October 2025

Bird Sightings

The weather in October was very unsettled and wet with one named storm. Although October is arguably the busiest birding month, as summer breeders depart, migrants pass through, and winter visitors arrive, the weather was not conducive to being out of doors.

Having said that, migration was still in full flow in October as birds were moving out of colder northern Europe to milder climes. These included: twenty Turnstone in Catacol Bay on 6^th, a male Merlin in Lagg on 7^th, ninety Ringed Plover in Sandbraes on 12^th, six Black-throated Diver off Pirnmill on 15^th, thirty Lapwing, 50 Linnet, 40 Skylark and six Twite all on the same southern shore on 16^th, twenty-seven Redshank in Whiting Bay on 21^st, five Goldcrest in Porta Buidhe on 24^th, fifty Teal in Torbeg on 25^th, three hundred Starling by Brodick ferry terminal on 26^th, two hundred Common Gull in Pirnmill on 29^th, three Great Northern Diver off Pirnmill on 30^th and twenty-eight Curlew in Blackwaterfoot on 31st.

Winter visitors arriving included: fifteen Whooper Swan flying over Lagg on 10^th, a male Brambling in North Newton on 20^th (Brambling will feature in a future Bird Note), a Yellowhammer in Sliddery on 21^st, one hundred Greylag Geese and one hundred Pink-footed geese in the Shiskine Valley on 22^nd, two Wigeon in Port na Lochan also on 22^nd, a Jack Snipe on a southern shore on 27^th and a Rook in Corriecravie also on 27^th. In October Redwing and Fieldfare both arrived in numbers. The first report of Redwing was on 1^st in Lochranza and the first report of Fieldfare was later on 14^th in Sliddery. The largest group of Redwing and Fieldfare was a mixed flock of over nine hundred in Sliddery on 22^nd.

There were some “last sightings” of summer visitors also moving south including: two Manx Shearwater in Brodick Bay on 1^st, one Wheatear on Torrylinn Shore on 10^th, nine Swallow over Silver Sands on 16^th and a singing Chiffchaff in Auchenhew Bay on 24^th. Gannet were reported throughout the month with the largest group being sixty off Loch Ranza on 11^th.

Other interesting records, from a month with almost one hundred species reported, included: twenty Long-tailed Tit at the Lakin on 7^th, a Kingfisher and two Dipper by Fisherman’s Walk on 8^th, an adult White-tailed Eagle over Brown Head on 9^th, four Red-throated Diver off Blackwaterfoot on 13^th, one Shelduck on Cleats Shore on 16^th, one Great Spotted Woodpecker in Clachaig also on 16^th, twelve Coal Tit in Corrie on 18^th (Coal Tit will feature in a future Bird Note), eighty Shag on Hamilton Rock on 23^rd, six Little Egret in Loch Ranza on 25^th, and one Goosander and one hundred and eight Jackdaw in Blackwaterfoot on 31^st. Increasingly as winter approaches, Dipper can be seen at the mouth of rivers and burns. In addition the leucistic Grey Heron featured round Lochranza all month and Little Egret continues to become established with thirty-four widespread records in October including eight at Cordon on 13^th. Not in time for the September Annual Clyde Eider Survey there were twenty-nine Eider by Clauchlands Point on 13^th .

Finally, my thanks to all the “volunteers” who took part in the Eider survey in late September. Coverage this year has again been excellent of not only the main island of Arran but also of Pladda and Holy Isle. As well as shores being walked, some participants did counts from various small boats and kayaks. In addition, COAST provided RV Coast Explorer to help count round Holy Isle and Lamlash Bay. The result of all these efforts was thirty-two Eider, a slight increase on the count for 2024 which was twenty-two. In 2022 it was fifty-five. In 2020 it was seventy-five. In 2000, it was considerably more, at over six hundred. Eider are in decline. For the latest report from Chris Waltho who has been coordinating this research for thirty plus years, visit this website:

Enjoy your birding.