5th November 2008 – Islay – Kintra, Loch Gruinart, Loch Indaal and back to Kennacraig
This was my last day on Islay and the fine weather continued.
I started the day by taking the road over the Oa peninsula to the RSPB car park. Last year this road provided good sightings of Hen Harrier and Merlin over the moors and rough grassland but I was not so lucky on this trip. Some distant black movement in the grassland was initially intriguing until some
Feral Goats revealed themselves!
The Oa sightings: 6
Feral Goat, 2
Common Buzzard, 1
Kestrel, 1
Stonechat, 4
Fieldfare plus several
Hooded Crow and
Raven
Returning back towards Port Ellen, I then took the road west towards Kintra Farm. This provided probably the largest group of
Barnacle Geese of my trip feeding in a field adjacent to the farm …. until they all took to flight in a clamouring mass when a fighter plane screamed past at low level! This was an awesome sight albeit the birds were disturbed from their essential feeding.
Kintra road sightings: a huge group of
Barnacle Goose, 2 small groups of
Greenland White-fronted Goose, 1 male
Kestrel, 1 female
Sparrowhawk, 1
Common Buzzard and large numbers of Hooded
Crow and
Jackdaw
Before moving north, I had a quick scan of Kilnaughton Bay at Port Ellen with 3
Common Scoter being the highlight.
Kilnaughton Bay sightings: 3 female
Common Scoter, c.10
Shag, 1
Oystercatcher plus several
Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.
A quick stop on the east shore of Loch Indaal provided opportunities to photograph the
Scaup and
Eider flock and the
Whooper Swans which were all close inshore.
From Bridgend, I moved on again to Loch Gruinart and started birdwatching around the farm and the bird feeders. The surrounding fields were relatively empty of birds compared with previous visits.
Loch Gruinart sightings (RSPB farm): large number of
Jackdaws,
Chaffinch,
Greenfinch,
Goldfinch,
Blue Tit,
Great Tit,
Coal Tit,
Dunnock,
Blackbird,
Robin,
House Sparrow
Loch Gruinart sightings (Gruinart Flats area): small groups of
Barnacle Goose and
White-fronted Goose, 3
Common Buzzard, 3
Rock Dove, 15
Lapwing
Movement of birds in the trees and hedges at a spot on the road up the west side of Loch Gruinart encouraged me to stop and in the space of just a few minutes a good variety of commoner birds were recorded.
Sightings:
Grey Wagtail,
Reed Bunting,
Treecreeper,
Goldcrest,
Blackbird,
Fieldfare,
Robin,
Wren,
Blue Tit,
Great Tit,
Greenfinch,
Chaffinch,
Starling,
Hooded Crow,
Jackdaw
At Ardnave, the following were seen:
Ardnave Loch area sightings: c.100
Greenland White-fronted Goose (in the fields opposite the farm), 32
Whooper Swan, 9
Mute Swan, 1
Little Grebe, 2
Cormorant, 5 female
Goldeneye, c.10
Wigeon, c.20
Tufted Duck, 1 male
Common Pochard, c.10
Mallard, c.10
Teal, 1
Common Buzzard feeding on a carcass
Returning south to the head of Loch Gruinart, I then took a slight detour up the minor road which follows the eastern side of the loch. This produced a memorable sighting of a female
Hen Harrier flushing and pursuing a
Common Snipe.
Sightings: c.300
Barnacle Goose in 2 groups, c.30
Greenland White-fronted Goose, 1 male
Sparrowhawk, 1 female
Hen Harrier, 20
Reed Bunting and 3
Linnet perched on phone wires, 1
Common Snipe
A small group of c.20
Greenland White-fronted Goose on the return to the Loch Indaal road provided a final opportunity for some photos.
On the way back to pick up the ferry at Port Askaig, I had one final look over Loch Indaal which produced a final Islay highlight of 2
Slavonian Grebes.
Loch Indaal sightings (west side): c.500
Barnacle Goose on the grass adjacent to the road, 2
Slavonian Grebe, 1
Pale-bellied Brent Goose, 6
Wigeon, 4
Red-breasted Merganser
The ferry left Port Askaig for Kennacraig at 3.30 p.m. so there was much less daylight for wildlife watching than the outward crossing. After 1 hour, a combination of gathering darkness and cold forced me inside.
Ferry sightings: 1
Heron on the rocks near the ferry terminal, 9
Great Northern Diver, 5
Black Guillemot plus several
Shags and
Herring and Greater Black-backed Gulls and
Red Deer and a possible
Golden Eagle over Jura
I arrived at Kennacraig in the dark and then travelled up to Oban for an overnight bed and breakfast stop.
Richard