13th October

After a week's absence the BUFF-BELLIED PIPIT reappeared sheltering along the stone dyke again by Neven. The few notable new arrivals today were a reed warbler at Westness, spotted flycatcher at Shooting Gallery, chiffchaff at Burray, common sandpiper and swallow at Bridesness and a blackcap in Holland along with the 2 chiffchaff, 2 robin and 2 goldcrest. Thrushes consisted of 4 song thrush, 79 redwing and 46 blackbird, and finches of 1 siskin and 25 brambling. The whinchat was still near Hooking with a lapland bunting there also, and the day's snow bunting tally was 67. 23 whooper swan were on Ancum and greylag geese were again on the move with 715 passing through, whilst barnacle geese had dwindled to just 4. A minimum of 5 merlin were noted with 3 coming in off the sea, the 2 grey plover were at Haskie and 1059 golden plover is the highest count so far this month, as was snipe with 178.