doing an upland bird survey at the Oa today there were lots of these Common heath moths...

some of these magpie moth larvae...

and one of these female adders.

A great couple of days on Islay, sightings wise, with red-necked phalarope, garganey, green-winged teal, curlew sandpiper and a temminck's stint all seen at Loch Gruinart either yesterday or today.

To add to the general air of excitement, we've started...

One of the joys of walking around the Oa on sunny May days is the carpet of marsh fritillary larvae that are seemingly everywhere, this year at least. Last summer was a good one for the adult butterflies, and as a result plenty of their caterpillars have...

This wee imp has been seen scampering around the reserve at Gruinart fairly frequently, and judging by the alarm calling meadow pipit when this was taken it's likely a happless chick was victim to feeding a litter of stoat kits.

Only moments later...

After just three years of taking rubbish photos of eagles and receiving endless ridicule for my efforts - at last my luck turned and an obliging golden eagle dutifully sat and posed long enough for me to actually manage to take a half decent shot or two...

This fantastic day flying moth was out nectaring on primroses at the Oa today, the first one of the year for us.

I put a puss moth up on the blog from our moth trap a couple of weeks ago, but they are beautiful, so here's one in its natural environment out on the Oa today. Every adult I find increases my chances of finding one of its larvae, which is officially...

A Wood Sandpiper seen from the first hide last night at 8pm by me and Paula

...well maybe not one that’s being mobbed by a load of other birds, as was witnessed a few weeks ago when a White Tailed Eagle (AKA Sea Eagle) flew over Loch Gruinart! Thanks to two eagle-eyed (!!) visitors from the Netherlands, the incident was captured...

When working for a wildlife charity it is generally assumed you have to be a bit of a fan of nature, and while this is mainly true, this time of year heralds the arrival of a species that is enough to break the mind and spirit of anyone within a mile...

Much talk abounds on the internet and trendy newspaper sites these days as to whether we are in fact living in a "Golden age of television" because it is only 98% total rubbish nowadays. Well, that debate ended this week as The Oa's very own Dave Wood...

Here's some of the Tiger moth caterpillars I saw whilst poking around out on the reserve yesterday.

Wood tiger

Ruby tiger

Garden tiger

And one I've been unable to ID so far. It's not a tiger - I think it might be an instar of one of the...

Last week, an eagle eyed participant on our weekly guided walk spotted this glaucous gull,

and yesterday, this Iceland gull appeared on Loch Kinnabus.

It's the white one in the middle - honest.

These gulls are occasional visitors to our shores...

A dreich day here on Islay, so thought I’d dig up some photos to brighten the day!

 

Sundew is the venus flytrap of the moorland. Its sticky reaches trap midges and other small insects, then the leaves curl into itself so that they can be digested...

Well today has certainly brought a change in the weather! No longer the blue skies and warm sun of the last few weeks, but wind and rain that so far is not letting up! So I didn’t hold out much hope of seeing anything much this morning on my usual...

Continuing his bid to become the next Terry Nutkins, here's Oa site manager Dave Wood on BBC Scotland's Out of Doors programme, talking about Islay's rare chough population this time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b041y02l

Dave is on about...

...though this time living ones. Here's some of the beasts that turned up in our moth trap at the Oa this week.

A magnificent Puss moth. First one for me, and a real favourite.

A female Emperor moth, in slightly happier circumstances than yesterday...

Look away now, lepidoptera lovers. I stumbled across this bizarre scene the other day whilst out on a survey at the Oa. In a small clearing in the heather I counted at least 22 Emperor moth wing parts (I couldn't fit them all into the same shot), but...

We have now completed our Black Guillemot (tystie) survey for the whole of the Oa reserve's coastline.

This survey counts adult tysties in breeding plumage during April along the coast. Our first survey round in early April gave us a total of 136...

Having really enjoyed the last 2 years being part of RSPB Dove Stone, it's fantastic to now be able to call Loch Gruinart 'home' for the next few months as I embark on my residential volunteering adventure - and having been here three weeks...

We have a guest blogger today in the form of Andrew Leggett, RSPB community member and recent Islay visitor. We've had some good luck with photos recently, but I think this might top the lot.

According to Andrew "It was such a thrilling end to...

The Loch Gruinart bloggers have been down one team player for long enough; with Warden Mary having to contend with frequent and what is clearly photoshopped images from the Oa (decent otter photos from Dave?! An eagle only metres away from Mark?!) I have...

I’m struggling to compete with the photo’s from the Oa recently! But I was out this morning and took these of the rookery.

The rookery extends from the woods by the visitor centre, to the tall trees in the Woodland Trail - roughly 2km!...

Getting up at dawn for surveys always seems like a struggle until you are outside and rewarded with a beautiful sunrise,

and usually with some fabulous wildlife encounters.

This chap was very successfully hunting small trout in the shallows around...

The property is unfurnished and available for immediate occupation. Consists of one bedroom, approx 12" x 12" in size.

All mod cons, including fashionable sheep wool and lichen carpet. Would suit single or a young couple of Hen harriers. Great...