18th May

Common migrants were still plentiful today, with a number of new arrivals, most notably the first cuckoo, reed warbler and crossbill of the year. The male subalpine warbler at Rue remains the highlight for the moment, a new icterine warbler was at Gretchen and 2 marsh harriers flew through in the afternoon. And sticking with raptors a minimum of 4 sparrowhawks and a kestrel were seen. Other totals for the day were of 5 common sandpiper, 1 curlew sandpiper, 15 house martin, 15 tree pipit, a grey-headed wagtail on Ancum, a black redstart, 9 redstart, 2 bluethroat, 4 whinchat, 1 stonechat, 2 female ring ouzels, a grasshopper warbler, 6 lesser whitethroats, 14 whitethroat, 10 garden warbler, 2 blackcap, 4 wood warbler including a new bird at Loch End, 6 chiffchaff, 24 willow warbler, 9 spotted and 4 pied flycatcher.