Menu
In June this year there were two reports of gulls with rings on their legs on Arran. Both were lesser black-backed gulls a familiar bird round the coast in the summer months. This species is in decline. Both birds had coloured Darvic rings enabling the bird to be identified at a distance.
Hearing a nightjar used to be a not uncommon experience in Arran, but in the latter part of the twentieth century there was a decline.
On Sunday 3 May there was a report of a pair of garganey with teal on Sliddery shore. This is only the second ever Arran record of this summer visitor.
There has been a report of corncrake calling on Arran, the first report in 12 years. Corncrake is a summer visitor breeding in Europe and Asia from Ireland as far east as western China and migrates to Africa for the northern hemisphere’s winter.
We may be in lockdown but for the birds life goes on as normal. In April migration continued and breeding got underway. As the bird recorder for the Arran Natural History Society, I rely on people sharing their bird observations with me and in lockdown I was heartened not just by the quantity of sightings that I received in April but also by the quality of them.
On Wednesday April 8 Fiona Laing was on her regular early morning round island delivery route when she saw a bird that she instantly recognised as a hoopoe. She wrote: ‘I’ll admit I think I yelled hoopoe when I saw it fly in front of the van.’
