Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th December

 Another couple of foul days - strong SW winds bringing lots of rain and cancelled ferries.

Ric Else and Hazel Watson from Rathlin sent in further notes from their first, all-too brief, winter visit to Islay: "We've had an absolutely brilliant three days here, although of course we really need much longer to do justice to such a great birding island! I don't think we saw anything too unusual, but we did see just about everything we were hoping for (apart from Otters, which we never have any luck with!).

The most extraordinary sight was EIGHT White-tailed Eagles sitting together out on the marsh at Loch Gruinart. We could hardly believe it! Similarly, wonderful views of 30+ Choughs at Ardnave was a real spectacle for us, but presumably not unusual at this site? Also Hen Harrier, four Grey Plover and finally a Golden Eagle on our drive back from Ardnave, the latter perched on a high boulder in view of the road.

We're heading back to Rathlin now, but will surely be back someday for another fix of geese galore, eagles and Choughs. Keep up the great work with the blog. We'll be following with interest."

On Saturday, Billy Stitchell sent in some photos including a couple of some ducks on Ballygrant Loch (see below). There have been a large number of Ring-necked Ducks appearing in the UK of late including 5 on one loch in Kintyre - and here are a couple more: well done Billy for getting out on such a rainy, stormy day and finding these rare N. American birds.

Wednesday 10th, Thursday 11th & Friday 12th December

Three days of variable weather - some dry and sunny, but quite a lot more windy and raining.

I think all our visiting birders must have left and the resident birders are staying indoors as there have been no notes sent in at all other than from Ed B. today of a White-tailed Eagle chasing our precious Greenland White-fronted Geese as they came off their roost at Cornabus this morning. If only we could train the eagles to concentrate on Greylags and feral Canada Geese and leave the White-fronts alone!

Tuesday 9th December

 A very mild, but predictably nasty day with strong southerly winds and a fair bit of rain, but not becoming truly unpleasant until evening. No sightings came in until 9.30 this evening, when Ric Else and Hazel Watson who are making their first visit from Rathlin Island sent in their observations. Despite the appalling weather they seem to be enjoying themselves:

"We're over on Islay for a few days this week and have been enjoying your blog, which has been brilliant for inspiration and planning our visit. We live on Rathlin Island, from where we can see Islay every day, but this is the first time we've ever managed to make it over for a visit. We're glad to finally get to experience Islay ourselves and it's been fantastic so far!

Obviously the weather conditions today were a little challenging, but we were keen to get out and see what we could find. There's probably nothing particularly notable to local birders, but we were excited to see at least nine Choughs and a Hen Harrier around Machir Bay, and just as daylight faded we watched an adult White-tailed Eagle flying low over Loch Gruinart, putting up many thousands of geese as it went - exactly the scene we had imagined seeing here! Also Purple Sandpiper at Machir Bay and a Kestrel at Loch Gruinart.

We did encounter a few ringed birds during the course of the day:

• We see you have recently recorded White-fronted Goose CZY at Carnduncan, but it was there in the same place again today.
• Barnacle Geese Yellow H|US and White VTN (we think?) were both in fields near the road that runs along just south of Loch Gruinart.
• A Chough at Machir Bay had Yellow/Yellow colour rings on its right leg. We can't see the ring on its left leg in any of our photos, but perhaps it's identifiable from the partial combination?"

Sunday 7th & Monday 8th December

Thanks to Malcolm O. for blogging for me while I was away last week. I came back to Islay yesterday in moderate winds but heavy rain that had the roads flooded in places. Today was a little brighter, but the next two days look to be nasty with gale force winds from the south and south-west and more heavy rain. 

With weather like that it is not surprising that bird sightings have been few. The only note for yesterday was a count of 46 Brent Geese on the tideline just south of Blackrock as I drove home in the afternoon. Today Clive McK. reports 8 Long-tailed Ducks close to the Gaelic College near Bowmore in Loch Indaal.

Saturday 6th December  

A slightly better day, after 21 mm of rain fell at the Airport in the 24 hours up to 6am Saturday morning, with the gale having subsided. 

Only two observations were received, one from Steve Rogers who saw 2 Chough flying over Emerivale towards Port Ellen at 3.15pm. When I was first visiting Islay in the 1960s and 1970s, seeing Chough on the beach in front of Port Ellen was a regular occurrence, but back then The Oa was much more important for breeding Chough, using the many caves, than it is now.

The other was from Billy Stitchell who found 8 Bullfinches feeding on buds along a track in the forestry near Cluanach. Here's one of his photographs of one of the birds, which he admits is not a very good shot, but it shows the light conditions he had to work with.

 

Wednesday 3rd, Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December 

Wednesday was quite nice with some sunshine, Thursday had less sun and some rain, and Friday had rain and a south-east gale.

Three days without a single bird record being received is a bit depressing for your blog writer who doesn't want it to extend to four days, so has made up this entry with observations of his own. 

On Wednesday, I was out checking on Greenland White-fronted Goose flocks seeing how well they have bred this year which, thank goodness, is a little bit better than in the last few years, with the percentage of young in the flocks looked at so far averaging 13.5%. This is a considerable improvement on the last three years, which have been 3.3%, 2.3% and 3.9%, respectively, well below the level required to maintain the population numbers. The world population of this subspecies, which is only found in Scotland, Ireland and Wales (just a handful), in spring 2024 comprised just 15,043 individuals, the lowest since coordinated counts began in 1982, down by an alarming 16.6% compared to the 18,027 counted spring 2023, a reduction of 30.0% compared to spring 2019 and down 57.7% from the peak population count in spring 1999. Habitat loss, competition with other geese on the Greenland breeding grounds and climate change are all playing a part. (Thanks to Tony Fox and Ian Francis of the Greenland White-fronted Goose Study for these figures.)

Still with Greenland Whitefronts, I was pleased to read three neck collars at Carnduncan, CZJ, CZY and V3C. The first two were caught and marked at Ballinaby in winter 2018/19 and have been seen here in subsequent winters, though were not spotted last winter, so it is good to know that they both are still alive.  V3C was also not seen last winter, but this is a more interesting bird in that it was ringed at Loch Ken in Dumfries and Galloway as long ago as winter 2008/9, where it was seen in 2009/10 before moving to Islay in 2010/11 and coming here every winter since.

Finally, I spread bird seed on the small lawn in my front garden and in front of my office window. I feed a lot of House Sparrows and took this photo on Friday morning. It isn't pin sharp because taken through the window, but there are 70+ visible, plus a few Chaffinches and some more obvious Starlings. 

 

 

Tuesday 2nd December 

A dry day with some sunshine but also a strong south-east wind.

Just one record received today, but an interesting one of a Water Rail seen by Mary McR. crossing the road just south of Bruichladdich, dodging the traffic to move from the marshy ground on the shore side of the road presumably heading to the ponds behind Shorefield house. The vast majority of records of this species come from the Gruinart area where up to 10 birds can be heard calling in the spring. This was for long thought to be the only regular breeding place, but in 2003 Clive McK. used recorded calls to try to elicit responses from birds at night, when they are most active and vocal. Noting that the main habitat for them on the island was Phragmites (Common Reed), but also swampy areas around small lochans and even overgrown ditches, Clive considered that there could be as many as 50-70 pairs on the island. As this was over 20 years ago, if anyone wants an interesting project for next spring, then repeating Clive's survey would certainly be one.

Here's a Gordon Langsbury photograph of this very attractive, but rather secretive bird.