11th-13th August

 The 10th turned out to be a much quieter overall, with very few birds to shout about apart from a couple of Willow Warblers and the first Great Northern Diver of the Autumn. The 12th however would prove much more productive. A rather horrible day weather wise saw the island drenched in near constant rain only interrupted by low rolls of thunder. The birds didn't seem to mind though and we were quickly off the mark with a long awaited first Greenshank of 2020, it must be a long time since we've had no spring records so it felt good to shake this monkey off our backs. Elsewhere Green and Wood Sandpipers were on Ancum as were a flock 7 Black-tailed Godwits. The scarcer migrants started with a juvenile Red-backed Shrike at Lochend that spent most of the afternoon being highly elusive but not quite as elusive as our first Wryneck of the year near Kirbist, initially seen in the iris ditch it quickly moved to the dyke before subsequently vanishing into thin air! Other highlights included the re-emergence of the Melodious Warbler at Westness, it was still being a complete pain to pin down in the field and the Barred Warbler also from the 10th was re-trapped in Holland, it was otherwise quite with a Garden Warbler being the only other bird of noteworthy mention.

The 13th was much the same with all of the previous days suspects (barring the Wryneck) still in place, the main additions were new Barred Warblers at Westness and Senness and a Whinchat at Rue. A juvenile Redpoll trapped at Holland House turned out to be one of the juveniles ringed on Fair Isle this Spring and finally a Storm Petrel session rounded the day off nicely with 86 new birds caught and 5 re-traps including a British control, A Leach's was seen flying around the nets but evaded capture.

Wryneck                                                                                DS

Melodious Warbler                                                               GG