Tuesday 31st January

Another month almost away, wonder where the rainfall will be? The fields are definitely in some state. Going across one of our fields today, there was surface water in places where I thought there should not be any, and that was with no rain of late!!! This morning George had 14 Greylags on his ponds, along with 6 Mallard, 1 Heron and a Moorhen. on the fields behind the ponds were 400 Barnies and also 2 Pale bellied Brent Geese.

Monday 30th January

It was good to read Armin's comment at the foot of yesterday's entry, where he says that he had seen Red Kites, a Magpie and 2 Coots whilst he was out along the canal path. Red Kites and Magpies are not seen that often here on Islay let alone a Coot!

On to today's birds... we were out for a couple of hours just after lunchtime...Over at Coull, the Iceland Gull was still present while a Reed Bunting was on the road side after the Coastguard cottages, a Peregrine was seen at Ballinaby, also there were 2 Chough. On Ardnave Loch, 15 Whooper Swan, 2 Mute Swan, 5 Wigeon and a few Goldeneye. On the fields there were 30 Oystercatcher and 4 Common Gulls. On the other side of Loch Gruinart, with tide being kind to us, there was plenty to see, Wigeon, Mallard, Shelduck, Turnstone, Redshank, Sanderling, Ringed Plover, Curlew, more Oystercatchers, Hooded Crow, Raven. The weather was cold, so I was lazy and did not even think to count. Back down on the flats at the head of the loch on the reserve, the Glaucous Gull was added. One thing that was interesting to note was that the Geese appear to be in places this year in January where they are not normally seen. Many of the fields where the geese are normally, there have been badly poached already, the geese in several places today were on the verges of the roads where the grass looks plentiful and green too....

Sunday 29th January

The weather has not been that great out here today, damp and dank, and by the look of the forecast there may be some colder weather coming in during the next few days....

Today James and El came over to help with the Big Garden Birdwatch. We certainly have not had the big number of Chaffinches that we had last year when we had 68, but we still had a peak of 24 Chaffinch, along with 16 Greenfinch, 2 Goldfinch, 3 Blackbird, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Starling, 6 Jackdaw, 1 Robin and 15 Pheasant. There were no Dunnocks, House Sparrows or any Wrens to be seen, and they are normally around. Out over the crag 2 Buzzards were out on the wing with a Peregrine sitting there, just watching the world go by. Earlier on James had a Glaucous Gull over the flats on the reserve at Gruinart.

Saturday 28th January

Yesterday Bob had been over on Jura with Peter and Pia. Before they set out, at Port Askaig they had 10 Black Guillemot, 1 adult Iceland Gull, 1 Redpoll and a female Bullfinch. Over on Jura their sightings were as follows, 1 Black throated Diiver, 4 Great Northern diver, 1 Little Grebe, 15 Shag, 3 Cormorant, 8 Heron, 10 Mute Swan, 22 Greylags, 6 Shelduck, 10 Wigeon, 3 Teal, 6 Eider, 14 Red breasted Merganser, 2 Goldeneye, 6 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Wood pigeon, 3 Pheasant, 40 Oystercatcher, 12 Ringed Plover, 3 Redshank, 2 Curlew, 50 Common Gull, 100 Herring Gull, 2 Glaucous Gull, 1 x 3rd winter Iceland gull, 20 Greater black backed Gull, 1 Black Guillemot, 4 Rock Pipit, 3 Dunnock, 1 Robin, 1 pr Stonechat, 6 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush, 20 Starling, 8 House Sparrow, 4 Chaffinch and a Yellowhammer. There were also a few Jackdaws, Hooded Crows and Ravens seen as well.

Friday 27th January

All quiet on the bird front for a change this week, but I read this morning that up in Stornoway harbour on Tuesday afternoon they had a count of 74 Iceland Gulls... I have noticed that over the past few days that the numbers of Greenfinches on the bird table here at home has dropped quite dramatically with only the odd bird now being seen and hardly any Goldfinches seen either. Come Sunday night, it could be completely different with the Big Garden Birdwatch taking place over the weekend....watch this space!!! There were 26 Pale bellied Brent Geese at Bunanuisg at Bowmore this afternoon.

Thursday 26th January

Earlier on this week, Crystal had carried out a count on Loch Gruinart itself, rather than the reserve. The "scores on the doors" were as follows, 2 Great Northern Diver, 2 Cormorant, 3 Heron, 223 Shelduck, 48 Wigeon, 32 Mallard, 2 Goldeneye, 11 Red breasted Merganser, 27 Shoveler, 1 Gadwall, 103 Oystercatcher, 1 Ringed Plover, 10 Grey Plover, 18 Lapwing, 50 Knot, 218 Bar tailed Godwit, 157 Curlew, 36 Redshank, 24 Turnstone, 41 Common Gull, 43 Herring Gull, 4 Greater black backed Gull, 1 Sparrowhawk and 2 Snipe. Also seen were an Otter and a Common Seal! Ardnave Loch held 2 Mute Swan, 3 Mallard, 1 Curlew, 17 Whooper Swan, 12 Goldeneye, 5 Tufted Duck, 1 Common Gull, 18 Wigeon, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Teal and 2 Oystercatcher.

Wednesday 25th January

Earlier in the week, James had carried out a count on the "floods " on the reserve at Gruinart. Bird totals were as follows, 511 Teal, 2 Little Grebe, 13 Whooper Swan, 12 Mute Swan, 79 Pintail, 51 Mallard, 65 Greylags, 6 Gadwall, 4 Heron, 129 Wigeon, 41 Shoveler, 1 Pochard, 1 Red breasted Merganser, 373 Lapwing and 25 Golden Plover. Yesterday he a Canada Goose, hutcihnsii sp in the one of the fields beside his house at Grainel on the reserve.

Peter was in touch to say that the recent sightings of Glaucous and Iceland Gulls is the largest influx of these "white winged gulls" into Europe ever in the history of modern birding! He also commented that this was "by far the most unuasual and significant birding phenomenon in the 12 years he has been here on Islay." These gulls have even been seen in large numbers as far South as Portugal and Spain. Thanks to Peter for that.