the head of a cuckoo chick, feeding it at Kinabus the Oa, a wood warbler at Kildalton area, 32 storm petrels off Skerryvore light house (reported by Port Ellen fisherman) and an Osprey at Loch Skerrols.
The latest update from the Paisley birding hot spot is: a blackbird and two magpies!

Sunday 15th June 2008

The birds are busy and active with lots of fledged young starting to appear. Groups of stonechats, goldcrests and greenfinches, as well as a brood of corncrake chicks at Gruinart, whilst at Kilchoman the starlings are gathering in the willows. The breeding waders at Gruinart mostly have young now and have moved to the very few wet areas. The dry weather forcing the birds to group in high densities around the wet flushes. At night snipe, spotted crake and corncrakes still calling. Also at Gruinart on the 14th good views of male and female hen harrier and a now regular feeding short eared owl.
As for invertebrates the marsh fritillary butterflies are still on the wing and damsel and dragonflies are increasing: with four spotted chaser, large red damselfies and golden ringed dragons all seen on the 14th.
No records from the paisley correspondent due to windy conditions.

Wed 11th June

As I write this at around 11pm, the Cuckoo is still calling out in the wood at this late hour. Earlier today there were 3 seen, 2 males and a female, with the female making her rather odd sounding call at the time, rather like a water-bubbling chuckle!

By the way I am off again tomorrow to be your Paisley correspondent for a week or two, but I will keep my eyes open for the odd Magpie that could be lurking around, not much hope for hearing any Corncrakes over there!

Tues 10th June

A visitor to Islay had seen a Red-necked Phalarope and also a Wood sandpiper at Gruinart at the weekend and James had a Greenshank on the floods yesterday. James has been seeing a Peregrine Falcon regularly over the past few days, is this the same bird that was seen around a lot last summer? JRH