16th June

June 17, 2020

16th June

A day that we managed to fill with quite a migrants but always felt it deserved that top drawer bird, but it never quite came, nonetheless an island record was broken and we had a decent bird towards the end of the day.

Probably the warmest day of the year so far on here, the morning was bright, blue and eventually hot, not ideal weather for downing migrants....unless you live 20 miles North of us of course!

The first news of the day was the island record count, a flock of 53 Canada Geese made land fall on Garso, thankfully they'd moved off by the afternoon, we don't really want them taking up residence here, the Greylags are bad enough!

6 Spotted Flycatchers, two at Holland and singles at Longar, Ancum, Bewan and Rue made for some good viewing as did 2 Short-eared Owls, one headed out South towards Sanday and another going North over Hooking, both in the late afternoon.

Nets in the evening proved fairly productive, a new Garden Warbler, Whitethroat and Redstart gave the day a little extra oomph as did a pair of Black Redstarts in the grounds of the Old Kirk.

3 Little Terns were hanging around on the edge of Ancum mid-Afternoon, 3 Whimbrel were seen throughout the island and singles of Woodpigeon and Collared Dove were joined at Holland by two screaming Swifts. Away from the birding side of things we've had good numbers of butterflies coming through the island, the gardens at Holland were seemingly inundated with Red Admirals and Painted Lady's throughout the day. A Hummingbird Hawkmoth made a brief foray into Holland too, best seen zipping around the outside walls.

A singing Quail near was a much overdue addition and we're hoping it's one of last year birds returning. Finally our bird of the day went to a 2nd Summer Mediterranean Gull sat with the Black-headed Gull flock between Bewan and the Lighthouse. Although they're ten a penny down South they're a much more sort after migrant up here, so much so that it proved to be an island tick for Gavin and Rael.

The wind is looking interesting so there's still hoping of us scoring a late rare, but we need a bit of rain or fog in our weather.