7th-10th August

 The last four days have been good, census has been interrupted the ringing of the Fulmar chicks, hense the slightly late post. For anybody interested we ringed 174 chicks. 

The 7th saw the first of a few days of sunshine and showed the perils of letting your guard down, while stopped in Ancum Willows having brief rest and waiting to see if anything popped out a distant 'blip blip blip' call characteristic of Bee-eater, despite rushing out into the open it couldn't be picked up and was heard disappearing away to the South. Another Little Gull this time a 2CY was on the Lurn and the second year tick of the day came in the shape of an Osprey as it headed North over West Beach in the evening. 

The next day would see blazing sunshine and the start of the Fulmar ringing meant coverage was limited. A Black-throated Diver went South over the Lurn in the morning while a slowly rising number of Short-eared Owl started with a lone bird around Laird's Park. A juv female Hen Harrier was also knocking around the island. The bird of the day however went to a probable juvenile Baltic Gull on the airfield, unfortunately that's how it'll probably stay, probable. 

The Baltic Gull was present albeit briefly on the airfield again and the Short-eared Owl count climbed to 4 birds, 3 of which were hunting around the loch at Brides. The Little Gull was present again in cut fields near Gerbo and 3 Ruff were in similarly cut fields near Holland. A Green Sandpiper flew over the obs in the morning while a juvenile Common Sandpiper interrupted the start of the second day of Fulmar ringing as it flushed from Sand Geo. Finally 4 Common Redpoll spent time hiding the jungle of Fuschia in the gardens at Holland and the frequently visiting juvenile male Peregrine was seen causing near pandemonium amongst the feeding wader flocks. 

With the Fulmars done it was time for some birding. The news from further South was somewhat encouraging with Spurn scoring early goodies, however by lunchtime it seemed clear we weren't quite in for the same trickle goodies. This all changed at around 13:30 when photos from Dante of an interesting Hippolais warbler at Westness soon turned into our 8th record Melodious Warbler, just the start we wanted and a much sort after island tick for some of the staff! With a Melody under our belts it only felt right that we opened nets at Holland. This proved to be profitable as in amongst the catch juvenile birds was a rather smart and maybe even expected Barred Warbler, a superb way to round off a good day. 

With winds set to the East for the next few days the middle of the week is looking quite tasty! 

Melodious Warbler                                                               GG

Short-eared Owl                                                                       GG

Osprey                                                          James Wilson (JAW)

'Probable' Baltic Gull                                   Dante Shepherd (DS)

 

4th-6th August

Quite a busy few days bird wise with a large number of waders passing through the island on the 4th and 5th. We'll jump straight in with that and the highest totals of the commoner waders over the past three days. 

281 Oystercatcher, 140 Ringed Plover, 1222 Golden Plover, 172 Lapwing, 306 Sanderling, 167 Dunlin, 42 Bar-tailed Godwits, 132 Curlew, 89 Redshank and 679 Turnstone all made for impressive totals, especially the Sanderling as 279 of the 306 were on one small beach near Hooking! Otherwise it's been much of the same with a few new bits thrown in. The Short-eared Owl first seen on the 3rd has been seen everyday in slightly different locations. The juvenile Goldeneye remained faithful to Brides Loch. Presumably the same juvenile Ruff was near Holm on the 5th and a juvenile Kestrel went South over Peckhole on the same date. 

A lone Crossbill was around the obs on the morning of the 5th followed by 3 birds on the 6th. Up to 2 Hen Harriers have been patrolling the newly cut fields between Holland and Bridesness while the same number of Sparrowhawks have been no doubt terrorising Linnets around Holland. A Common Sandpiper at Sand Geo was the first of the Autumn as was an early Garden Warbler at Brigg on the 6th. Finally the Tern numbers have really built up over the last three days with a count of 2283 on the 4th only being surpassed the next day by 2827 birds, including a flock of 1300 around Bewan that contained adult and juvenile Common Terns. 

With a period of light Easterlies on the horizon we're hoping for a speedy start to Autumnal migration having been given good early signs! 

Sanderlings                                                                                                GG

Goldeneye                                                                                                      GG

1st-3rd August

With the recommencing of census on the 1st it goes without saying we've been experiencing higher counts of birds the last three days than in previous weeks. Fine weather on all three days allowed for good coverage despite sheep working taking up much of the 2nd for some. 

The 1st provided an early highlight with the first Willow Warbler of the autumn, a rather be-draggled looking bird that has perhaps spent the summer here, but we haven't seen it. A bird that clearly did spend the summer here was a moulting Song Thrush, first trapped on the 25th June. Three Swifts around the obs were amongst other fly-by birds such as a 1cy male Peregrine, a 1cy Kestrel and 2 Whimbrel. Finally the first Ruff of the Autumn was with Redshank near Holm. 

Despite being a very sheep work orientated day the 2nd provided some good highlights, 3 Crossbills left the island to the South mid-morning and Woodpigeon spent the day hanging around the obs, loitering in their usual nervous style. Another couple of Whimbrel were present including a rather showy bird near the lighthouse with a flock of 9 Curlew. Finally another showy bird for the day came in the shape of a Short-eared Owl on Brek that was seen in the evening hunting over the crop strips. 

The 3rd saw complete coverage and therefore provided good counts. a juvenile Goldeneye was seen briefly on Brides and a White Wagtail was seen carrying food to a nest near North Gravity. Our first quadruple figure counts of Golden Plover and Arctic Tern stood at 1116 and 1285 respectively rounding a good period in August. 

Short-eared Owl                                                                                                GG

Whimbrel                                                                                                          GG

Arctic Skua                                                                                                        GG

28th-31st July

A rather quiet period in the month without a great deal to shout about. The 28th was frankly disgusting weather wise and didn't see much more than a few outstanding indoor jobs getting done! However a break in the weather the next day would allow us to venture out and see what the rain had left behind. It wasn't a great deal if I'm honest, a Common Tern was on Bewan with around 480 Arctic Terns, a brief sea-watch produced 2 Sooty Shearwaters and 5 Manx Shearwater and another Long-tailed Skua surfaced giving us our 14th bird of a remarkable influx, away from the birding side of things Gavin left for uni on the 29th, he's been a huge help this spring and summer especially on the ringing side of things and we look forward to seeing him again in October. 

With high winds dropping to almost nothing on the 30th the day was dominated by sea-watching and it proved fruitful. 332 Manx Shearwaters, 38 Sooty Shearwater, 18 Storm Petrel, 87 Puffin and good counts of commoner sea-birds made for a healthy day total and fairly constant views of Harbour Porpoise weren't bad in between Shearwater flocks either! The sea-watch did also produce one live and one not so alive Risso's Dolphin, the Fulmars, needless to say, preferred the not so alive animal. 

Finally the 31st saw what seemed to indicate the exit of the Long-tailed Skuas, they've entertained us for a while now and have proved an invaluable learning tool for those of us that spent long hours photographing and enjoying them! Away from Skuas a group of 43 Knot were on Bewan along with 8 on Sjaver giving us our highest count of the Autumn so far. It was otherwise a quiet day to round off the month, the final highlight being a Shoveler dazzled in the evening. With August looming we'll be back into passerine migration again soon and we're looking forward to it! 

Shoveler                                                                             GG

                                             Manx Shearwaters                                             GG

24th-27th July

A fairly productive few days with a dribble of a migrants passing through the island. The Long-tailed Skuas have remained on Tor Ness in varying numbers, we're not seeing the same birds every day so it begs the question where are the birds when they're not here? For example the adult bird went missing for two days before re-appearing on the 27th. Away from the skuas the highlight was a Roseate Tern seen briefly on several occasions between the 25th and 26th but was never seen particularly well. 

A pair of Grebes were seen flying over Bewan while we were setting up nets for another Tern session, the likelyhood is that they were Slavonian Grebes but they remain unproven. The Tern session was quite productive with 13 Terns trapped however a bumper catch of 38 Turnstone were the highlight along with singles of Dunlin and Mallard. 

The 26th also bought about a Short-eared Owl at Westness followed by a male Sparrowhawk that came off the in the same location. The following day saw the start of some heavy rain that continued into the night and is still going on now as I write! The morning however was birdable and again produced a few bits, five of the Long-tailed Skuas, including the adult. A lone Kestrel was seen heading West over Brek and 4 Whimbrels headed South over Garso.

                                   Kestrel                                                                                  GG

                                   Long-tailed Skua                                                                  GG

20th-23rd July

The Skua-fest continued over the last four days with the total number of birds rising to eleven by the 23rd including two adults. Most the birds are surprisingly variable, we'll do a full round up of all the birds eventually. 

Otherwise things have been relatively quiet on the land, a steady but small passage of Swifts have kept our eyes to the skies but they haven't produced much more. A Storm Petrel session on the 21st produced 33 birds including a British and Danish (likely Faroese) control and a rather smart Leach's Petrel. The following night we decided to make an attempt ringing adult Arctic Terns, this proved partially successful with 15 birds caught of varying ages along with 13 Turnstone and singles of Storm Petrel, Redshank and Dunlin. We were also briefly buzzed by another Leach's Petrel. Other passerines have included 4 Common Redpoll on the 20th, a Redwing at Ancum and a Stonechat still by the school on the 21st, 2 Collared Dove on the 22nd one at the obs and then one later further up the island. Waders such Knot, Dunlin, Whimbrel, Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits and Redshank have been gathering in the fields but the turnover seems high so we're almost certainly missing a few numbers.  The final bird of the post was a Short-eared Owl seen late on the 23rd near Purtabrek.

                                   Adult Long-tailed Skua                                                        GG

                                   Knot                                                                                      GG

18th-19th July - Long-tailed Skuas

As you may have already if you follow us on Twitter this post is going to be dominated by Long-tailed Skuas. The last two days have not only been highly educational for the wardening team but highly enjoyable too. This all started with a text from Dante saying he had two, then three 2nd Calendar Year Long-tailed Skuas on Tor Ness following a lone bird the day previous. I have to say I was skeptical to say the least

"Surely he's just got himself carried away" I said to Gavin in the car on the way up to Tor Ness.

I was wrong. 

Once we arrived we could see three birds buzzing around Dante's head as he looked on, awestruck with the situation he found himself (Who wouldn't?!). This was all added to when a further two birds joined the fray and the now five strong party of Long-tails headed out over the fields, presumably hunting, before coming back onto Tor Ness. 

This seemed unprecedented, 2CY Long-tailed Skuas simply shouldn't occur in the UK, they should be off coastlines in the Southern Hemisphere and there certainly shouldn't be a flock of them in British waters at this time of year. This seems to have been echoed throughout social media platforms, simply put...it's weird. Most sightings of 2CY birds seem to occur pelagically, for example most sightings from the Scilly Pelagics trips are of a similar age. 

Over the two days we've had at least seven birds, plus a couple of birds on Papa Westray all of which have been photographed. We need to go away now and write all this up, see if we can work out how many birds we've had and then do some extra digging into why this might have happened. Whatever comes of it, it's been a superb experience for all of us, they aren't birds that we're hugely familiar with so being able to study them extensively has been a privilege that none of us will forget anytime soon.

In the brief moments we've managed to tear ourselves away from the Skuas the cut fields have dragged in a good few Gulls and Waders, the highlights of which were a flock of 55 summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwits and a 1st Summer Little Gull to add to the adult that's been hanging around. 

The lochs have also dragged in Waders, the highest count of Dunlin for the year with a total of 520 birds mixed in with Oystercatchers and a few Redshank. 

On the land both days have produced four Crossbills, one of which found its way into T4 and two showed superbly in the surgery garden. Elsewhere the Stonechat was still below school as was a Woodpigeon. 

                                    Long-tailed Skua (bottom) and Arctic Skua (top).               GG

                                    Long-tailed Skua.                                                                  GG

                                   Long-tailed Skua.                                                                   GG

                                   Common Crossbill                                                                 GG

13th-17th July

A bit of longer period than intended between posts but often things get in the way this time of year! 

The 13th saw a rather disgusting day of wet and windy weather which meant we couldn't do a lot of the outdoor jobs or ringing that we wanted to get done. The birding wasn't exactly spectacular either although the Pectoral Sandpiper did make another appearance, this time on the dyke in front of Scottsha' before disappearing into thick cover, it would however re-appear and show well on the deck some two days later in the fields opposite school before being flushed by a Great Black-backed Gull. 

The Great White Egret was still on Hooking where it remained until the 15th, a Juvenile Crossbill was in the Funny Park and the Adult Little Gull has been seen nearly everyday over Garso.

The weather on the 14th was a much more settled affair and seemed to bring in a flurry of migrants, a Redwing was in Ancum Willows in the morning, the Stonechat that's been around the school made another appearance as did 2 Swifts in the North of the island. A female Crossbill was at Sangar and up to 11 Common Redpoll were on the island. 

The night of the 14th saw ideal conditions allowing us to do our second Storm Petrel ringing session of the year which yet again produced a singing Leach's Petrel but a failure to land it in a mist net! A more exciting moment was a 02:30am Common Sandpiper heard calling as it went over the nets in the twilight. The following morning was far less pleasant than the day that preceded it and when dawn broke about an hour and half after the Common Sandpiper's fleeting visit a drizzly fog had enveloped the isle. This didn't stop the first record of Long-tailed Skua for the year as a 2CY bird was chased around Gretchen by angry Common Gulls, the awful weather making viewing the bird hard. It was however photographed but forgotten about until the next day when it was found on Torness sat with up to 13 Arctic Skuas, the bird this time showed superbly and gave the obs staff chance to see an age that is seldom seen around British waters. 

Finally the 17th, a day dominated by Punding, Sheep Shearing, Tystie chick ringing and fish and chip night meant opportunities for birding were left to the time between deliveries of the aforementioned fish and chips. However a sub-adult Little near Scottigar and 2 juvenile Crossbills were ample reward for a few hours of deliveries! 

2CY Long-tailed Skua                                                         GG 

Pectoral Sandpiper making a hasty retreat!                        GG

Common Redpoll                                                                 GG

9th-12th July

The 9th saw another day of fine weather so we promptly took advantage and got some more chick ringing done, Trinley provided a good number of Tysties to ring along with a brood of Pied Wagtails, a Herring Gull and couple of other bits. The 9th also saw a start to silage cutting which meant a veritable feast was created for the islands waders, although the cut fields have failed to bring anything in so far they've held good numbers of Oystercatchers with a few Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits in superb summer plumage thrown in to keep interest up. Other waders included a couple of Whimbrel. 

The 10th was started with a Storm Petrel ringing session in which we caught 33 new birds and two re-traps, hopefully we'll manage more in the coming days. The Great White Egret was still on Hooking and the Corncrake was heard singing around Peckhole again.

The following day was a little better migrant wise, a Stonechat was present below the school but the undeniable bird of the day was a stunning adult female Red-necked Phalarope on Bewan. The bird showed well for a short period before magically disappearing when backs were turned! 

The final day of this update was unexpectedly good, not only weather wise. The forecasted rain never really arrived and instead was replaced by long periods of unbroken sunshine. The adult Little Gull put on a fine display over Garso, even mobbing those watching at times. Again the bird of the day was a wader, this time a wholly unexpected Pectoral Sandpiper display flighting to a Snipe, sadly the bird didn't hang around and disappeared off towards Links.

Pectoral Sandpiper                                                          GG

Little Gull                                                                 GG

Red-necked Phalarope                                                   DS

5th-8th July

Predictably things have been quite quiet with migration having pretty much ceased. A spell of terrible weather on the 5th meant any breeding bird work was put on hold. The adult Little Gull was sat with no fewer than 350 Kittiwakes on the grass in front of the sea-watch hide as was a second calendar year Arctic Skua. Golden Plovers have been returning slowly with numbers climbing to just over 200 in various locations across the island. A good passage of Manx Shearwaters over past few days has seen over 150 birds pass the sea-watch hide, other sea-watch highlights from the past four days include a dark phase Pomarine Skua and a 'blue' phase Fulmar on the 6th and 2 Sooty Shearwaters on the 8th. The Great White Egret has remained on Hooking feeding in the Mares Tails over the past four days.

Arctic Skua                                                                          GG

Great White Egret                                                                 GG

Little Gull in disguise                                                            GG

2nd-4th July

Bird news has predictably been thin on the ground. With little to report I'll keep the post short and sweet. Poor weather on the 2nd meant the day was dedicated to other tasks, the 3rd however was much better and we used the good weather in the early part of the day to make our first visit to the Tern colonies at Trinley and the North Links. The Terns were doing slightly better than we'd expected, we ringed 36 chicks which is a promising start with many more still on eggs and a few other colonies to visit once the weather improves again. We also managed to ring one of the Great Skua chicks and what a brute it was! 
The 4th was a little bit on the birding front, the adult Little Gull was back at Westness being beaten up by the nesting Black-headed Gulls. A eclipse drake Wigeon was on Garso briefly but the stand out bird of the day came after a phone call from Isobel at Hooking describing
"a large white bird with the Herons on the loch"
A mad dash down to Hooking revealed the bird to be the islands 5th record of Great White Egret. A very welcome surprise to all of us!

Great White Egret                                            GG

Little Gull making a quick escape!                                                               GG

Great Skua chick, its still a chick....just                                                       GG

29th June- 1st July

It feels as though spring is well and truly done here and we're now onto summer and all the jobs that it entails. Bird wise things have gone a little bit quieter in the last few days. An adult Little Gull at Westness on the 29th and 30th was a welcome arrival. A few Whimbrels have been knocking around as they make their way South. A little bit left field from the usual bits on here, its a first for North Ronaldsay in the shape of Volucella bombylans (or so I'm told by those who know better!) it also represents the most Northerly record for the UK, so quite exciting really! The 30th also had a few other late arrivals the pick of the bunch being a Cuckoo that was found late on at Cruesbrek followed by a Stonechat at Howartoft and 3 Redwings, two at Howartoft and one at Westness. Another Stonechat between Quoybanks and Sandback on the 1st was about the only bird of note. On a final note we said goodbye to Phoebe, we thank her for all her efforts this Spring and hopefully we'll see her again soon.  

Stonechat                                                                             GG

Volucella bombylans                                                     GG

There's still plenty of Kittiwakes around!                   GG

26th-28th June

It would definitely seem that Spring has now finished here and we're into summer, although the bite in the Easterly wind would perhaps suggest otherwise! The prevailing winds for most of this month have done little in the way of brining in Eastern vagrants but I won't sit here and gripe, things could certainly of been a lot worse!

The 26th was by far the busiest day bird wise and by far the nicest weather wise. In fact wall to wall sunshine made for a pleasant days birding and good night for running the obs moth trap. We'll start with moth trap that contained no fewer than four new moths for the year, none of them particularly exciting. 

The American Golden Plover was still present behind the lighthouse, although a little flightier than the previous evening. 

Golden Plovers have been on the rise, numbers reached 145 on the 28th after posting totals of 77 on the 26th and 128 on the 27th.

Other wader numbers include 11 Knot, 112 Turnstone and single Whimbrels on the 26th and 28th. 

Land bird wise things have been pretty quiet, single Woodpigeons have been about all three days, the lone Siskin was still around the traps on the 26th and 2 Swift were over the obs on the 27th.

Finally 2 Hummingbird Hawkmoths on the 26th were seen flying around the dykes near Torness. 

American Golden Plover                                            GG

Hummingbird Hawkmoth                                        GG

25th June

With the wind abating the previous evening we thought it might be good to try and get our first Storm Petrel ringing session of the year going. 

The calm weather proved effective for an early session, meaning we caught 2 European Storm Petrels, one new and one re-trap and while doing the session we also heard and saw a Leach's Storm Petrel flying around the nets and singing occasionally, possibly mocking us slightly.  

The first Ghost Moths of the year were out lekking, with 41 around the obs croft just before we headed off to do Petrels. 

A Common Whitethroat sub-singing around the obs was an early highlight on a day that seemed intent on giving us something. The Corncrake was singing in its usual spot near Peckhole, another group of 4 Crossbill went South over the school and the drake Common Scoter was still in Linklet Bay.

The evening session at Holland wasn't really productive apart from a Song Thrush trapped on the last round and an evening wander around the traps produced a Siskin and a Stonechat but the day wasn't over there.

The final act of the day was a quick scoot about to look at Terns, it didn't produce any rare Terns but did produce a stonkingly smart adult summer American Golden Plover between Sjaver and the lighthouse, the 14th record for the island. Not what we'd expected but certainly something we were happy to accept. 

American Golden Plover (top RJB. Bottom GG)

Common Scoter hiding between the swell                         GG

23rd-24th June

The weather continued in the same Easterly fashion, migrant wise things slowly began to pick up as we entered the final week of June.

A drake Common Scoter off the Links was our third record of the species this year and the Little Terns on the links have also began to exhibit some interesting behaviour so we'll keep an eye on that. 

Elsewhere a Crossbill made its way into Holland from the Kirkyard and two more were feeding on Rosa-rugosa around the obs trapping area. A Chiffchaff was also in Holland as was the Whitethroat from previous days. 

The next day was much the same as the previous. Another unseasonal Redstart, this time a male was trapped at Holland in the morning, a Crossbill went out South over the Lurn and a Quail was singing around Brides. 

Crossbills                                                                              GG