7th and 8th June

A glorious day with light NE winds and wall to wall sunshine on the 7^th; certainly, the day’s highlight was a very scruffy and tatty BLACK KITE which flew north over Brides, up to the lighthouse from where it spiralled up and continued of to the north – it was seen on Fair Isle a couple of hours later.   It was identified as the eastern race bird that has been seen sporadically on Orkney, possibly since last November and has been labelled ‘of suspect origin’ due to the heavy abrasion on both the wings and tail but who can tell....anything more than that is pure speculation!

                As the Obs crew were chasing the Kite up the island an Osprey came in from the north and flew south down the centre of the island – a late spring record and the first of the year but the rest of the day proved to be pretty quiet as waders included 91 Sanderling, 5 Black-tailed Godwits, 68 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Whimbrel, 2 Golden Plover and 34 Knot and landbirds just comprised 6 Collared Doves, a Blackcap and 5 Chiffchaffs.

                Still very calm on the 8^th with a very light NE breeze but there was complete cloud cover for a change; the cloud cover seemed to drop a few new migrants into the island with a Marsh Warbler near the Obs the highlight along with 7 Collared Doves and single Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Siskin and Common Redpoll.

                Other little bits included our first Common Scoter of the year which flew past the seawatch hide with 3 Great-northern Divers and 4 Red-throated Divers remaining on calm seas.

Scruffy looking Black Kite                             Simon Davies

Marsh Warbler                                       Simon Davies