Sat 31st Oct

Had an e mail through from Paul Kenyon who was over on Islay last week. Paul was fortunate to see both the Cattle Egret and the Little Egret. On Loch Indaal, he also had 4 Long tailed Ducks, 3 Velvet Scoter as well as 5 Slavonian Grebe. Thanks for that info Paul.

I think that the Little Egret has moved on as I have not heard about it since last Monday, and possibly that the Cattle Egret has moved through as well, as it has not been seen since Wednesday, as far as I know.

Fri 30th Oct

This a "Darvic" ring which is put on the right leg of the Barnacle geese when they are rung. It is basically a 3 letter sequence of letters which can be read fairly easily, the rings are about 3.5 cm long and the lettering about 1.5 cm tall. Over the years Steve has built up quite a lot of knowledge from the various sightings. He actually saw 2 of the geese that were rung yesterday, again today. Will ask Steve for an update on the above bird, so will keep you posted once the info comes through.

What with the rain and wind today, the birds have been keeping a low profile!

Thurs 29th Oct

An image taken a few years ago of the "Goose team" in full swing. This morning we were able to carry out the job for this year. We managed to catch 40 birds in all, of which 3 were retraps from previous years. Steve has been carrying out this work for25 years now and reckons that he has rung over 4,000 birds in all. There are still some of the birds that he rung 20 years ago still around. This year's geese also have a red ring on their left leg along with the BTO ring, so allowing the year of ringing to be seen quicker!

Also today, I got the first tally of the present Goose counts carried out by SNH here on Islay. The figures were 39,783 Barnies and 1,740 Whitefronts, the Barnies are only slightly down on last years' figures in October, but the Whitefronts numbers are well down. Could this possibly be due to milder weather, and a possible reason for them not coming here yet? Thanks to Tracey and the team for the figures.

Wed 28th Oct

James was on the phone with some interesting bits and bobs.

A pair of Whooper Swans and their cygnets had been seen at Gruinart on the 20th October, and departed on the 21st, last Wednesday, and were seen at Martin Mere on Friday 23rd October. The adult birds had leg rings on.

Still on a similar ringing theme, 2 young Chough that were raised this year and rung on the reserve at Gruinart have been seen over on Oronsay. James said that there have been only a few recorded Choughs that have moved to Oronsay from Islay.

Yesterday, James had counted 280 Greenland Whitefronts on the reserve, also present were 11 Redwing and 13 Fieldfare. I saw 6 Redwing over at Coull this morning. A Green winged Teal was seen on the floods at Gruinart today, and the Cattle Egret is still here!

Tues 27th Oct

The other week, the topic was the arrival of the Geese, last week Whooper swans, and of late the Cattle Egret, and yes, it is still here, in the same field along with the sheep! I wonder how long it will remain here, time will tell.

The other day, we had a couple of small groups of Pale bellied Brent Geese on Loch Indaal, the group that has overwintered in previous years has not shown up yet. They used to be anywhere between Bowmore round to Blackrock and on round to Bruichladdich.

There have been a few Fieldfares seen again, we had 25 over towards Ballygrant earlier this week, and this morning there were a few down at Rock Mountain. Further down the road was a close sighting of a Sparrowhawk.

The first of the Goose counts took place today, with other counts being carried out tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what numbers are in at present.

Mon 26th Oct

Another image of the Cattle Egret, taken by Mike Anderson who originally saw the bird on Friday. It was still present this morning in the same locality, although the Little Egret was seen flying around Port Ellen Harbour, just as the ferry was docking around 9.30 this morning! I was told yesterday that this was actually the 7th sighting of a Cattle Egret in Scotland, not the 5th, apologies! Still a 1st for Islay and Argyll...

One of our visiting birders who is over for the week and who saw the Cattle Egret on Saturday, told me this afternoon that he had a Brambling over at Coullabus.

Sun 25th Oct

Well, as promised we went out this morning, on the search for the Cattle Egret. There had been a report of another Egret seen last night, so were there 2 out there?

We caught up with Tony, one of the vols from RSPB who was on the lookout too along with his 2 colleagues, only to be told that we had all just missed them, but there were certainly 2 birds! Patience is a great virtue, and not many minutes later and Tony had located the Cattle Egret in beside some sheep! Not long after that, and a second Egret landed in the same field, and this one turned out to be a Little Egret. The Little Egret was quite aggressive to the Cattle Egret!