30/05/2024
- Sparrowhawk
29/05/2024
- Melancholy Thistle (a first record for Coll)
05/05/2024
- Whooper Swan (x1 mournfully trumpeting)
- Dunlin (x6)
- Sanderling (x5)
- Whimbrel (x11)
- Great Northern Diver (x8)
- Hen Harrier (male)
- Great Skua (scarce this year)
- Black-headed Gull (x4)
- Minke Whale (late afternoon close to the harbour)
- Black Snail Beetle (in the dunes)
- Many-lobed Dandelion (another three individuals in a new location – but still a national rarity!)
04/05/2024
- Eider (a pair in breeding habitat)
- Dunlin (x2 on their way north)
- Curlew (x1)
- Whimbrel (x8)
- Hen Harrier (x2 different males)
- Short-eared Owl (x2 competing males in spiralling flight – a very unusual sight on Coll)
- Little Tern (x2 hunting close in on a beach)
- Grasshopper Warbler (new for year)
- Whitethroat (new for year)
- Pigmy Shrew (dead on road)
- some crackers in the moth-trap overnight including two female Emperors, 2 Early Tooth-striped and 2 Puss Moths
- Small Mouse-ear (rare in Scotland and a plant I’ve been searching for diligently over the past 2 weeks)
- Many-lobed Dandelion (several specimens of this national rarity in the machair again today)
03/05/2024
- Pink-footed Goose (x150 on the sea before rising and heading away north)
- Shelduck (a pair in breeding habitat)
- Whimbrel (x5 + 3 + 6 – one in full bubbling song – lovely!)
- Woodpigeon (x3 together – seems to be well-established in several locations this spring)
- White Wagtail
- Blackcap (in full song)
- Blue Tit (the single bird still around and singing hard!)
- Lesser Redpoll (x3 together)
- Green Hairstreak (several individuals on the moorland in today’s sunny weather)
- Common Heath moth
- Agrypnus murinus (a click beetle in the marram)
- Thale Cress (a new location for this species on Coll – only the second that we’re aware of)
- Hair Clubmoss (an uncommon species of the moorland)
- Field Madder (a new record for the machair)
- Many-lobed Dandelion (several records in the machair today of this nationally rare species)
02/05/2024
- Pink-footed Geese (x120 west)
- Shelduck (a single bird along the coast)
- Golden Plover (x20)
- Whimbrel (x3 + 9)
- Hen Harrier (x2 ring-tails aloft)
- Kestrel
- Little Terns (x2 feeding close inshore)
- Arctic Skua (the first of the year)
- Blackcap (singing in new location)
- Sedge Warbler (new in)
- Sticky Mouse-ear (scarce on Coll)
- Mossy Saxifrage (a Coll speciality in flower)
01/05/2024
- Whooper Swan (the long-staying bird has finally departed – just when we took a group to see it!)
- Little Grebe (a pair on our local loch)
- Teal (a late passage bird in Loch Eatharna)
- Moorhen (x4 on local loch)
- Golden Plover (x16 some in full breeding garb)
- Dunlin (x5 ditto)
- Hen Harrier (a distant hunting male)
- Black-headed Gull (x2 individuals a scarce species on the islands)
- Arctic and Common Terns (they have arrived at last!)
- Chiffchaff (a passage bird stopped off briefly in some scrubby willows)
- Twite (x4 on fence line)