Sunday 22nd December

Computer and internet are up and running at Grainel again so I can up date you all with some Islay bird records. On Friday Mary had a trip around Ardnave- 9 Mallards, 1 Little Grebe, 20 Whooper Swans, 3 Mute Swans, 5 Wigeon, 126 Teal and 5 Goldeneye as well as 12 Choughs and 11 Reed Buntings at Garraeallabus. Mary has also been seeing a Barn Owl most Mornings in Portnahaven near the old primary school. On the reserve at Gruinart Hen Harriers have been frequent with 2 ring tails hunting today.

Thursday 24th October

Yesterday, the Horwich birders saw a male Hen Harrier down behind the coalyard at Gortan and later on a Sparrowhawk flew across the Glen road. Loch Allen proved quiet but there were a few Redwings around. Earlier on around 9.30am they had counted 22 Whoopers on Loch Gorm with 40 flying South from Loch Gorm as well. They also counted a further 18 in the fields close to Gorm. In the early evening they counted 25 on Loch Gorm and 8 flying South from there. Other visitors yesterday had a Surf Scoter at Loch Gruinart, 5 Snow Buntings at Ardnave with a WTSE flying over towards Nave Island. At the top of Loch Indaal today, Danny had 80 Wigeon, 2 Red breasted Merganser and 16 Pale bellied Brent Geese.The Collinsons had seen a Golden Eagle down on the Oa along with several groups of Redwings. Here at home, 30 Fieldfare flew over at the back of lunchtime.. Peter had been over at Gruinart today and counted 320 Wigeon, 25 Pintail, 55 Red breasted Merganser along with 29 Pale bellied Brent Geese. The Bancrofts had seen 11 Whoopers flying South down Loch Idaal, while another 16 were seen arriving at Gruinart by David and Jane Griffiths to the annoyance of 2 Mute Swans already there! 

Thursday 28th March

On Tuesday, on her way home, on Jura, Louise had a Short eared Owl down towards Ardfin, the first she has seen for a while. Yesterday, Dave mustered the troops from the Oa and Gruinart reserves plus Bob and Martin. Together, they carried out a cliff survey on the Oa reserve with the highlights being 3 Golden Eagle, 1 imm White tailed Sea Eagle, 1 Merlin, 3 Buzzard, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Peregrine, pr Red Grouse, Snipe, Woodcock and  4 Chough. Offshore they had a pod of 6 Bottle nosed Dolphin. Today, through the office window on the Oa, Dave had a imm White tailed Sea Eagle, a Golden Eagle and also a Peregrine. This afternoon, out from smelly corner we had over 40 Whoopers resting up and at least 50 Shelduck to be seen there too. On one of the wee ponds nearby there was a pr of Moorhen present.

Thursday 22nd November

More whooper swans moving through today- 22 moved south through Loch Gruinart and Malcolm reported some past Bruichladdich.
Earlier in the week a count of Loch Gruinart revealed - 421 lapwing, 176 golden plover, 188 oystercatchers, 53 ringed plover, 126 sanderling, 42 dunlin, 385 bar tailed godwits, 110 curlew, just 8 redshank, 46 turnstones, 38 pintail, 31 shoveler, 95 shelduck and 96 wigeon.

Friday 19th October

As promised the sightings from the Leigh Birders from Thursday. They had been down at the RSPB reserve on the Oa noting the following birds, a Carrion Crow along with Rooks, 2 Redwing, 2 Dunnocks,small flock of Redpolls (all still in summer plumage). 7 Pink footed Geese flew West. At the monument, a juvenile Peregrine flew past as they were sheltered in the lea of the monument, while just over the edge of the cliffs there, they had superb sightings of an adult Peregrine. One of their group had walked round the circuit, rather than going straight out to the monument, and had a Merlin. In the afternoon they headed out from Port Ellen to Claggain Bay with the following birds seen, 8 Red breasted Merganser, 26 Curlew resting up at the high tide line, 1 Oystercatcher  (Pauline doubts this low figure...) 6 Goldfinch, 1 male Bullfinch with 4 Whoopers flying over Lagavulin. They also had seen 5 Red Deer stags and later on a Fallow Deer along with its' calf. Andrew from Lancs birds included 3 Yellowhammer close to Rockside, a Sparrowhawk up at Kilchoman Distillery, male and ringtail Hen Harrier over Loch Gorm with an Otter on the floods at Gruinart. Today George had 10 Curlew, 14 Rock Doves and 1 Reed Bunting down at home at Bruichladdich. This morning, the Bolton Birders had been counting Whoopers, 44 at the pools beow Rockside including 9 juv, Sunderland count was 164 inc 17 juv. Later on a further 20 flew past at "smelly corner". The count at Sunderland late afternoon was up to 195 and a further 8 on Loch Gorm itself. A walk in Ballygrant Wood produced 2 separate Treecreeper and 6 Siskin, at least 30 Redwing feeding on the Rowan berries. They also saw 2 Little Grebe on Loch Ballygrant, another on Loch nan Cadhan and a final one on Loch Finlaggan. Finally they had 2 Red throated Diver off Gortan and another in front of An Taigh Osda at Bruichladdich. Think that is me caught up!!!