May 2023 – Sightings

May 2023 – Sightings

31/05/2023

  • Hen Harrier (a ring-tailed juvenile male)

30/05/2023

  • Sparrowhawk

21/05/2023

  • Minke Whale (from Arinagour)

20/05/2023

  • Great Northern Diver
  • Shelduck (x3 pairs – one with x3 ducklings)
  • Dunlin (x10 artica race)
  • Sanderling (x5)
  • Turnstone (x5)
  • Golden Plover (x16 fly over)
  • Merlin (male – a nice spring record)
  • Hen Harrier (male)

19/05/2023

  • Red-throated Diver
  • Hen Harrier (male)
  • Dunlin (x20 + 12)
  • Turnstone (x6)
  • Black-headed Gull
  • Little Tern (x4)
  • Flea Sedge
  • Pignut
  • Early Purple Orchid

17/05/2023

  • Arctic Skua (x2)
  • Chiffchaff (a passage bird singing weakly in the local plantation)
  • Sedge Warbler (x2 singing males locally)
  • Grasshopper Warbler
  • Twite (seven birds around the village)
  • Greenfinch (a pair new in in our garden, the male singing boldly)

16/05/2023

  • Eider (x6)
  • Dunlin (x15)
  • Sanderling (x10)
  • Ringed Plover (x70)
  • Little Tern
  • Corncrake (x5 calling males away from the usual places)
  • Grasshopper Warbler
  • Common Carpet moth
  • Cryptocephalus aureolus (a tiny electric green flower beetle)

13/05/2023

  • Hen Harrier (male)
  • Merlin (a female again same place as two days ago)
  • Corncrake (x6)
  • Whitethroat

11/05/2023

  • Eider
  • Curlew
  • Hen Harrier
  • Merlin (a female hunting)
  • Arctic Skua
  • Corncrake (x8)
  • Woodpigeon (a pair – not a regular bird on Coll)
  • Grasshopper Warbler
  • Goldcrest
  • Greenfinch (x2 pairs across the island)
  • Green Hairstreak

08/05/2023

  • Canada Goose (a pair)
  • Hen Harrier (a male hunting)
  • Dunlin (x3)
  • Golden Plover (x8)
  • Twite (a pair in the road)
  • Minke Whale (from ferry towards Mull)
  • Juniper (a huge ‘tree’ growing down a cliff-face)

07/05/2023

  • Great Northern Diver
  • Whimbrel (x7)
  • Hen Harrier (a pair)
  • Black-headed Gull
  • Little Tern
  • Corncrake (x5)
  • Whitethroat
  • Greenfinch
  • Twite
  • Silver Y (a migrant moth)
  • Grey Seal
  • Basking Shark (in Crossapol Bay. Looks like it may be a great year for these leviathans…)
  • Silpha tyrolensis (a rare carrion beetle in black and brass whose range is restricted to Coll and Tiree)
  • Early Purple Orchids (the first orchids of the spring)
  • Dune Pansy
  • Spring Squill
  • Taraxacum obliquum (a very rare species of Dandelion growing in abundance on the machair)

06/05/2023

  • Great Northern Diver (x2)
  • Red-throated Diver (x2+2)
  • Teal (x2 pairs on a moorland loch)
  • Eider
  • Red-breasted Merganser
  • Whimbrel (x5)
  • Great Skua (x2)
  • Arctic Skua (x5)
  • Woodpigeon
  • Dunnock
  • Chiffchaff
  • Whitethroat
  • Grasshopper Warbler
  • Green Tiger Beetles
  • Eristalis intricaria (a new dronefly for Coll?)
  • Northern Eggar (a moth caterpillar)
  • Orange-tip (a butterfly not knowingly recorded on Coll previously)
  • Marsh Violet
  • Bog Beacon (a rare aquatic fungus)

05/05/2023

  • Great Northern Diver
  • Whimbrel (x1+2+2)
  • Sparrowhawk (x2 migrant females)
  • Arctic Tern
  • Little Tern
  • Grasshopper Warbler

04/05/2023

  • Great Northern Diver
  • Red-throated Diver (a pair)
  • Shelduck (x2)
  • Dunlin (x10+25)
  • Sanderling (x3)
  • Whimbrel (x13+2)
  • Golden Plover (x7)
  • Honey Buzzard (a dark juvenile bird low over the village late afternoon!)
  • Hen Harrier (male)
  • Sparrowhawk (a female)
  • Corncrake
  • Guillemots (x2 in the bay)
  • Dunnock (x2)
  • White Wagtail
  • Greenfinch (x2)

03/05/2023

  • Golden Plover (x3 passage birds)
  • Great Skua
  • Black-headed Gull
  • Common Tern
  • Arctic Tern
  • Harbour Porpoise

02/05/2023 – what a day!

  • Long-tailed Skua (x1 adult bird low over village)
  • Little Gull (an adult with Common Gulls from the ferry in the Sound of Mull)
  • House Martin (x3 passage birds in the village,less than annual on Coll)
  • Basking Shark (one from the ferry between Mull and Coll)
  • Minke Whale (one from the ferry between Mull and Coll)

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