1st June- Greenish, Green, Greener

A new month but the same weather. The Easterlies continued but they were greeted in the morning by thick bank of fog that coated the island. Always good migrant weather! 

The morning however was quite quiet, nets turned up a few bits, the previous days Marsh Warbler still being rather vocal as was a Willow Warbler giving the gardens a bit of morning life. A brood of three Redshank chicks were ringed near Gretchen, always a bonus to get Redshank chicks, they’re notoriously hard to track down as ex-assistant warden Mark Warren would testify!

It was the afternoon that really got the ball rolling though, another Willow Warbler and two Lesser Whitethroat were added to the day totals as was a Chiffchaff and a Little Tern. 

The first highlight came in the shape of our third Red-backed Shrike of the year at North Manse, another rather smart looking female. 

However, it was the evening nets session that stole show and by some way! 

Firstly, a second Marsh Warbler, initially heard singing was trapped in the South-East corner of the garden. Things however turned up a notch when a wing-barred Phyllosc was trapped at about 21:45, the bird initially thought to be a Greenish Warbler seemed to show a lot of features that would make it a very strong candidate for the much rarer GREEN WARBLER! An overall yellowish wash, yellow orbital ring and certain biometrics all make for a strong case in its favour. However, the bird dropped a few feathers, and these will give us a definitive answer at a later date. So, bearing this in mind we felt it’s best not to jump the gun and we’ll wait until the folk at Aberdeen University work their magic and we'll bide our time until they do as such, jumping the gun would be foolhardy, especially with a bird thats quite fresh to the forefront of British Ornithology. If the bird proves to be the much rarer Green Warbler it will be the 7th British Record, but we may have to wait a while on this one.  

Green/Greenish Warbler                                                    RJB

Green/Greenish Warbler                          AED

Red-backed Shrike                                                            GG