Before leaving Islay,  until our return next June, it would be remiss of me not to mention the bird that first brought us to Islay in 1976 – the Hen Harrier. There can be few better places to see Hen Harriers in Winter than Islay. It is not uncommon to encounter five or six different birds on a trip around the island. In fact you have a better chance to see female Harriers in Winter than in Summer when they are occupied hatching their eggs or brooding their young in the deep heather. In the 48 years since 1976 I count myself lucky to have intensively studied and filmed over sixty pairs of Islay’s Hen Harriers as well as ringing over 200 of their young.

In Winter Islay must have at least twenty Sea Eagles, all attracted to the Island by the abundance of prey in the form of the Geese. As these Eagles move around the island they regularly come into conflict with Islays resident Buzzards. Surprisingly, the Sea Eagles don’t always win these disputes.

The river Sorn on Islay in October looks as good as anywhere else at that time of year.Over the years we have seen day hunting Daubentons Bat and Kingfishers on the stretch of river shown in today’s photo. Some years ago we found the first pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers to nest on Islay, feeding young in their nest-hole and it would be great to repeat that event for Kingfishers . Roll on next June.

On Islay in winter there are now more than a dozen Sea Eagles.They are there for one good reason – to eat some of the thirty thousand or more Barnacle Geese that visit Islay every winter. Whenever an Eagle takes wing it causes chaos amongst the geese. Whilst the Eagle does not catch every time it does provide the photographer with amazing photos of the thousands of geese in flight.

Any visit to Islay in mid October is bound to coincide with the migration south from Iceland of Whooper Swans, especially when there is a north wind blowing. It is an incredible sight to watch more than 150 Swans feeding amongst Grey Lag Geese in a recently harvested field of Barley.

A week later than last year but at long last the first local Redwings have arrived. Unfortunately the Hawthorne and Rowan berries are very few this year so they may not stay around too long.At roost time I watched two entering a neighbours Holly bush – a safe place away from our local Barn Owls