27/04/2024
- Whooper Swan (long-staying individual still on local loch)
- Cuckoos (aplenty!)
26/04/2024
- Common Sandpipers (x2 new for year)
- Blue Tit (great that it’s still around!)
24/04/2024
- Sparrowhawk
- Hen Harrier (female)
- Eider (x2)
- Razorbill (close to shore)
- Black Guillemot
- Chiffchaff (x2 not a common bird on the island)
- Blackcap (x2 singing – lovely)
- Woodpigeon (x2)
- Siskin (x2 – first of the spring)
23/04/2024
- Great Northern Diver (x2)
- Pink-footed Goose (x70 over north west)
- Early Tooth-striped moth (second record for Coll) and Powdered Quaker among 19 moths of 5 species in the trap this morning
- Pyramidal Bugle (our first sighting of this delightful flower on Coll)
22/04/2024
- Hen Harrier (x5 separate individuals seen. Two pairs in courtship and one male sky-dancing – wonderful!)
- Swallow (our first of the spring)
- Sand Martin (x4 our first of the spring)
- Wood Pigeon (two parties of x4 and x6 respectively hanging around two separate woodland blocks)
- Cuckoo (x3 separate individuals)
- White Wagtail
- Blackcap (birds singing in two separate woodlands)
- Redwing (a late bird still hanging around)
- Lesser Redpoll (first of the spring)
- Common Lizards (x6 along a 200m length of grass verge in the late afternoon sunshine)
- Common Heath moth (a couple of early individuals – usually a common sight from mid-May)
20/04/2024
- Whooper Swan (a wedge of 14 flying north early evening with x3 Canada Geese in tow)
- Brambling (a female bird in our Arinagour garden)
19/04/2024
- Whooper Swan (the single bird still on Loch Ballyhaugh)
- Little Grebe (x2 regularly return to the same loch at this time of year)
- Cuckoo (our first of the year)
- Wheatears (back in good numbers now)
- Twite (x4)
17/04/2024 (we’re back!)
- The first Corncrake of the year was reported today
- Greenland White-fronted Goose (a large flock of x100 birds heading north-west in a well-rehearsed ‘v’ formation)
- Short-necked Oil Beetles (x5 separate individuals on machair along the north-west-facing coast of the island)
- Many-lobed Dandelion (an RDB species which grows in abundance on the Coll machair)
13/04/2024 (we’re not back for another week but here are some recent reports…)
- Eider (the first of the spring)
- Long-tailed Duck
- Greenshank
- Golden Plover
- Water Rail
- Brambling
- Blue Tit
- Coal Tit
- Redwing
02/04/2024 (we’re not back for another week but we had to include this…)
- HOOPOE (reported via Birdguides this afternoon – beside the medical practice in Arinagour! Coincides with a small influx across Britain.)