18th and 19th May
Another lovely day on the
18th, very calm with varying cloud cover coming and going; the days
two main highlights came early on with a GREAT WHITE EGRET found
on Ancum Loch early morning (a real island mega - only the 4th
island record!) closely followed by a cracking female Hawfinch
caught in Holland House gardens – our overdue first for the year. The short list of other grounded migrants
included 3 Woodpigeons, 2 Collared Doves, a Redwing, 9 Sedge Warblers, a
Blackcap, 8 Chiffchaffs, 2 Willow Warblers, 7 Tree Sparrows and 2 Lesser
Redpolls.
The selection of lonely wildfowl still lingered with
the Whooper Swan, Barnacle Goose and Pink-footed Goose remaining, a Wood
Sandpiper was on Garso, 4 Garganey were spread over the lochs, influxes of 18
Great Skuas and 14 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were noted at the top end and the Kumlien’s Gull remained.
Calm and sunny again first thing on the 19th
but the southerly wind gradually picked up through the day to reach force 7 by
the evening; there were again a nice list of scarcities across the island with
the Great White
Egret still on Ancum, a stunning female Nightjar
trapped in Holland and a smart female Dotterel found in the
afternoon on Torness – this seems to be the pattern so far this spring, a good
spread of scarcities but very few common migrants (we still await our first
Redstart, Whinchat, Pied Flycatcher and Grasshopper Warbler).
Other migrant totals on the land comprised a
Woodpigeon, 3 Collared Doves, a Black Redstart around Holland, a Fieldfare, a
Whitethroat, a Blackcap, 9 Chiffchaffs, a Goldfinch, a Siskin, a Common Redpoll
and 6 Carrion Crows.
Wader totals included 196 Ringed Plovers, 3 Golden
Plover, a Grey Plover, 95 Knot, 298 Sanderling, 90 Bar-tailed Godwits and 411
Turnstone while the pair of Garganey were still on Gretchen and the Kumlien’s Gull was still floating around.
Hawfinch Simon Davies
Nightjar Richard Yarnell
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