Migrating black-tailed godwits bound for Iceland in Spring often stop off in the Hebrides in April/May to refuel, particularly when adverse northerly winds hamper their progress across the North Atlantic. The Isle of Tiree typically sees groups of black-tailed godwits in their brick-red finery dropping in to feed around the well-grazed loch edges and adjacent wet grasslands in April and early May. In most springs a few hundred are seen but numbers have been increasing in recent springs with a record count of 1,320 birds around West Tiree on 29 April 2013. With huge numbers of golden plovers already noted on Tiree this April during an on-going period of northerly winds, it was no surprise that large groups of Black-tailed Godwits stated appearing from 20 April when 76 were observed at Loch Bhasapol including colour-ringed birds from Iceland and the Montrose Basin. Numbers continued to build up over the following days and on 25 April there was a record count of 2,270 birds including a single massive flock of 1,750 birds in a small field at Kilmoluaig! This was an amazing sight and involved some 5% of the entire Icelandic breeding population. Over 20 different colour-ringed birds were identified and these were found to have wintered at diverse sites in England, France, Portugal and Spain. The count is not only highest ever recorded in Argyll but appears to be the highest single day-count in Scotland!
Many of the birds fed up during the day and then moved on at dusk with only some 700-800 birds present the next day, although these included new colour-ringed birds, so it is clear that turnover of birds can be very rapid. Further flocks of black-tailed godwits continued to grace Tiree's loch-edges and fields in late April but numbers continued to drop as birds re-appeared instead in Iceland. Hopefully, they will enjoy a good breeding season this year and I am looking forward already to seeing them pass through Tiree again in the autumn.