WILD TIREE IS NO MORE

Just to let folk know, somewhat belatedly, that WILD TIREE no longer exists. I have relocated to the mainland and am now working as a Consultant Ornithologist.
I will miss the wildlife tours and the joy of showing and sharing the incredible wildlife of the Hebridean Islands. Many thanks to all previous customers.

THE NEW PATCH LATE SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER

Autumn is the time for migration and Tiree's lack of trees sometimes makes it difficult to locate some of the smaller migrants such as warblers and flycatchers. One of the best locations has proven to be Balephuil, with both the small willow and elder copse at Main Road Farm and the gardens along the wee track down to John Bowler's house attracting a host of scarce and rare migrants over the last few years. This area has an enviable list that includes Northern Parula, Brown Shrike, Blyth's Reed Warbler and Western Subalpine Warbler.

I've been trying to find my own patch with some trees and cover for some time and finally think I've got it sorted. I have been planting up my own wee copse in my walled garden at Hynish, but until then my new patch is the Dentist's Garden at Baugh. There is a small copse of mostly stunted sycamores, an area in the lee of the byre with Olerea and a hedge of Hebe, a small area behind the byre with brambles and willows, and another small copse of willows and a single small, but spreading, sycamore along the northern boundary.

View to the Doctor's and Dentist's from main road (photo by Jacqui Bennett)

The Dentist's garden, Baugh

The Dentist's garden, Baugh

The main sycamore stand

Olerea (with Blackcap)

The Hebe hedge

The willow & sycamore stand (with Yellow-browed Warbler top centre)

I have been watching this area almost daily since mid-September in the search for migrants and so far it has been pretty productive. There has been a constant turn over of commoner migrants such as Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, as well as good numbers of winter thrushes such as Redwings. On 25th September I found a lovely Yellow-browed Warbler, new in from Siberia, in the main sycamore stand. It seemed to vanish for a while, but was seen again on the 29th by Bill Allan, although it could just as easily have been a new bird. On the 24th October I came across another Yellow-browed Warbler, initially in the Hebe hedge, before settling for the afternoon in the willow & sycamore stand at the northern boundary. This was a very vocal and showy bird as the four photos below show. It was present again on 25th in awful weather conditions.

Below:- Yellow-browed Warbler, Dentist's garden, Baugh 24th October 2012



SEPTEMBER 2013 & YANKY WADERS

Whimbrel (Simon Wellock)

Black-tailed Godwit (Simon Wellock)

September on Tiree is the best time for searching for vagrant American waders which have been blown across the Atlantic. This year would again not disappoint. Keith Gillon found a juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper at Gott Bay on 6^th, which then relocated to Clachan where it continued to show, although was often elusive, until 12^th. After several attempts I finally managed to catch up with it on 9^th when it shared a small tidal pool with 3 Knot, a Little Stint and 6 Dunlin, just in time for the lot to be flushed by a female Hen Harrier.

There was a juvenile Baird’s Sandpiper at Loch a’ Phuill on 5^th and the now annual Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Loch a’ Phuill on 17^th but neither hung around long enough for me to see them.  West Tiree had up to three different juvenile Pectoral Sandpipers throughout the month. I saw one on the 10^th at Middleton and another with 75 Snipe in a flooded field at Balinoe. American Golden Plovers are annual these days, although picking one out amongst the many thousands of European Goldies, in often very mobile flocks, is not always easy. This September there were four different AGP’s on Tiree. There were fine adults at Sandaig/Middleton/Greenhill from 5^th to 10^th and Ruaig/Vaul from 12^th to 23^rd. I saw the first one at Greenhill on 6^th (see photo) and again on 10^th when it gave superb views at Middleton. There were also juveniles at Greenill/Loch a’ Phuill from 9^th to 11^th which I saw on 10^th and at Ruaig, from 9^th. I saw the Ruaig bird on its last day, the 13^th.

 

Golden Plovers at Sandaig (Simon Wellock)

American Golden Plover, Greenhill 6th Sept 2013 (Simon Wellock)

American Golden Plover, Middleton 10th Sept 2013 (Simon Wellock)

American Golden Plover, Ruaig 17th Sept 2013 (Simon Wellock)

Curlew Sandpiper (Simon Wellock)

 

 

8TH JUNE 2013

I had two Wild Tiree tours on Saturday, the first being a morning session with Corncrake as the target species. We started at 9.15 and had seen 4 Corncrakes well between Hynish and Mannal in the first hour. Other highlights of the morning were Little & Arctic Terns, Great Northern Divers, stacks of migrant and breeding waders in summer dress, lots of Oystercatcher and Lapwing broods, Grey & Common Seals, and a huge Basking Shark.

The afternoon was a more general wildlife tour. We began at Loch an Eilean where lots of young waders were seen as well as both forms of Early marsh-orchid, Heath spotted-orchid and loads of Butterwort in flower. We failed to see Corncrake in the heat of the afternoon but heard plenty. Arctic & Little Terns fished offshore at Hynish and later at a bumblebee-filled Balephetrish. In the dunes there we saw five species of bumblebee - Moss Carder, Garden, White-tailed, Red-shanked Carder and the rare Barbut's Cuckoo Bumblebee. The dunes are now turned yellow from the abundance of Bulbous Buttercups, Lady's Bedstraw and Bird's-foot Trefoil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EARLY JUNE 2013

Late evening sky at Hynish

Corncrake at Mannal

Corncrake at Mannal

One of 4 Basking Sharks off Hynish on 6th June

Midnight on 6th June at Hynish

MAY 2013

The weather in May was not much of an improvement on April on the whole. There were some lovely sunny days but always that cold northerly wind. The month was dominated by more migrant waders heading to Arctic breeding grounds. Huge numbers of Sanderling, Dunlin and Turnstone passed through, with Ringed Plovers and Whimbrel too. Corncrake numbers slowly picked up and offshore both Arctic & Little Terns fished the azure shallows. There were still loads of Great Northern Divers offshore, most in full breeding plumage, and on still nights their haunting calls could be heard accompanying the 'crex crex' of the Corncrakes and drumming of Snipe. Despite the weather the skies were filled with Skylark song and the island was awash with breeding waders - Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Redshank & Snipe.

Botanically the month was very slow. The only orchids were Early Purple and most of the areas that one would expect to be carpetted with wildflowers still looked as though it were winter. This obviously had a big impact on the numbers of bumblebees that were seen.

I did quite a few Wild Tiree tours during the month and although I felt somewhat disapointed, the customers certainly didn't. I maintained my 100% record of showing people Corncrakes, and with Little & Arctic Terns, thousands of waders, as well as Twite, Great Northern Divers, seals and orchids, there was always plenty to see.

Sanderling and Turnstone in breeding dress

A stunning male Twite

A sunny day at Hynish

 

Whimbrel
 

Great Northern Diver

Great Northern Diver



Dunlins & Turnstone

LATE APRIL 2013

The weather in April was generally pretty foul, with strong and cold northerly winds dominating. Many spring migrants were late arriving, but on the plus side many Arctic breeders were held up by the winds. This resulted in record counts of two species in particular. On the 29th April there were a phenomenal 11,520 Golden Plovers on the island, mostly in dapper breeding plumage, with one flock of over 7,000 on The Reef providing a particulalry spectacular sight. Black-tailed Godwits pass through in good numbers each spring. These are the brick-red islandica sub-species and look simply stunning in their breeding finery. This year the numbers were exceptional. John Bowler's count on 29th of 1,520 shattered all previous records. I counted over 850 on the 30th in West Tiree. Whimbrel too passed through in higher than usual numbers.

Golden Plovers

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwits

Black-tailed Godwits


 



LATE DECEMBER - EARLY JANUARY 2013

Much of this period was spent birding my local patch at Hynish along with Whiskey, our new Beaglador (Beagle x Labrador cross). There have been daily sightings of  Oystercatcher, Sanderling, Dunlin, Turnstone, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Lapwing, and a lovely and very obliging flock of 20+ Purple Sandpipers. In addition there have been 3-5 Great Northern Divers offshore along with variable numbers of Shag, Cormorant, Gannet and Fulmar. Raven and Buzzard are seen daily and there have been regular small groups of Twite. Merlin and Hen Harrier have been regular and in addition to both Grey & Common Seals there have been almost daily sightings of Otter.

An interesting sighting over the weekend was a Buzzard eating the remains of a 1m long Conger Eel ain the seaweed at Hynish. Very strange indeed!

Elsewhere on the island the RSPB's John Bowler counted 3424 Barnacle Geese, 662 Greenland White-fronts, 149 Whooper Swans, 4130 Golden Plovers and 3640 Lapwing.

'Whiskey' the Beaglador in one of her less manic moments

Purple Sandpiper

Great Northern Diver

Merlin

Hen Harrier



Otter

Crossapol sunrise

Early morning mist

AUTUMN 2012

Citrine Wagtail (Jim Dickson)

Buff-bellied Pipit (Jim Dickson)

It was a strange autumn for birding on Tiree in 2012. At times it seemed fairly quiet, but when you look at the list of rare and scarce birds seen, it looks pretty darn good. Many thanks as ever to John Bowler (RSPB Tiree Officer) for providing much of this data.

The best birds of September were found on 27^th and were both county firsts. They were a 1st-winter Citrine Wagtail at Loch a’ Phuill and a Buff-bellied Pipit at Ruaig. Sadly the pipit didn’t linger but the Citrine Wagtail remained near the Loch a’ Phuill hide until the 29th.

Scarce passerines in September included a Common Rosefinch at Hynish (5^th-7th) followed by two more at Balephuil (7th-8th), Lesser Whitethroats at Balephuil (8th, 12th-13th and 19th) and Carnan Mor (9th), 2 Mealy Redpolls, 7 NW Redpolls, and 10+ Lapland Buntings.

The annual autumn influx of American waders included a juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper at Gott Bay (2nd-7th), juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpipers at Sandaig (10th-12th) and Loch a’ Phuill (19th) and groups of 3 juvenile Pectoral Sandpipers at Kirkapol (2nd) and Loch a’ Phuill (8^th-9th), followed by singles at Vaul (11^th) and The Reef (20th).

October once again produced some superb birding on the island. The best birds were the 1st-winter Red-breasted Flycatchers at Balephuil (13th) and Balinoe (20th) – the first records for Tiree. Other good birds included a juvenile American Golden Plover at Barrapol and Sandaig (1st-10th), two Yellow-browed Warblers at Balephuil (3rd-6th and 13th-19th), up to 2 Siberian Chiffchaffs at Balephuil (15th-23rd), a female Ring-necked Duck at Loch a’ Phuill (19th), a Red Kite at Balemartine (24th) and a Tree Sparrow again at Hynish (24th). Easterly winds brought a good selection of scarce passerines including 25 NW Redpolls (5th), Lesser Whitethroats at Balephuil (13th-14th and 16th), 2 Garden Warblers at Balephuil (13th-14th), 3 Ring Ouzels at Carnan Mor (13th), 8 Mealy Redpolls (18th-20th), a Coal Tit at Loch a’ Phuill (20th), a very late Spotted Flycatcher at Balinoe (24th-25th), 4 Waxwings around West Tiree (28th-31st) and a record influx of 38 Long-tailed Tits (14th). More regular fare included 22 Lapland Buntings, 6 Snow Buntings, and 20 Chiffchaffs including at least 4 abietinus-type birds. There was a peak count of 326 Whooper Swans at Loch a’ Phuill (18th) whilst an all-island count (23rd-24th) found 2758 Barnacle Geese, 459 Greenland White-fronts, 2724 Greylags, 4050 Golden Plovers and 2765 Lapwing.

In November the best birds were a drake Green-winged Teal at Loch a’ Phuill (18th-21st), and a very late Barred Warbler at Balephuil (16th). Other late migrants included at least 17 Waxwings and a tristis Chiffchaff at Balephuil. An all-island count (19^th-21^st) found 2914 Barnacle Geese, 2409 Greylags and 532 Greenland White-fronts with 207 Whooper Swans, 5390 Golden Plovers and 3380 Lapwings.

Yellow-browed Warbler

NW Common Redpoll

 

Citrine Wagtail (Jim Dickson)



Lapland Bunting

Lesser Whitethroat