What a week it has been in RiO, medals coming in from every direction - congratulations Team GB you are doing fantastically. However, we have one gold, here on The Oa, that they don't have.... Our majestic resident Golden Eagle have been...

Some 23,530 Manx Shearwaters were counted in 2 hours flying west out of the Minch off the north coast of Tiree from first light on 8 August 2016. This is the largest passage count for the species ever recorded on the island and may possibly be the highest...

The weather this summer so far has been great on Coll and the corncrakes have done well. We found 89 calling males over the island and while it's a bit late to hear them calling we have seen plenty of young birds wandering around getting use to world...

One final lovely task for our volunteers Paul and Tripta was to help us with pulling ragwort. If you're not sure what ragwort is I've popped a photo underneath, but basically it's the yellow daisy-like flower. Ragwort is great for lots...

Today was our first day at Bridgend market to sell some of our fat lambs! Bridgend market holds roughly three markets a year for fat lambs. Today was a good excuse for our volunteers Paul and Tripta to head out for some tea and cake and watch...

After a 3 week break with no moth trapping, last night produced 32 species, 15 of which were the first records for this year, showing a big change in the moths that are on the wing compared to a few weeks ago. No less than 6 of these species turned out...

Well the sun shone and so did our livestock for the show last Thursday. We walked away with quite a few rosettes including some Firsts for our beef calves at Loch Gruinart. Eion our farm manager said he would name the cows/ calves that won so I'm...

A rare sighting on Islay on Tuesday's walk on the Oa was a swift, or to be more precise, two swifts! As the weather at the start of the walk was so wet and windy, we and our intrepid band of 9 decided to do a more sheltered walk down towards Lower...

A moth trap on Saturday night on the Oa produced this little moth. This is a pinion-streaked snout and is the first record for islay and the surrounding vice county. Below is a small rivulet, from the same trap, and this was a new record for...

On a beautiful sunny day last Wednesday the 23rd July we welcomed many local and visiting families to our Family Fun Day at Loch Gruinart. With its theme of 'Bugs and Butterflies' there was plenty to see and do...

Some lovely wildflowers in full bloom just now on the Oa. This picture shows just a fraction of the heath spotted orchids on show and below, some harebells. Also, lots of young fledgling birds about at present. On one stretch of barb wire today...

Two new moths for me over the last few days and both turned out to be just the second records for Islay. This is a grass rivulet spotted by my wife at Kintra dunes on The Oa and only recorded once before on Islay in 1961. This is arran carpet...

After a couple of weeks away it was great to return to an Oa reserve buzzing with life. The poor spring seems to have held things back but now everything is appearing at once. Four-spotted chaser Dozens of common blue damselflies were mating...

An exciting week last week with a Great White Egret at Loch Gruinart hide on Wednesday. The magnificent bird stayed for the whole afternoon - much to the annoyance of all the taunting lapwings!! There were also reports of beeaters at Port Charlotte...

What a gorgeous week at Loch Gruinart. To celebrate I quickly grabbed my clipboard and did a butterfly survey… mainly green-veined white butterflies to be seen but one or two peacocks as well. Peacock butterfly - Heather Watkin There’s...

Well the day of "summer" we had this week brought some exciting visitors to the Oa... Mark the return of the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly! Marsh Fritillery Butterfly - David Kjaer (RSPB images) Lets hope it's a good a year for them...

A phone call on Monday afternoon from Loch Gruinart alerted me to a dotterel 'on the path up to the monument', as reported by a visiting bird watcher. The path from the car park is a mile long and I had all but given up hope when the bird popped...

Hello! I'm Heather, the new Islay Community Information and Tourism Officer. Since leaving Mid-Wales and arriving on Islay one month ago I can already admit to being in love with Islay! Every day is something new, and even the rainy days deliver...

Lots of migrants have been arriving over the past few days, with some great weather as well. Swallows, house martins, sand martins and wheatears have all been spotted. This chiffchaff was seen along with lots of willow warblers today. And two...

Definitely feels like winter hasn't released its grip just yet and the birds of note around the place tell the same story. This snow bunting turned up today on The Oa. and both Iceland Gull (below with Common Gull) and Glaucous Gull have...

Bit of a different view out the office window today. This roe deer was outside grazing, happy to use our building as shelter. This is a female, known as a doe, the males are bucks. Just now the does are heavily pregnant while the bucks have nearly...

A lovely settled period of weather on Islay has made a nice change from the winter's gales and rain. With the first migrants arriving and birds starting to sing and display it feels like spring is here. The first swallow, wheatears and chiffchaff...

We have kept out a mammal raft over winter to monitor use of our many ditches on the reserves. This is a non-intrusive method using the animals own natural curiosity - the floating raft has a tunnel with a tray inside with a clay top; any animals walking...

A few photo's from the Oa cliffs today. Feral goats looking for the best bites. This shag is obviously feeling that spring is in the air and the sea below was frothed up into a pure white paste.

..... local resident David Livingstone was out walking on the reserve and captured these artistic shots of grappling eagles. The larger bird is a sea eagle, presumably the same young bird as below, being driven off the territory by a resident...