10th-22nd August

 This post see the end of the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater's visit to the island, while it was nice having it with us for so long there was a sense of relief amongst the staff that it had finally departed, it was somewhat impeding on censuses and day-to-day work. We had our first sniff of early autumn migration, but it was just a sniff! Otherwise its been relatively quiet here with a system of northerly winds dominating proceedings in the last week or so, it feels more like mid-October here at the moment. 

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater - GG

The 10th wasn't a bad day of weather, the Bee-eater remained around Ancum Willows for most of the day. A Short-eared Owl was around Longar but the new bird of the day was our first Blyth's Reed Warbler of the autumn feeding veraciously on the walls of the garden at Bewan House.

Blyth's Reed Warbler - GG

The following day saw the Bee-eater doing very much the same, hanging around the willows at Ancum, the Blyth's Reed had seemingly moved on. The Semipalmated Sandpiper was still around Westness but has since also moved on after an almost two months stay on the island. The island held three Greenshanks and a Green Sandpiper. 

The 12th saw the departure of the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, it was initially present in the willows but quickly shifted to Holland and was last seen around 9am but wasn't seen again, it seems the bird took advantage of a nice day and headed south, it was seen on 13th on mainland Orkney but has seemingly moved on since. An overnight Storm Petrel session saw c40 birds ringed, two of which were Norweigan controls and a Leach's Petrel was around the nets but didn't get caught sadly. 

One of many Ruff around the island - GG

The 13th was quiet but a juvenile Mediterranean Gull on 14th and Greenshank's at Holland and West Beach gave us something to look at. 

The 15th was once again quite, but the following day saw a Great Shearwater pass the sea-watch hide and Bewan held another Greenshank and a Common Tern. We would have to wait until 19th for the next notable bit of news, a small increase in Willow Warblers was apparent but the highlight was the first Barred Warbler of the year at Milldam, while a Green Sandpiper was seen going south over Cursitter. 

Kestrel - GG

A second Barred Warbler was present the following day at Senness and the 21st produced an American Golden Plover at Sandar, it took quite some time to pin down as the wintering Hen Harriers seem to be very happy flushing everything around at the moment. With little to report from 22nd apart from the American Golden Plover still being present we'll leave it there! 

American Golden Plover - GG