Monday 30th September

Thought that I had cracked the nut and should have been able to show you a couple of images but my pc has other thoughts on the matter, perhaps tomorrow...

The other day, Mandy had seen a juvenile Golden Eagle take off from one of the fields up at Carnduncan and it flew on towards Culbuie and then today she had seen a couple of Whitefronts fly over her house.

Peter had counted 140 Whitefronts fly over his house at Bruichladdich, the same geese I presume were seen by Fiona. Fiona had also seen 6 Whoopers as well, where though I was not told....
James was in touch to give his goose numbers, a count of 1767 Pink footed geese
flying in from the West through to the East. with 785 landing down on Loch Gruinart itself. James also had 23 Whoopers as  well as 3 Barnies as well... A sure sign that the Winter is not that far away...

Sunday 29th September

It was Bonnie Wood who had seen a  bumblebee skewered on the top wire of a fence line down on the Oa...and today Phill Catton went out and saw the culprit, a juvenile Red backed Shrike, so watch tomorrow evening and all going well I might be able to give you some images to ogle at...

Saturday 28th September

Today, I had a report of a possible Shrike being present down Glen Astle on the Oa. The plot thickens as nobody had seen the bird, but signs of it being there were seen, notably bees pinned on the barbed wire fence there... so hopefully David Wood will be able to locate the bird for us all tomorrow...

Friday 28th September

A Kingfisher was seen earlier on this week by Matthew Jackson down on the River Sorn.

Wednesday 25th September

Distillery Dave was in touch to say that he had counted 10 White Wagtails out on his lawn at Rockside.

Tuesday 24th September

Oops sorry folks but just realised that today was the last Tuesday in September, a that I forgot to "arrange" the monthly meeting of the bird nerds.

I was speaking to James a short time ago, and the Barnies seen on Fair Isle are some of the Svalbard geese, probably en route to eventually down to the Solway.

Birds seen today on the reserve at Gruinart by James included an Osprey, a Merlin, 24 Wigeon out on the estuary and also 15 White Wagtails were present  as well.

Monday 23rd September

Yesterday, James had seen an Osprey over the reserve at Gruinart...

I read this morning, that the first Barnacle Geese of this Autumn, all 10 of them, had been seen on Fair Isle. Possibly not geese from Greenland , but could they be some from Svalbard??? Will try to find where they have come from... I remember a good few years ago when we were staying on Fair Isle a few years ago, that one evening when the warden was going through the birds seen that day that much to everyone's surprise that I said we had a count of 20 Barnies. The assembled birders there questioned us, did we know what a Barnacle Goose looked like until we pointed out that we came from Islay....