7th May

A very welcome day of perfect calm and sunshine, respite from the recent Arctic conditions, brought very little by way of passerine migrants. Fortunately, the non-passerines included some more quality to save the day once again. A White-tailed Eagle - the second record of the year, considered a different individual to the first - spent some time circling very high above the island before drifting back towards the rest of Orkney. The first 3 Dotterels of 2012 made their predictable appearance in the traditional Dotterel hotspot of Tor Ness; a Wryneck was ringed at Holland House; and the Slavonian Grebe was still in Linklet Bay.

Dotterel

This was the fourth Wryneck of the spring, and the first to be ringed here in more than a year.