16th September

A wryneck and an icterine warbler remained at Westness, with another of the latter at Gravity. A single flava wagtail was seen in the north, a grasshopper warbler by the lighthouse and a short-eared owl was seen coming in off the sea at Garso. Most migrant numbers showed little change with 31 redstart, 14 whinchat, 9 tree pipit, 14 spotted flycatcher and 12 pied flycatcher. A barred warbler on the airfield was new, and a chance to open the mist nets at Holland boosted warbler numbers somewhat with totals of 43 willow warbler, 31 blackcap, 14 garden warbler, 4 lesser whitethroat, 3 whitethroat, 5 reed warbler and single of chiffchaff and sedge warbler. The first 3 yellow-browed warblers of the autumn appeared in the afternoon with birds at Twinyas, Gretchen and Gravity. The common rosefinch was still at the Observatory, a house martin and a swift were seen over and other counts included 21 robin, 29 song thrush, 4 goldcrest and 2 siskin. The 2 little stints at the North end were joined by a 3rd, a greenshank was seen and a jack snipe was flushed from Brides Loch.