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Kintyre Birds (1 Viewer)

Winter migrants

Hi, Neil (and anyone else in Kintyre)!

What news of the winter migrants? Have the geese arrived at The Laggan and Rhunahaorine Point? Any specials so far?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Dave Kennedy
 
Here in Campbeltown onboard my ship all this week so will post anything of interest.

Anchored 3 miles SE of Davaar Island all day, several hundred Auks 60% Razorbills started gathering on sea in large rafts from late afternoon in very calm sea conditions. Lot of Gannets also present and a distant view of a Storm Petrel sp!

Sailing back into Campbeltown Loch at 18.00hrs there were 18-20 Black Guilemots off the MOD fuel jetty.

Good birding all

Stewart
 
Sailing back into Campbeltown Loch at 18.00hrs there were 18-20 Black Guilemots off the MOD fuel jetty.

Stewart

Hi, Stewart,
Thanks for the info. There seem always to be black guillemots at the fuel jetty.
If you have the means to do so, you should drive over to Machrihanish, to the Seabird and Wildlife observatory, and see what is happening there. On the way you will cross the Laggan, the flat farmland between Stewarton & Drumlemble, where the geese congregate for the winter.

You will find more info about Machrihanish and the Observatory elsewhere in this forum.

Best wishes,
Dave Kennedy
 
Hi Dave and thanks for info, unfortunately I don't have any transport with me.

09.00hrs this morning harbour area Campbeltown,
80+ Eider,
9 Black Guilemot
32 Oystercatcher
6 Red-breasted Merganser and 100's of gulls.

Mid afternoon walk to Bellimenach [mile south of Killdaloig Bay (Davaar)]

High tide 500+ Gulls roosting on Davaar Isle causeway along with
Curlew 88
Oystercatcher 117
Ringed Plover 46

Good numbers of Rock Pipits foraging seaweed at high tide line all along my route. Just past Davaar House a flock of mixed finches feeding amongst seaweed included 30-35 Chaffinch, 6 Greenfinch a Robin! and my first 3 Twite of the winter.

2 Ravens were giving a very pale Buzzard stick over Davaar Island and a Peregrine was perched well up the the sea cliff at south end.

Lot of Auks offshore, 13 Red-breasted Mergansers, 11 Black Guilemots and 100+ Eider. No divers or grebes.

Stewart
 
Nice to hear about the twite, Stewart. The area around the Seabird Observatory at Machrihanish remains the only place on the entire planet that I have ever seen twite. Nice to hear that you've found them on the Campbeltown side as well. Where are you going once you leave Campbeltown?

Best wishes,
Dave
 
Eddwillis - for your information

Hi, Eddwillis - if you're visiting Sanda in June, it might be worth your while to check through this site, which contains considerable birding and other information about Kintyre.

If you have any further queries about Sanda or Kintyre, please post them on this "Kintyre Birds" site, and I will do my best to answer them.

Best wishes,
Dave Kennedy
 
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Thanks Dave, you certainly have sparked my interest in the area I will try to spend some time there before June and if I do I'll happily post anything of interest here
 
Thanks Dave, you certainly have sparked my interest in the area I will try to spend some time there before June and if I do I'll happily post anything of interest here

Kintyre is a fabulous area, and great for birding, wildlife, history and considerable natural beauty. If you do manage to visit Sanda in June, I will be very interested to hear about your experience.

Best wishes,
Dave
 
Tysties?

MY wife and I are having a short break in Tarbet next month and I'd love to get to grips with black guillemot. Are there any reliable sites in the Kintyre peninsula that I should be aiming for?
Thanks in advance for any help
 
I assume you mean Tarbert.. with 2Rs!

You shouldn't have any trouble at all.... just about any stretch of coast has them

I can't remember for certain but I think Tarbert harbour has them!
 
I can't remember for certain but I think Tarbert harbour has them!

. . . it does . . . look out for ww gulls too as Tarbert still has a small fishing fleet, we had both Iceland and glauc. there last March. Scope any incoming fishing boats from the pier (east of the village).

Realise it's not a birding holiday perhaps but if you get chance visit the Sound of Gigha, on the west side of the Kintyre peninsular (30mins from Tarbert). Try scoping the sound from Ronachan Point (NR740555), Rhunahaorine Point (NR6949), Tayinloan and Muasdale. All three diver species, velvet and common scoter, slav. grebe, long-tailed duck, eider, etc . . . and lots of black guillemots! Skipness ((NR902575) is close to Tarbert too and is well worth a trip. Better chance of bt diver perhaps, gannets, perhaps early manxies (I had three last year 2nd week in March), otters, etc. Scope the spit opposite the shop if it's high tide, the small wader roost sometimes holds purple sands (as do the rocks at Ronachan occasionally).

I'm sure you won't be disappointed Keith, we usually spend 4 days on Islay then 3 on Kintyre in early spring - I can honestly say I'm never disappointed by Kintyre, even after fantastic birding on Islay.

Cheers, and good luck
Jonathan
 
Thanks for the tips Jonathan, I'll take those map refs with me.

Quercus - apologies for the spelling error, I've now added Tarbert to the dictionary so I won't misspell it again.
 
Thanks for the tips Jonathan, I'll take those map refs with me.

Quercus - apologies for the spelling error, I've now added Tarbert to the dictionary so I won't misspell it again.

Hi, Keith, and welcome to Kintyre birds. The name Tarbert (or sometimes Tarbet, as is the one on the shores of Loch Lomond) has a very particular meaning. It means a narrow strip of land, an isthmus if you like, separating two bodies of water, and as such, is found in many places in the west of Scotland. The one in Kintyre, which you will be visiting, has an interesting history. In 1093 or 1098 - there is some debate about the exact date - the Viking king Magnus Barelegs had laid claim to all the Western Isles. And just to rub it in, he had his men drag his longboat, with him standing in its prow, across the narrow Tarbert isthmus from West Loch Tarbert (Atlantic waters) to Loch Fyne (Clyde waters). He could therefore (in his eyes at least) claim Kintyre to be an island, because he had circumnavigated it in his longship. And so Kintyre, thanks to Tarbert, fell under the thrall of the Vikings.

So there you are, and the birding is pretty good too. I hope you find your black guillemots, and much more besides. I look forward to hearing about your trip.

Best wishes,
Dave Kennedy
 
The ferry to Gigha is always fun, and can turn up a few divers, grebes and sea ducks (and a nice Lunch at the hotel!)
 
HI fellas, back from Kintyre now. Thanks Quercus and Saluki for the tips, got black guillemot in both Oban harbour and also from the car park at Ardrishaigh, also found an iceland gull resting in Tarbert harbour. Sadly the weather wasn't playing fair, the hills were in mist most of the time so no long range views. I did manage to find a couple of otters at Barmore Island which was a bonus as I'd hardly dared hope for a sighting.
We saw a couple of divers flying north off Inverraray, they were right the other side of the loch and in poor light so I'm unsure on which. What would be the most likely candidate?
And at Ardcastle Wood we had a fly over crossbill...again not sure on species. I think from the call it may have been a common but I'm no expert on crossbills.
 
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HI fellas, back from Kintyre now. Thanks Quercus and Saluki for the tips, got black guillemot in both Oban harbour and also from the car park at Ardrishaigh, also found an iceland gull resting in Tarbert harbour. Sadly the weather wasn't playing fair, the hills were in mist most of the time so no long range views. I did manage to find a couple of otters at Barmore Island which was a bonus as I'd hardly dared hope for a sighting.

Hi, Keith, glad you got your black guillemots! Coincidentally, I'll be flying into Glasgow on Saturday, and hope to spend the following weekend in Kintyre. It'll be nice to be able to post some new observations.

Not sure about your divers - Eddie Maguire of Machrihanish Seabird Observatory lists Red-throated and Great Northern Divers as fairly frequent, and Black-throated Divers as regular passage migrants. I have only seen Great Northern Divers on the sea....my infrequent sightings of Red-throated and Black-throated divers have all been in fresh water. The base of the lower mandible of the RTD's bill tilts distinctly upwards towards the tip - I don't know if you were in range to notice that.

Best wishes,
Dave
 
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Dave they didn't look large enough or dark enough to be GN Diver, I was toying whether RT or BT. Too far off to make out the lower mandible though. They'll have to go down as diver spp.
 
Kintyre - Basic Geography

Hi, everybody.
I managed to snatch a couple of Kintyre visits in April, and would like to share some of my observations with you. So I've put together 5 Google Earth pictures which, hopefully, will help you to understand some of the places I will be talking about, and find them for yourselves, should you ever manage a visit.

I would also suggest that anyone unfamiliar with the area should cast an eye over earlier postings on this forum, which contain lots of useful information.

The first picture shows Upper Kintyre. It is generally accepted that Kintyre begins at Tarbert, for West Loch Tarbert almost cuts right through the peninsula at Tarbert. Kintyre is a great base from which to visit other places, too. A ferry goes from Tarbert due east to the Cowal Peninsula. Two others leave Kennacraig for Islay, far to the west. One goes to Port Ellen, in the south of Islay, the other to Port Askaig, on the Islay shore of the Soiund of Jura. From Port Askaig you can take a small vehicle ferry across the Sound to Jura. Every Wednesday one of the Islay ferries carries on through the Sound of Jura to the small island of Colonsay, and thence up to Oban, the departure point for Mull. A ferry sails from Claonaig, on Kintyre's eastern shore, to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. From the town of Brodick on the east cost of Arran you can catch another ferry to Ardrossan, on the Ayrshire coast. And finally a vehicle ferry shuttles to the garden island of Gigha from Tayinloan, just a little way south of Rhunahaorine Point.

The second picture shows the southern, lower portion of the Kintyre Peninsula. I apologise for the cloud/fog, but I couldn't persuade the US military to re-photograph it for me. The area of fields and farmland between Campbeltown and the west coast is known as the Laggan, and is a winter refuge for thousands of Greenland White-front and other migratory geese. Geese also winter at Rhunahaorine Point, which can be seen in the first photograph. To the south of the Laggan is mostly high moorland, with some conifer plantations. The southern shores of Kintyre are mostly high, often spectacular sea cliffs, much beloved of fulmars.

The third photograph shows an enlargement of the Laggan, lying between Campbeltown and Machrihanish. The former military airbase can be clearly seen a little way north of Machrihanish. Wind turbines are now manufactured there. Campbeltown Loch, Davaar Island, and the coast running south from Davaar can yield good seabirds.

Photograph number 4 is an enlargement of the Campbeltown Loch/Davaar area. The NATO refuelling pier can be clearly seen on the south shore of the loch. Black Guillemots can be seen there. The Doirlinn, known alternatively as "Stinky Hole", is a small area close to the shore road where wind, tide and shoreline topography combine to produce masses of cast-up, rotting seaweed, hence the name. It can be excellent for waders, ducks and assorted seabirds. Kildalloig often yields good duck sightings, particularly eider, wigeon and shelduck.

Finally, photo number 5 covers Machrihanish, one of the best birding spots in Kintyre. The spur of rocks to the left of the little crescent of beach in front of the village is favoured by roosting Sandwich Terns. Carrying on through the village, the little bay between the wee white house and the Marine Research Laboratory (ex lifeboat station) can be superb for all kinds of seabirds, particulary when the wild winds whip from the north-west, driving the birds into the bay for shelter. If you take the dirt road out past the Research Laboratory you will come to the Seabird and Wildlife Observatory (Warden - Eddie Maguire). Eddie is on duty there most days from April to October. Sea-watching from here can be excellent, especially when passage migrants travel past the headland. Divers, Skuas, Gannets, Auks, Sea Ducks, Shearwaters, Petrels, all appear on the record books of the Observatory. Otters are frequently seen, and the area is heaving with both Grey and Common Seals. Twite are commonly seen, as are Wheatears and Hooded Crows.

Best wishes,
Dave Kennedy
 

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Kildalloig Eiders - A Tale of Lust and Unbridled Passion

Right, then, let's get going straight away with the first report

Date: 4th April 2009
Place: Kildalloig, Campbeltown, Kintyre

This lady has to be the sexiest eider in the whole peninsula. Seated on her rock like a feathered mermaid, she was courted assiduously by a gaggle of males, all coo-ing vociferously and puffing out their pink chests until it seemed they would explode.

I know little of eiders - if anyone out there is a sea duck expert, I would be thrilled to read your comments on this behaviour. Are they monogamous? Polygamous? Polyandrous? Or just plain horny?

Best wishes,
Dave
 

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