Lovely weather! Bright and sunny, a bit of a cool breeze on Monday, but a little warmer today. Yesterday Hannah Stanger had 21 Whimbrel at Lagavulin, present for much of the day. Sam Turnbull reported Cuckoo at Ballygrant and David Dinsley had a Wood Sandpiper at Cornabus. Today, Ed Burrell had seen the Wood Sandpiper still in situ at Cornabus where there was also the pair of Pintail and 5 Wigeon. Down at Claddach Mary Redman had a "lonely" Barnacle Goose flying over the loch. Visitor Gavin Walkingshaw was at Cragabus watching Cuckoos catching big caterpillars, then White-tailed Eagle at The O ..read more

 Two cool, grey, fairly calm days with patchy mist and fog. Yesterday Emily Garva noted 5 Arctic Terns out towards McKenzie Island where they will hopefully be breeding. Ed Burrell had a pair of Pintail on Loch Cornabus - that would be an exciting breeding record!.Over at Kildalton Mary-Ann Featherstone had one of the first Tree Pipits of the year for Islay and Jura. and also commented on a few lepidoptera on the wing - Orange-tip, Common Heath, Green Hairstreak and Green-veined White Butterflies and Emperor Moths. The only bird news today also came from Mary-Ann who had a cuckoo at Glene ..read more

Sunny to start with, then a bit of cloud and rain in the afternoon, but still a fairly pleasant day. More sightings of summer migrants across the island today. Cuckoos and Grasshopper Warblers here and there Sedge Warbler at Carnduncan a Whitethroat singing at Gruinart and a Corn Crake calling at Port Wemyss. Thanks to you all for sending in these records. There was an impressive gathering of 55+ Eiders off Bruichladdich on a flat calm Loch Indaal this afternoon. and a count of 60 Bar-tailed Godwits at Gartnatra, Loch Indaal. More impressive was a sighting of an Osprey by Gary T. up at the top ..read more

A lovely sunny spring day with a warm breeze from the east. George Jackson emailed in with some sightings for Wednesday. His wife, Pat was up near Loch Allan, Dunlossit in the evening and heard the distinct ‘yaffling’ call of a Green Woodpecker that then gave a short, but clear view as it flew towards woodland NW of the loch. There are just 6 previous records, the last in 2010. George also notes ca.12 Shelducks on a recently cultivated field N of road, S of Ballygrant and ca. 25 Red-breasted Mergansers at Blackrock. Bird news for today includes a Sedge Warbler at Kinnabus for David D ..read more

 After a slightly damp, grey start the day turned out warm, dry and sunny.  The only bird news is of a couple of drake Garganey seen by Linden and James from the N. hide at RSPB Gruinart. A couple of Sandwich Terns were making a lot of noise flying up and down past here at Bruichladdich during the day and 6 or more Red-throated Divers were just offshore. Ed Burrell and Malcolm O. saw their first Green-veined White Butterflies of the season at Cornabus and Bruichladdich respectively ..read more

A second day of grey skies and fairly continuous light rain with a south and south-easterly moderate breeze. With the weather as it is, there were no bird records coming in today, though when I passed Port Charlotte today I stopped and made a brief count of the the number of nests in the rookery there. It is very active at present and it seems there are about 35 nests. In the past 10 years or so there have been up to 40-50 nests. If anyone has rookeries near them on Islay, do count nests and let me know so I can add this useful information to the Argyll database ..read more

The weather finally changed, with overcast skies and plenty of rain all day. The only bird notes come from john Whittle who had an impressive count of 60+ Whimbrel on a field between Port Charlotte and Portnahaven. Peter Gill & family are regular visitors and emailed with their sightings from their stay last week. They were particularly pleased with the great number and variety of raptors seen. Birding highlights included 4 White-tailed Eagles (all adults) at Loch Skerrols on 24th; 2 Merlins at Gruinart on 17th; 9 Long-tailed Ducks off Kintra including 3 gorgeous drakes, on 21st; Great Spo ..read more

Brilliant weather again, with warmer temperatures too. But still cold overnight and one or two odd, isolated and quite heavy icy showers for a short while in the morning. I met up with Linden in the morning to go back to Laphraoig to look for the possible goshawk. we sat atop a hill with a view over the patches of mixed, mainly coniferous woodland for an hour or two and solved the mystery. A first view was of a pair of Accipiters incredibly high in the sky, one of which displayed and eventually plummeted down quite close to us in strange undulating display flight. It was all so quick that it w ..read more

The glorious sunny, but chilly weather again today, with just a light breeze, though only a couple of bird notes for you: Gary T. had our first Whitethroat of the year up near Ballygrant on the path to Dunlossit, while visitor John Whittle found our first Tree Pipit over at Ardlussa on Jura. Linden from RSPB recorded a couple of Orange-tip butterflies at Crosshouses ..read more

The pleasant sunny weather continues, though still chilly and with a very light sprinkling of rain once or twice. Down at Currie Sands Mary Redman saw 5 Choughs and at Claddach, a big flock of Whimbrel. Cuckoos are still being reported - Mary R. saw one near Portnahaven and Elliott Bowman took a video of one singing on wires, being closely watched by a potential host. Butterflies and moths were being seen and notes sent in. Over at Kildalton and the nether regions of Islay, Mary-Ann Featherstone was seeing Speckled Woods, Green Hairstreak, Green-veined Whites, Peacock and showy Emperor Moths ..read more