Fri 30th April

Yes, I realise that this is not a bird, but on consultation with Danny Arnold, I am reliably informed that it is a female Emperor Moth seen along in front of the cottages today. A Small Tortoiseshell was seen up at Shepherd's cottage and also 7 Twite in the garden.

Another piece of good news today is that the Barn Owl on the "Owlcam" at the Islay Natural History Trust laid her first egg last night, spotted by a lady in the Scottish Borders who e mailed through at 04.33 to tell me so, not that I was up!

A great day for birds one way and another, John Molloy one of the visitors returned home tonight, but had seen some Little Terns at Ardnave yesterday. At Gruinart, 3 calling Corncrakes were heard this morning and the Garganey was still present, but no sign of the Little Egret. The flock of Golden Plover were still present between Coul and Rockside, and the 2 Pink footed Geese were at Rockside with 12 Whitefronts.

Along at Sunderland, the Hares were out boxing in several of the fields this morning, and there this evening we had 36 Whimbrel in one group. Down at Bruichladdich were a few Purple Sandpiper, some Rock Pipits and 28 Turnstone, needless to say no camera.... Later on we were fortunate to see a Short eared Owl, and then a Cuckoo close at hand and finally we saw 21 Red Deer together in an inbye field, down grazing instead of being on the hill!

6 Sedge warblers were heard down in the reed bed at the Coastguard cottages.

Thurs 29th April

A Ring necked Duck was seen today in amongst the Tufted Duck at Loch Ballygrant.
Yesterday, over at Gruinart, James had 11 Pale bellied Brent Geese and a male Garganey. Today, James saw his first Lapwing with young for the year, the Corncrake was heard again on the flats, 4 Sedge warblers were seen as was a Water rail.

There were over 40 Sand martin in the air over at Ballinaby, 20 Whimbrel were at Sunderland Farm and there was a flock of over 200 Golden Plover between Rockside and Coul. Each time they tried to land they were chased off by a different Lapwing. I watched this happening on 5 occasions!

A visitor reported in seeing 78 Scaup off Blackrock at the head of Loch Indaal. They had a good day birding with 76 species seen today alone!

George had a male Hen Harrier at the back of Bruichladdich today, and also a few Great Northern Diver on Loch Indaal. George also was saying that his Swallows are back, with some looking at the garage already!

Wed 28th April

A visitor handed me in some sightings that he had seen today. Over at Ballinaby there were 152 Golden Plover, 8 Dunlin and a Ringed Plover, while round at Rockside there were 22 Barnies, only 2 Whitefronts and 2 Pink footed Geese. The Greylag hybrid was also to be seen again. The reserve at Gruinart had only 2 Barnies and 8 Whitefronts. Also at Gruinart were 28 Black tailed Godwit, while in the wood a couple of Treecreeper were present. 2 different male Hen Harrier were seen at opposite ends of Loch Gorm, one at Saligo and the other along at the phone box! Down at Bruichladdich they had 2 Arctic Tern, and at Port Bhan another 4 Terns.

Another visitor had a Blackcap over at Kildalton and also 2 House Martins at Lagavulin.

Tues 27th April

The weather has not been that great here today, in fact it has been raining for most of the day, it had to come I know, but it could have waited...

I was just speaking to a friend from Oxfordshire who commented on the fact that migration this year appears to be slow.

On that note, Grasshopper warblers have been seen and heard today at Loch Tallant and also at Springbank. James had his first Whitethroat of the year in his garden at Grainel, and had 3 male Hen Harriers at Gruinart, while on the flats a Corncrake was heard the first on the reserve for 2010.

Down on the lochans beside Loch Gorm, there were 29 Whitefronts, a Canada goose, a Barnacle and also a Pink footed goose. Yesterday in one the adjoining grass fields we saw the Greylag hybrid, remember the image of it taken a wee while ago. It was paired up with another goose, so we will have to keep an eye out for them.

There were 21 Whimbrel at Gartmain today, and on the bird feeder at Bridgend Store were 4 Siskin. The feeders here at home had 14 Goldfinch and a couple of Collared Doves were on the trees. Other visitors seen a few Purple Sandpiper at Bruichladdich,12 Whimbrel at Port Bhan and few Dunlin at the coal yard. Another visitor had seen a White tailed Sea Eagle perched on top of the War memorial at Port Bhan!

Carl had also seen some White wagtails on The Strand at the top of Loch Indaal, and on Loch Indaal itself were still some Scaup present while he had a Sandwich Tern from the Power station on his way into Bowmore.

Mon 26th April

Robert Davison, as new resident on Islay was in touch today to say that he had seen 3 Sandwich Tern over Loch Indaal.

James had 4 Grasshopper Warbler, a Water rail, a Whinchat and 2 Toads on the reserve at Gruinart today, while Mike Peacock had his first Corncrake of the year over on Oronsay.

Visitors had been watching the Hares today, there were 16 in one field along at Sunderland at lunchtime. Over at Loch Ballygrant, on the cones of the Scots pine trees they had 3 Crossbills, and found 4 flowering Lesser Twayblades, later on down towards Mulindry they had seen a Sparrowhawk and a short while later, a Hen Harrier.

Other visitors had been in Bridgend woods, and had heard 3 Chiffchaff and saw 4 Redpolls. Down at Rockside they had 15 Barnacle Geese, yesterday they saw 43 Red breasted Merganser on Loch Indaal. Today on Loch Indaal, Malcolm had 15 Great northern Diver "milling around, very close together as if in some display"

As I write this evening, the Cuckoo is calling away in the wood again. Down at Gartmain at lunchtime there was a flock of over 200 Bar tailed Godwit and also 31 Whimbrel.

Sun 25th April

Definitely, the day of the Cuckoo, Carl had heard one over at The Kilchoman Schoolhouse, and not to be confused, we also heard one here at home this afternoon, at least 4 miles apart! Howard McDonald, the visitor who told us about the Mallard with the ducklings on the River Sorn, had also heard one up the back of Port Charlotte on Thursday. By all accounts, Howard had enjoyed his stay here on Islay. Carl had also seen the large flock of Golden Plover over at Ballinaby today, along with 6 Barnies and a Whitefront. The Geese that were down on the lochans at Rockside yesterday appeared to have moved on, as there was no sign of them earlier this evening. but there were 5 Red Deer on the top side of the road just as the daylight was starting to fade tonight. There were 20 Whimbrel in a field beside Sunderland Farm.

Over in front of the hide at Gruinart later today, and James had the Green winged Teal. Nobody has seen the Littlle Egret for a few days. There appears to be a few more Wheatears in, as well as some Swallows.

This morning Rory Crawford, who worked with RSPB on Islay last summer, had seen a Hobby just past Gruinart Farm on his way up to Ardnave. While down on the Oa on Friday, Rory had seen a Great Skua.

Sat 24th April

These were just a few of the Golden Plover that were seen around today by our friends. There was a flock of over 500 over at Ballinaby, a small group of 13 at Rockside, and a further 71 down at Claddach at Portnahaven.

Other friends had seen a few Turnstone at Bruichladdich, while up at the platform overlooking the floods at Gruinart, they had seen some Twite and coming home tonight they had a female Hen Harrier out on the wing.

At home this afternoon, I went back up the burn to close to where I had found the dead Mallard, as I had seen a hen Pheasant come away from a nest with 15 eggs in it. I found the nest right enough, but no hen, let alone no eggs, but definitely where the nest once was. So was it the Otter at it again?

Down on the lochan below Rockside this morning were 2 Mute Swan, 30 Whitefronts, a few Greylags and some Mallard.