Coal tit, Northbay

The rarest bird on the island at the moment is this coal tit, which is the first Barra record in two years. Before I saw it, I had hoped that it might be the continental race Periparus ater ater, but it clearly isn't, so I just put it down as the normal British coal tit.

However, after posting my images of this bird elsewhere, I have been contacted by a ringing friend who suggests that the obvious sulphur yellow cheeks make this a good candidate for P.a. hibernicus or Irish coal tit, a race that I'd not even considered previously. 

The sulphur yellow cheeks are visible in most of these photos. The white patch on the nape also seems to have a yellow tinge. Whatever race it is, it's a smart looking bird.

An interesting lesser whitethroat at Northbay

This morning we found this lesser whitethroat at Northbay, amazingly in the very same garden where we had previously seen our only other record of the species on the island in 2022. On looking at the photos I think that this is a strong contender for the subspecies Curruca curruca blythii also known as Siberian lesser whitethroat.

I've seen a few blythii over the years and this bird seems to have some characteristics of that race. Some of the photos are a little burnt out due to the bright sunlight which was right behind me, however it's upperparts appear sandy brown and this extends onto the birds nape, and it's underparts are quite buffy contrasting with the throat and this extends around to the undertail coverts. Finally, it appears to have a faint supercilium and it has pale panel in the secondaries. It also tacked several times, like the usual British race C.c.curreca, ruling out the race halimodendri which has been proven through DNA to occur on Barra at least once in the recent past.

Having discussed this bird with other birders here, the general feeling is that most of the lesser whitethroats in October and November are blythii and they typically appear around the same time as yellow-browed warblers.

Icelandic redwings. Turdus iliacus coburni

Redwings are now arriving in numbers on Barra and are of particular interest because they are the Icelandic race T.i. corbuni. I've never knowingly seen this race anywhere else except Barra and they differ from the more familiar T.i. illiacus in that they have more thickly streaked underparts giving them a much darker appearance. 

Otherwise a very, very quiet day. Three days to go....

Barnacle geese and goose barnacles

Incredible as it may seem now, in medieval times before we understood about bird migration, barnacle geese were believed to spawn from goose barnacles and in fact this is how the birds got their name.

With perfect timing, today we saw not only flocks of newly arrived barnacle geese flying past Eoligarry jetty, but also found some goose barnacles washed up on a nearby beach. Surely this is all the evidence we need that the old myth is true?

Sadly, the geese had not just emerged from the crustaceans, but the reality is even more amazing, they had just arrived in off the sea from their breeding grounds in Greenland. They annually pass over Barra on their way to their wintering grounds on Islay and elsewhere in Scotland.

Meanwhile, the goose barnacles belong in tropical / sub-tropical waters, where they attach themselves to any floating items in the ocean, which in the case of those we found today means human litter. The goose barnacles are unable to reproduce in the colder waters around Britain, so the floating litter must have originated many hundreds of miles away and over the course of many years floated to Barra, carried by storms and ocean currents, bringing the goose barnacles with them.

By-the-wind sailors

This afternoon we found over 1000 by-the-wind sailors washed up on Traigh Eais, the first I have ever seen. These are related to Portuguese man-o-war, and like that species they are not a single organism, they are in fact a colony of organisms all working together fulfilling different functions to allow the colony to operate as a single individual. Weird!

Like Portuguese man-o-war, by the wind sailors just float in the oceans and are at the mercy of the currents and winds.

Thrushes on Barra

Song thrushes on Barra belong to the Hebridean race T.p.hebridensis and are darker than their cousins on the mainland.

Meanwhile, today saw the first arrivals of Icelandic redwings, with 25 on Vatersay.

A walk on the beaches

Today I had a 12km / 7.5 mile walk around Barra's finest beaches, Traigh Mhor, Traigh Cille-Bharra, Traigh Sgurabhal and Traigh Eais.

The photo never lies they say, but it can tell only half the story. These photos may look idyllic but the wind was gusting to nearly 60mph all day and walking into it was extremely challenging and effortful, not only because progress was very slow, but also because in many places I was being sand blasted. I was nearly blown off my feet on more than one occasion and just walking in a straight line was a challenge, while all I could hear was the roar of the wind.

Occasionally a shower would pass over, and in a moment I was drenched. Torrential rain for 5 minutes and then it was gone. Of course I don't photograph the rain so you'd never know from the photos.

In truth it's very tough going here on Barra at the moment, everything we do is a struggle with the elements and birding is next to impossible at times. It can be difficult enough to stand up without trying to peer through binoculars at the same time. Often we take the easy option and don't even bother going through the front door of the cottage, it's so tough. However, today I went for a walk on the beach.

Amy arrives

A fairly calm but gradually worsening morning, we did our usual rounds, starting at Northbay and then moving to Cleat.

Hebridean starlings are easily the commonest birds on Barra and the 1st winters are particularly striking birds.

Cleat and the approach of Amy

Storm Amy is rapidly approaching us from the west, with predicted severe gales tomorrow afternoon of up to 86mph. Ahead of it comes heavy rain this afternoon and tomorrow so birding over the next 36 hours is likely to be challenging!

Here she comes! The weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon. We're the white dot in the image.

However we managed to get out this morning and spent our time at Northbay and Cleat. No sign of the spotted flycatcher today but we did see a wheatear on the beach, plus hunting hen harrier and merlin.

Bottlenose dolphins and another black tern

I've mentioned before that Eoligarry jetty on the Sound of Fuideigh is our favourite place on Barra, we always seem to see something good here, and today just proved the point once again, with the highlight being at least four bottlenose dolphins. There was a lot of seabird activity in the Sound so presumably there was a shoal of fish, and the dolphins showed well with lots of leaps and tail slapping.

Last Wednesday we found an adult non-breeding plumage black tern in the Sound which was only the second ever for Barra and the first for 14 years. Amazingly a few days later the third for Barra was found at the same location when a juvenile joined the adult for a day. The adult seems to have disappeared now but the juvenile is still around and we had good views of it today as it flew back and forth.

Unlike this juvenile, the adult had dark primaries which contrasted with the paler grey in the rest of the upperwing. The adult was an altogether darker looking bird.

Spotted flycatcher, Cleat, Barra

Ok so it's only a spotted flycatcher and not some North American mega passerine, but it was great to watch this bird performing so well at Cleat today. The seaweed is full of flies and there are several stonechats, rock pipits and meadow pipits feeding on them. The flycatcher perched up on rocks and either dropped onto the the seaweed to pick off invertebrates or occasionally was seen flycatching in exactly the same manner as they do from a perch in a tree. Obviously on the move, birds like this bring us hope that the next migrant will be the big one!

Twite

Cleat.