14th January

A cracking winters day gave us the chance to get around most of the Island and some notable counts were made. A minimum of 9 Iceland Gulls (3 adults, 2 2nd winters and 4 1st winters) were present and 460 Common Gulls were counted feeding in the bays so there is clearly plenty of food on offer for Gulls at the moment. None of the Iceland Gulls seen in recent days have been 1st winters so there are clearly new birds arriving and moving through daily. Also of note were 58 European White-fronted Geese near Hooking and there were 5 Whooper Swans on Garso Loch. Other wildfowl counts were 248 Wigeon, 132 Teal, 88 Mallards, 9 Tufted Ducks, a female Scaup on Ancum, 13 Red-breasted Mergansers and 5 Goldeneyes. Raptors were well represented with at least 3 Hen Harriers, an immature male Peregrine and a Merlin making the most of the fine weather. There were also more passerines around than expected with 18 Skylarks, 12 Fieldfares, 32 Redwings, a Song Thrush, 23 Twites, 2 Linnets and 96 Snow Buntings seen.



Skylark