6th May



YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER!!!!!!!!

 

A day to remember, but it began with heavy rain, and fog which eventually cleared to leave a bright sunny day. There was clearly plenty about when we ventured out after lunch with 7 Garganey noted early on, frequenting various scrapes and pools around Hooking-breaking the previous record count by considerable distance. The Short-toed Lark was found to still be at Lenswick, and the Glossy Ibis at Hooking but pandemonium kicked in when a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER was discovered in the garden at Scott's Haa. the bird had clearly only just arrived and was initially incredible mobile being lost several times, before settling down back at its original location by the evening. Remarkably this is the 2nd North Ronaldsay record (following one in Oct 1995) and 3rd Orkney (Evie 2005). There were plenty of waders about too with a Wood Sandpiper nearby and 93 Ringed Plovers, 276 Dunlins, 6 Knot, 95 Dunlins and 417 Turnstones counted. A Dotterel joined the Lark at Lenswick late in the evening, 10 Great Northern Divers were offshore and a male Sparrowhawk seen.

 

 

 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Top 4 Mark Warren, bottom 2 Rael Butcher)