27th August

A glorious day, with not a breath of wind and some fantastic autumnal sunshine made for another enjoyable day in the field. The land was somewhat quieter with a 'clear-out' of roughly 50% of yesterdays passerine migrants but nevertheless a single Icterine Warbler (Westness) and Barred Warbler (Holland) hung on. Diurnal migrants were the most conspicuous with 78 Wheatears, 30 Swifts and 182 Swallows notable, while a good spread of warblers still included 41 Willow Warblers, a Wood Warbler, a Blackcap, with 2-5 each of the other recently recorded species. A moulting adult Curlew Sandpiper on Trolla Vatn Loch was the best wader while the 3 Wood Sandpipers lingered at Cauldhame flash where the Garganey also resurfaced briefly. Just one Marsh Harrier was seen for certain today but 2 Sparrowhawks were new and 3 Kestrels were still about. An finally, there was an interesting late evening gathering of 235 Kittiwakes off the pier which then moved off west and with them came a swift movement of 34 Arctic Skuas and 10 Great Skuas past the Obs in just 20 minutes!

Lesser Whitethroat and Reed Warbler (photos George Gay)