Bird Watch this September

Every month Ju and Jan do a monthly count for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).  They start at Kintraw, then stop at various (but always the same) places right the way down to the Peninsula to the gate before the old pier at the end of Loch Beag.  They look for for wildfowl, seabirds and waders.  This month this is what they observed:

• A flock of 46 Red-breasted Mergansers in the lagoon.  There must have been a shoal of small fish to attract so many to one place.
• 4 Teal and 40 Wigeon were seen, heralding the onset of Autumn.  These duck winter here but disperse in the spring to their breeding grounds.  Similarly, 4 Little Grebe have arrived.
• A flock of 90 Greylag geese was in the fields at Kintraw.  Unusually, no Canada Geese were seen.
• We never see big numbers of waders (some places, especially on the East Coast, have flocks of tens of thousands!).  In September, we counted 9 Oystercatchers, 11 Curlew and 11 Redshank.
• We also recorded a Cormorant, 3 Shag, 14 Grey Herons and 14 Eider.

Other birds of note this month were a Hen Harrier over the hill behind the Village Hall, two White-tailed Sea Eagles and a Grey Wagtail on the Barbreck Burn.  

• Several folk have reported an increase in the number of Siskins on their bird feeders.  
• The Robin has begun singing his melancholy winter song, and the Swallows have all but departed for sunnier climes.

Thank you Ju for providing us with this info.  Check back in October for another update from the the Craignish Peninsula bird watch crew!