Thursday 7th February

Yesterday, Michal, one of the "vols" at RSPB, had seen 2 Greenshank out in front of the hide at Gruinart. Michal is over on Islay for 3 weeks and comes from Poland. This morning, we headed up towards Ardnave. Just after Mill cottage in one of the fields, there was a large mixed flock of Golden Plover and Lapwing, over 300 birds at least. Further on, close to Garra Eollabus, the flock of Brambling and Reed Bunting were still present in the "game crop". Ardnave Loch held 2 Mute Swan, 3 Whooper Swan, 1 Little Grebe, an Oystercatcher as well as Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye. Coming home we had single Hooded Crows at various points and also a few Stonechats. A Peregrine was seen below Carnduncan as well. George today had 70 Curlews in his fields along with over 1,000 Barnacle Geese, the largest number he can recall there. On his ponds, he had a Wigeon this morning, the first for some time. Outside Bowmore George had 7 Pale bellied Brent Geese.

Wednesday 6th February

A good day with the weather out here today, all be it that it was a wee bit on the cool side, it did remain dry, but it's that time of year! Clive had a pair of Bullfinches today at Cragabus on the Oa. Yesterday, the Lochwinnoch birders had a great sighting of an Otter down at Bruichladdich and watched it for quite some time. Later on, on their way up to Ardnave they had 10 Brambling along with a large number of  Reed Bunting. Late, this afternoon, they had a Tawny Owl down close to "smelly corner" 

Tuesday 5th February

Another windy day out here with the odd squally shower thrown in for good measure, the temperature along with the wind chill have changed to, with the wind veering round and coming from the North, brass monkey weather to come! Yesterday, the Lochwinnoch birders reported in to say that over at Gruinart from the hide they had seen a male Hen Harrier, on the floods, Pintail and Teal. Along the flats they had seen a Canada Goose hutchinsii sp both on Sunday and again yesterday, possibly the same goose. Also seen on the reserve were some Twite. Down on Loch Indaal they had seen 9 Long tailed Ducks close to Bowmore. They also had seen 2 Herring Gulls with coloured rings on, one had a black ring on and the other had a yellow ring on, wonder if that was one of Euan's birds from last July? Today as we went down the road, there was a Lapwing flock down close to the Rockside roadend, it split in two all of a sudden and then we saw what was happening as a Peregrine nobbled one of the Lapwings!  Later on up behind Ballygrant on the Glen road, we saw a pair of Golden Eagle. Finally at home there were 5 Buzzzards out on the wing, late afternoon.

Monday 4th February

Yes, the Fulmars must be a sign of impeding bad weather, as today it has been something else. I know it has windy, a gust of 63mph was recorded on Mike weather station at 06.53, and even now the wind is rolling around, fortunately no damage done. We are not alone as Calmac, our ferry operator on the West coast of Scotland, have got 10 ferry crossings cancelled out, including our service to Islay, there is one ferry sailing "normally" and the rest of the fleet on "amber alert", not that I would really want to go on the ferry when the wind is what it is like at present!!! Michal at the weekend had found a dead Little Auk on the shore close to Killinallan. I thought that the figures for the big garden birdwatch that we had were big, well today I think that we have had even more birds present including 3 Dunnock, 2 Robin and 12 Goldfinches. The Chaffinches and Greenfinches just kept rotating around and proved too difficult to count. The female Brambling was seen as well, nice to see it especially on the feeders close to the kitchen window! 

Sunday 3rd February

A Great spotted Woodpecker has been seen on the feeders at the bird table down at Foreland House by Amgela MacLeod. This morning there were some Fulmars in along the front of the crags, something afoot me thinks!! James had been up at Ardnave yesterday. On Ardnave Loch he had 7 Whooper Swans. He also had a count of 34 Chough at Ardnave too, a small flock of 23 Twite was present as well. Down on the shore there was a dead Dogfish. James also saw a Grey Plover, the leucistic Barwit was noted and a 13 Cormorants seen in total. The weather closed in late afternoon, with the crag being lost in the mist and evening ferry being diverted to Port Askaig!!!

Saturday 2nd February

A great day out here with the weather holding out, biggest problem is that it is turning a bit cooler now, time of year, winter time! Certainly the birds at the feeders have been scoffing the food today. I counted a Blackbird at the bird table this afternoon. Talk about being hungry, 153 pecks of seed before it decided that it had had enough! I saw one yesterday and it was just 50 pecks, but this one today tops it all... There was a flock of around 20 Blackbirds seen along the road at Sunderland this morning.

Friday 1st February

That's January past now, the days are stretching out a little, both in the morning and in the evening, especially noticable here this evening! The rainfall for January was just a little more than January 2012, with the tally this year coming through at 7.75", most of it falling within the last week, or so it seemed! Forgot to mention last night that while I was at Loch Skerrols yesterday afternoon, nothing much really to report apart from 2 Mute Swan, and just as I was about to leave a Heron flew past and quickly followed by some more, in the end, 8 Herons flew past in all. They kept on going past Octuvullin. Here at home today, mid morning the Fulmars were in, 10 in total and mid afternoon they were all gone, could we be in for some more stormy weather come the start of the week? Bob yesterday had a Sea Eagle up the Glen road between Mulindry and Ballygrant. He also commented on seeing quite a few Woodcock around, and also some small flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare too.