2nd-4th July

Bird news has predictably been thin on the ground. With little to report I'll keep the post short and sweet. Poor weather on the 2nd meant the day was dedicated to other tasks, the 3rd however was much better and we used the good weather in the early part of the day to make our first visit to the Tern colonies at Trinley and the North Links. The Terns were doing slightly better than we'd expected, we ringed 36 chicks which is a promising start with many more still on eggs and a few other colonies to visit once the weather improves again. We also managed to ring one of the Great Skua chicks and what a brute it was! 
The 4th was a little bit on the birding front, the adult Little Gull was back at Westness being beaten up by the nesting Black-headed Gulls. A eclipse drake Wigeon was on Garso briefly but the stand out bird of the day came after a phone call from Isobel at Hooking describing
"a large white bird with the Herons on the loch"
A mad dash down to Hooking revealed the bird to be the islands 5th record of Great White Egret. A very welcome surprise to all of us!

Great White Egret                                            GG

Little Gull making a quick escape!                                                               GG

Great Skua chick, its still a chick....just                                                       GG