17th-23rd July
The last week has again been largely dominated by seabird ringing and monitoring, with visits to Arctic Tern colonies and Tystie (Black Guillemot) burrows. Despite the depressing scenes from further south, Arctic Terns appear to be faring reasonably well so far, with several colonies producing small numbers of fledged juveniles. The threat of avian flu continues to linger so we will stay hopeful that the breeding seasons can reach a close without any outbreaks. We are close to reaching 150 Tystie chicks rings for the year, a good total which reflects the high number of adults counted earlier in the season. In other breeding bird news, hirundines appear to have had another reasonable year with plenty of fledged birds on the wing in recent days. Many of our Swallows will also attempt to raise a second brood in the coming weeks.
As a consequence of the increased effort monitoring breeding birds, new sightings have been slightly more thin on the ground. However, a few seawatches have produced reasonable totals of shearwaters given the time of year. 18th saw the lowest totals of shearwaters, with three Sooty and 10 Manx Shearwaters, although a pod of at least 4 Orcas passing through at speed was an impressive sight. 20th saw totals improve with 11 Sooty Shearwaters, 35 Manx Shearwaters and 31 Storm Petrels, along with 109 Puffins and 168 Kittiwakes. 21st posted similar totals, with increased effort on 22nd resulting in 12 Sooty Shearwaters, 68 Manx Shearwaters, 1233 Kittiwakes, 75 Guillemots, 10 Razorbills (plus a further 75+ auk sp.), 301 Puffins, and 3 Risso's Dolphins logged.
Away from the sea, sightings have included the Curlew Sandpiper remaining at Gretchen on 17th. The Red-backed Shrike remains at its favoured location near Ancum Willows. A Ruff was present on 19th amongst an ever increasing tally of Golden Plovers, which totaled 472 birds on 22nd. 22nd also saw an impressive (by North Ronaldsay standards) 33 Swifts move through the island.
In other news, whilst compiling photos for the rarity submission for the Pacific Golden Plover earlier in the month, we noticed some distinct differences in plumage between photos taken during the first run of sightings (30th June-1st July) and those taken during the second period of sightings from 8th-11th July (no sightings in between these periods). We are now confident that these in fact relate to two different individuals, with plumage differences briefly summarised in the images below. We would like to thank those who have provided their opinions on this and for pointing out additional features!
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