29th April

A beautiful day with pretty much wall-to-wall sunshine and a light (but surprisingly chilly) SE breeze; the clear and obvious highlight came in the evening when by a very convoluted route involving blurry photos on the island Whatsapp, then an independent discovery, then a confusing conversation where it was thought by the Obs that they were discussing the photo, when in fact they were actually watching the bird and finally a mad drive up to the Lighthouse to get fabulous views of a lovely MOURNING DOVE on the grass outside the Café – an awesome island first!   It was very approachable, seeming very tired but it had disappeared by dusk, hopefully to be re-found tomorrow.

                There was a similar spread of other migrants across the island compared to previous days but did include a fine adult summer plumaged White-billed Diver off Trinley Point – a typical time of year for them on here.   Other totals comprised a flock of 8 Barnacle Geese north, the two drake Garganey still, a Jack Snipe at Ancum, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Arctic Skuas (including the well known dark phase breeding bird ‘Notchy’), a Short-eared Owl, 2 Tree Pipits, 2 White Wagtails, a Dunnock, 23 Robins, a Black Redstart, a Redstart, 70 Wheatears, 8 Fieldfare, 3 Redwing, 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 6 Blackcaps, 23 Chiffchaff, 14 Willow Warblers, 2 Rook, 11 Brambling and the first Butterfly of the year – a Red Admiral at Holland.

Mourning Dove                                   Simon Davies