21st-25th November

Well its definitely winter!! Frequent spells of cool northerly or north-westerly wind accompanied by either rain, sleet or even snow showers have resulted in relatively little change during the period. With the volunteers all having heading south, coverage is much more limited these days but highlights included the male Northern Harrier again (22nd) and the drake Green-winged Teal (22nd-24th). New parties of Whooper Swans have been a pair of adults (22nd), and a family of 5 (25th) while the redhead Smew was still on Bewan Loch (21st-22nd). An hour long sea-watch (21st) saw 5 Sooty Shearwaters, a Little Auk and a juvenile Glaucous Gull pass the hide but the same duration the next day was much poorer with just a Black-headed Gull and 626 Auk sp. of note. A Long-eared Owl was at Holland gardens (21st-22nd), a male Brambling also there (22nd and 25th), at least 4 lingering Chiffchaffs were spread about, Twite peaked at 36 (on 21st and included a dozen trapped and ringed to seed at the Obs) and finally there were 19 Snow Buntings at Bridesness (22nd).

No recent bird photos so here's the view from the sea-watch hide of a snow covered Fair Isle on 22nd