24th September

A great day with the autumn finally kicking off with a good variety of passerine arrivals through the day; we kept the very strong SSE winds with rain at dawn and a few spots throughout the rest of the day but the wind must have been coming from further away today and not just from Fraserburgh, as the highlights comprised a flighty OLIVE-BACKED PIPIT in the Docks and grass around Longar and a fine Little Bunting on the beach at Garso.

                The accompanying cast included the first 3 Redwings, 3 Bramblings and 2 Chaffinch of the autumn, a Grasshopper Warbler which gave us the run around for a while before being confirmed, 2 Grey Wagtails, 3 Yellow-browed Warblers, 3 Robins, 2 Garden Warbler, 2 Blackcaps, a Spotted Flycatcher, a Chiffchaff, 6 Willow Warblers, 4 Mealy Redpolls, 4 Lapland Buntings, a Snow Bunting and 2 Kestrels.

                Other birds included a Little Stint on Gretchen, a Curlew Sandpiper on Bewan, a Greenshank which flew south down the west coast, a Jack Snipe, a Grey Plover, 6 Red-throated Diver, a Great-northern Diver and single Arctic Tern and Great Skua offshore.

Olive-backed Pipit,   George Gay

Little Bunting,   George Gay

Common Redpoll,   Simon Davies

Spotted Flycatcher with Devil's Coach Horse,   Simon Davies