26th to 27th March

An end to the sunshine and a blast of easterly winds and light rain on 26th did the trick with grounding a few birds. Our first Wheatear at West Beach and Chiffchaff at Garso were right on cue, and there was also 15 Goldcrests, 38 Blackbirds (mainly adult males) and 6 Song Thrushes also recorded during the afternoon census. At least 1 Greenland White-fronted Goose was still present with a juvenile Glaucous Gull at the north end assumed to be one of the regular birds. By 28th, and with an improvement to generally sunny weather in moderate south-westerly winds approximately half the number of migrants remained but the islands 11th Goshawk (a tricky species to identify with confidence in these parts with larger than average Scandinavian Sparrowhawks often causing confusion), an adult photographed over the Links Golf course mid-morning was a clear highlight. Sadly it seemed to pass straight through but the Black Redstart from a few days ago was still at Hooking, with a Rook nearby while a Jack Snipe at Westness was the first in a while.

 

 Goshawk (all photos Stephen Rutt)