Record Wildlife on Islay, Jura and Colonsay

While many of the different kinds of the abundant and varied wildlife of Islay, Jura and Colonsay are well recorded - as a look at our online database will confirm - just as many are poorly recorded, including some of the commoner species of birds. Thus, we have over 50% more records for Golden Eagle than we do for Robin!
In order to improve the recording of the commoner small birds, as well as some other groups that are relatively easy to see and identify, the INHT, with a gratefully acknowledged grant from SNH, have published this new (free) 12-page booklet, which is being distributed in shops, schools and other outlets around the islands. It includes colour photos and brief descriptions of the small birds of gardens, farmland and woods, as well as all the mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies that you are likely to see on Islay, Jura and Colonsay. It also includes a form for you to fill in and send us your records; further forms can be downloaded from the database website.
Below are a couple of pages from the booklet. You can download the whole booklet as a PDF file by clicking on the header "Download Recording Wildlife booklet" at the top of the page.
Becky and Malcolm

INHT Species Lists

INHT Species Lists

We are grateful to David Redshaw for taking us another big step forward with our Biological Records database.  David has broken down the lists into the categories above - which means that it is now far easier to look up the records for particular species.  

You can access this either via the link above or through the INHT website.

David has also come up with and implemented the excellent idea of entering the number of records we have on file for each species so that this can be easily seen.  Obviously, while we are keen for everyone to send us records of absolutely everything - the fewer records we have for that species the more important your contribution is likely to be!!

As we have previously mentioned, the Biological Database is very much a work in progress - and while we have not finished yet this is certainly a major move in the right direction.

Please keep records of your finds coming in.  We look forward to many more records in the future.

Carl

Biological Records Database

We have now finally achieved a very major update to our Biological Records database which as a result contains some 130,000 records.  Some species, particularly rarer birds, are very well documented, but there are very large gaps in our knowledge about other species, particularly 'common' ones. 

Symptomatic of this is the Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvatics) which, according to our database, has only ever been recorded once on the island, down near Kilnaughton Bay.  According to our records, no other mouse, of any species, has ever been found on Islay.

We rather suspect that this information may not be correct, and our suspicions have been further aroused by the picture sent to us by Vanessa and James which clearly shows their neighbour's cat chasing a worried looking mouse.  This was taken in Bowmore, so it appears the population may have a wider distribution than we thought.  The question is, is the mouse in the picture a Wood Mouse, or is it either a House mouse (Mus musculus) or a Yellow-necked Field mouse (Apodemus flavicollis)? 

Any further information about the distribution of mice would be gratefully received.  If you were to make a historical breakthrough and positively identify a mouse on Islay, then please use the Species Record Form that can be downloaded from the link at the top of this blog.

Many thanks

Carl