Monday 27th July

Yesterday, James saw an Osprey fishing at Loch Gruinart, mind you I forgot to ask if it had been successful or not.. He also had counted 65 Barwits as well as 24 Dunlin present there as well. Later on, over at Kilnaughton Bay he saw a Sandwich Tern and also 4 Whimbrel...

Saturday 11th April

Peter last night was in touch..

"A single Sandwich Tern was seen off Bruichladdich – I think it is the first Islay record this year, though there have been at least two earlier records in April in Argyll"


Some sightings of birds came through from Mandy this morning

"Last night at dusk two groups of 20 white fronts headed towards Loch Gruinart, and around 60 grey lags on the ground, scattered throughout the fields below the track.

Curlew calling, then this morning ravens cronking away." 

Sunday 8th September

Yesterday, Bob had seen a Marsh Tit in his garden and also a female Sparrowhawk was present there as well. A first for Islay and also Argyll if accepted by the rare bird committee

Also yesterday, Peter had been out spending some time doing a sport of mackerel fishing off Port Charlotte. not sure how the fishing went, but he saw a Sandwich Tern and then shortly afterwards, he had a couple of young Razorbills bobbing about on the water close by

Thursday 5th September

JD had made good use the drier kind of  a day.. Over at Kilchiaran, he saw a Grey Wagtail. Off Bruichladdich, he had a Sandwich Tern and also 4 Red throated Divers. Up at the head of Loch Indaal, he counted 40 Red  breasted Merganser, 59 Barwits and also 69 Red Knot. Over at Gruinart, JD's top birds were a Sparrowhawk, a Peregrine and also he had an Osprey there as well.

Almost forgot to mention that around 7.30 yesterday morning, we had another visiting Sparrowhawk land on top of the feeding cage. Needless to say, it just sat and watched, as all the wee birds flew out of the cage and away out of sight.

Early this afternoon, and Margaret spotted a Fulmar down on the ground beside the bird seed crop... obviously a young bird that had flown from its' nest on the crag, but did not manage to fly over the top of the machir and onwards to the sea. So "Muggins" was sent to catch the youngster, which I did do, better still it never spat at me... So once we had it safely in a box, we took it down to Loch Indaal and released it on the sea... too fat to fly!!

Tuesday 23rd April

A bit of catch up so here goes... mainly from some of the Webs count carried by folk over the past few days..

James and Shona-Isla has done the count on Loch Gruinart seing the following  1 GND, 52 Shelduck, 368 Ringed Plover, 425 Dunlin, 105 Curlew, 35 Lbb Gul, 24 Knot, 22 Bh Gull, 116 Teal, 4 Pintail, 43 Wigeon and 2 Whooper Swans. Highlights from Mike's count on Outer Loch Indaal included 147 Common Scoter, 91 Pale Bellied Brent Geese, 375 Auk sp., 11 Gannet, 33 GND, 3 Whimbrel & 2 Sandwich Tern. Later on, off Port Charlotte, Mike had 3 B N Dolphins while up at Foreland, Val saw an Orange tipped Butterfly. Bob had done his patch over the weekend as well, counting 48 Ringed Plover, 42 Oystercatcher, 45 R b Meganser, 8 Eider,  4 Shag, 2 Tysties, 188 Common Gulls, 56 Herring Gulls and 6 Gbb Gulls.

Peter and Mike, the other day, had 2 Groppers (Grasshopper  Warblers!!!) between Ellister and Port Wemyss, with Lesser Redpolls heard calling around Octofad and later on up at Bruichladdich.

Yesterday afternoon, Peter had a small group of 8 Sandwich Terns off  Bruichladdich.

Sumday 7th April

Yesterday, Mike Peacock had seen a Sandwich Tern flying up Loch Indaal, out from Port Charlotte. Later on, Peter had seen 2 Sandwich Terns flying offshore out from Bruichladdich for the most of the day. Bob had seen a single Sandwich Tern out from Loch Gorm House, just North of Bruichladdich and then shortly afterwards Bob had an Arctic Tern up at Gortan. Jenni Minto and Jan Reavey had seen an Osprey at Loch Gorm.

This morning, at 7 am Mike had seen 5 Bottle nosed Dolphins swimming past the pier below his house at Port Charlotte.

Friday 29th March

Yesterday, James had seen a pod 7 Bottle nosed Dolphins as the ferry left Port Askaig. Later on  at the head of West Loch Tarbert, James saw a Sandwich Tern and a Little Egret.  Up here at home, Margaret saw a Red legged Partridge in at the ground below the feeders, a new house tick...

Sunday 9th September

Yesterday afternoon, Peter had seen a Sandwich Tern sitting on the rocks on the edge of Loch Indaal, out from Loch Gorm House at the edge of Bruichladdich.

This afternoon I gave Bob a hand to carry out his WeBS count from Blackrock back round to Port Charlotte, with the tally coming in as follows, 23 Cormorant,1 Grey Heron, 73 Eider, 30 R B Merganser, 5 Oystercatcher, 4 Rock Dove, 16 Ringed Plover, 61 Dunlin, 1 Curlew, 1 Redshank, 2 Med Gull, 4 Bh Gull, 265 C Gull,  2 Sandwich Tern, 9 Herring Gull, 1 Gbb Gull, 1 Kittiwake.

Both the Sandwich Terns seen were in the same location as to where Peter had his Tern yesterday.

Needless to add, but with a  lot of dirty squally showers around for most of the day, we were fortunate in being able to actually do the count....

Sunday 15th July

Yesterday, Lesley and myself gave Bob a help to carry out the WeBS count from Blackrock round to Port Charlotte with our total tally coming to 10 Cormorant, 1 Arctic Tern,  1 Sandwich Tern, 71 Eider, 10 Herring Gull, 45 Common Gull, 31 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 4 Curlew, 27 Greylag, 6 Mallard, 3 L BB Gull, 2 Gbb Gull, 1 Common Sandpiper, 6 Shelduck, and 4 Tysties.

This morning, Mike had a pair of Sandwich Tern feeding newly fledged young at Port Charlotte.

Round midday Peter brought up Roger Broad for a long awaited catch up with us here at home, great to see you Roger. While we were outside, Roger was looking at the bumblebees while we bird watched, seeing a distant Kestrel away out over the crag, noted many Siskins on the feeders, some Linnets and Lesser Redpolls were around as well. This afternoon, the noisy, nosey locals, the Chough came along for a visit. Earlier on, we had a young leveret out in the garden, good to watch its' antics, as it went through  its' repertoire.

Friday 16th March

Another cool day out here again, with the wind upping its' strength, Calmac have already stated that there may be some disruption with the ferry tomorrow... 

Jim Dickson was in touch  to say that there was a "reported" sighting of a Sandwich Tern down at Machir Bay today.  Here at home, the wee birds have been busy at the feeders for most of the day, and we had a Siskin today again. Out on the grass, we had 7 Greylags present in the morning, but by mid afternoon the flock was up to 11 geese, but no collars/ leg rings on...Forgot to mention last night that we saw the Iceland Gull at Ballinaby and on our way home, a ringtail Hen Harrier was seen below  Leek.

Sunday 30th July

A better sort of a day, although there were a few drops of rain this morning, not a lot, but enough to stop me cutting the grass which I eventually managed to do this evening, job done..

Back on Friday, James  saw 4 Sandwich Terns over at Kilnaughton Bay. Yesterday, James saw 15 Sanderling playing "chicken" with the waves over at Sanaigmore... This afternoon, we saw a couple of young Blue Tits out from "the hut", great to see, as it shows that they must have bred close to here. Margaret earlier on spotted a Peregrine perched away along the top of the crag. As I write this entry, Margaret has just seen 17  Chough out sitting, sunning themselves on the rock face of the crag.

 One of them had flown away by the time I got the camera out, honest....

Sunday 9th April

Hope you all sitting comfortably, as there is a LOT of birds for you to read about tonight...

Today was the day that some of us help carry out the WeBS count on Islay.  Gary counted his patch from Port Charlotte to Blackrock, so his birds seen were as follows 39 GND, 11 RTD, 26 RBM, 5 Cormorant, 22 Shag, 6 Razorbill, 28 Comon Guillemot, 16 Tysties, 34 Eider, 26 Common Scoter, 114 Oystercatcher, 2 Curlew, 1 Redshank, 31 Ringed Plover, 4 Purple Sandpiper, 4 Gbb Gull, 83 H Gull, 219 C gull, 34 Bh Gull, 6 Sandwich Tern, 3 Greylag, 2 Shelduck and 11 Pale bellied Brent. He also saw a further 22 Pbb Geese at smelly corner and then 42 Shelduck on the sand on the estuary at the head of Loch Indaal beside the merse there. Lesley and myself carried  out the count that Bob normally leads, so here we go with our sightings, 3 GND, 1 Mute Swan, 4 Greylags, 650 Barnies, 6 Shag, 1 Cormorant, 1 Heron, 2 Goosanders, 165 Eider, 4 Mallard, 2 Wigeon, 44 Rb Merganser, 27 Shoveler,  4 Grey Plover, 5 Lapwing, 19 Ringed Plover, 58 Oystercatcher, 2 Turnstone, 7 Redshank, 13 Curlew, 1 Blackwit, 3 Gbb Gull, 65 C Gull, 60 H Gull and 37 Bh Gull. While I was away, Margaret had 3 Rock Doves and a Collared Dove in the garden on the ground, new birds to the house list!!! Dave Wood had led the first walk today for the Walkislay week down on the Oa, Dave's top birds were 2 House Martins, 1 Swallow, Golden Eagle, Chough, Redpoll, Sparrowhawk, Back at his house he had also seen 2 Siskins in his garden. Peter had also seen the same group of Brents along at smelly corner but noted that none of them had any leg rings on. Carl yesterday had seen many Willow Warblers ... spotted yesterday at Lyrabus Croft, Bruichladdich, Ballygrant Loch, Bridgend Woods and Foreland. today they were noted at An Gleann. A Mistle Thrush and 8 Tufted Duck were also present at Ballygrant Loch, and finally Carl had Greenfinch singing in his garden down in Port Charlotte. Carl also sent a email which told me about 7 Sandwich Terns at Gortan last Sunday, the 2nd of April.

Think that will do for tonight folks...

Monday 27th March

John and Kenny (visiting birders) had walked yesterday from Ballygrant past Loch Ballygrant onto Port Askaig returning along the path past Keills. They saw 30 species of birds, including 3 Bullfinches, Greenfinches and Goldcrest. They had seen 10 Yellowhammers on the feeders towards Scarrabus on Saturday. Botswana Dave, aka Dave Maynard had seen a Wheatear, a White tailed Eagle and a couple of Chough as he returned from Bridgend to Gruinart  by the "hill road" past Lagstoban. Late afternoon today, Dave had a ringtail fly past the South (old) hide. Jacqueline Fallows (another visiting birder) had enjoyed the great weather yesterday, and along with friends had taken in the walk from Coullabus where they are staying along to the hide at Gruinart, net result 39 species seen. Different birds to John and Kenny as they had Waders and also different species of Ducks noted.

Peter today had a Sandwich Tern off Bruichladdich, the pair of Greenfinch were present on the feeders again here at home with a couple of Fulmars on the crag...There was a reported sighting of a Great Grey Shrike seen over in the trees close to the slaughter house at Avonvoggie this afternoon. Some highlights through from David Woods down on the Oa, top birds seen while carrying out a survey along the Oa coast were 11 Wheatear, 3 Goldcrest, Siskin and 8 Chough.

Thursday 21st April

Dave Protherough saw 10 sandwich terns in Port Ellen bay yesterday as well as 4 great northern divers. At Gruinart a male hen harrier and 2 females, golden eagle, juvenile white-tailed eagle and several swallows were seen yesterday also a barn owl was heard screeching during night. James saw couple twite and a redpoll on his morning survey today. Female peregrine was seen in Ardnave. Louise sent an image of the couple of sandwich terns she saw on Jura on Monday.

Tuesday 19th April

Yesterday Louise saw two sandwich terns at Craighouse, Jura. Alistair Hutchinson saw a male hen harrier and grey wagtail at Woolen Mill. Today the wader survey at Loch Gruinart started. So far only three fields were done with 68 lapwing and 20 redshanks counted. All birds busy displaying and making scrapes. Also several snipe were seen along the drains. During the survey merlin was seen chasing a meadow pipit. A visitor reported seeing an osprey at Finlaggan on Sunday afternoon and today a great skua in Ardnave.

Saturday 16th April

Bob Swan had a glaucous gull yesterday at Machir Bay. He also noticed big arrival of willow warblers and swallows and departure of geese. Carl saw two sandwich terns at Bruichalddich. Mary saw 4 Canada geese on the loch at Claddach also a stonechat and pheasant. Mistle thrush was singing at Bridgend.

Thursday 14th April

James did a Loch Gruinart reserve goose count on Monday and the total was 2923 barnacle geese and 77 whitefronts. Yesterday Carl Reavey had a willow warbler at Bruichladdich, greenshank at Gortan, chiffchaff at Foreland, great northern diver and sandwich tern at Port Charlotte. Today another sedge warbler was heard at Gruinart. Yesterday Mary saw a short-eared owl on her buggy prowl near Claddach, and this morning 3 Canada geese and she also heard a willow warbler. Garry did a bit of birdwatching from his garden at Ballygrant and saw/heard 2 fieldfares, 3 willow warblers, 2 chough. He also saw a ring-tail hen harrier and a barn owl in Ballygrant Valley.

Today we received an e-mail from Carl Mitchel from WWT who has been studying Islay white-fronted geese in the past few years and he reported that two of the GPS tagged whitefronts left Islay last Sunday at 9pm and headed for Iceland. However strong easterly wind pushed them off the course. Half way between Islay and Iceland they changed the direction and must have been flying directly into the strong wind. They finally landed south-east of Reykjavik. Total crossing time was 48 hours! Migration across open ocean is surely not a fun... See the attached image. Thank you Carl for the information. You can find more info here:

http://telemetry.wikispaces.com/Greenfront

Saturday 2nd April

Forgot to mention last night that the March rainfall tally was 3.6 inches, today it remained dry all day, although there is a dampness outside at present, not rain I hasten to add!! Peter Gill had seen the Sandwich Tern, and also 6 Purple Sandpiper down at Bruichladdich on Thursday. Yesterday, he went up to The Woollen Mill in the hope that the Mandarin Duck was still present, but the river levels were quite high, probably the reason for it not being seen. On the feeders , there was a Siskin along with the regular Chaffinches, Great &  Blue Tits... Between Bridgend and Bowmore, Peter saw 25 Barwits out on the estuary. Richard Belter yesterday had heard Snipe drumming with Redshank displaying out from the old hide. Out on the "floods", there was a pair of Dabchick and also 10 Pintail. A single Wheatear was also seen from the hide by Richard

Friday 1st April

As predicted last night, the rain came through, and as I write this entry at around 7pm, the rain has now stopped and the sun is streaming in the windows...Luckily, I have still got some sightings from earlier this week. Visitors Val Wilson & David Clugston had seen a Sandwich Tern off Bruichladdich and then the Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay back on Wednesday. Forgot to mention last night that Gary had also seen a Grey Wagtail, a Dipper and also a fleeting glimpse of a Kingfisher while we were all there looking patiently for the Mandarin duck... Later on, after that excitement Richard had gone over to the hides at Gruinart where he saw a Swallow and then 2 Sand Martins fly past, out in front of the hides Richard saw 3 Pintails. 2 Pintails were spotted from the Jura ferry by Dougal the skipper on Wednesday... Yesterday Peter Gill had seen a Golden Eagle and then a Peregrine on the Oa. Later on, he had seen a White tailed Eagle at Ballyvicar while off  Kintra, the 4 Long tailed Ducks were still present. Off  Port Charlotte Peter saw a Black throated Diver and near flat calm condition, a count of 20 GNDs was made out on Loch Indaal. Today the only sighting was from a rather wet Richard How (James' brother) who had seen the Glaucous Gull at Machir Bay.
Bob Swann sent some info on the 2 Greylags that Margaret had seen on Thursday evening, both geese had been initially caught, and collared at Gortanchuirn up behind Bruichladdich back in January 2015, and no doubt paired up now, being seen together several times. Peter had got some info through on a dead Guillemot found by Val Peacock the other day, it was originally rung on the Shiant Islands on the 25th of June2012, a mere 1374 day ago.... Meanwhile, I await the report back about Michal's Redshank, wonder how long that will take ...

Tuesday 14th April

A dreich sort of a day, with low cloud and swirling mist thrown into the mix, certainly no sunshine coming through, hope it is better tomorrow as I hope to head out across the water to Colonsay for the walk there tomorrow, so the entry tomorrow night could be a bit later than usual...Yesterday down the road towards Foreland House, we saw a ringtail Hen Harrier. Gary and Wendy had gone on the walk yesterday and had seen 12 Lapwing up and 2 Skylarks at Balole, a total of 20 Snipe seen over the length of the walk. Afterwards along past Uiskentuie, they had a couple of Pale bellied Brent Geese with a Red throated Diver seen further out on Loch Indaal. This morning, I had a Merlin zip across the road in front of me just after the Coastguard cottages, and this afternoon after Ballinaby another ringtail Hen Harrier was out on the wing. This morning as well, Martin spotted 2 Sandwich Terns on the rocks down at Bruichladdich.