26th-28th April

 A break in the warmer weather on the 26th saw us get our first precipitation since the snow at the start of the month, probably a welcome resource for some of the islands plant life! A much quieter day was also in store but that was no doubt due to the rain, a pair of Barnacle Geese behind Ancum were new additions to the year list and a Tree Pipit was seen briefly around Milldam, meanwhile the previous mornings Mistle Thrush and Common Redpoll remained as did the Lesser Redpoll around North Gravity. The Ruff that had frequented Ancum had also decided to shift and spent the day at the North end of the Links. A rather soggy Stock Dove was on the coast near the Lurn and a Willow Warbler spent the morning around T3. 

The 27th saw the warmer weather return but it also saw a much quieter day on many fronts, the Willow Warbler was still around the obs and the Barnacle Geese were still hanging around the back end of Ancum. The highlight of the day were 4 Tree Sparrows at Bridesness, another year list addition. A Robin was in the pund near Rue and Song Thrush was near Grind. The notable increase of the day went to a small fall of 47 Fieldfare dotted around the island. A total of 4 Chiffchaffs were also present throughout the day as were 9 Carrion Crow and the previous days Tree Pipit had seemingly found its way to the School Brae and a distant Iceland Gull was seen over Stromness.

The weather had seemingly gone back to being nice again on the 28th despite a few isolated hail showers that caught unfortunate obs staff out as they travelled to their census areas in the mornings! The day felt like it never really got going and this was shown by a general lack of new migrants throughout day. The Willow Warbler remained firmly around the obs and in the afternoon the Wryneck was re-discovered up at Neven after a short absence! A 1st Winter Little Gull had joined the now 500+ strong of Black-headed Gulls around Hooking, even displaying at some! One of the Tree Sparrows joined the 3 Brambling and female Chaffinch that have frequenting the bird table at the Farmhouse and a Chiffchaff spent the day singing in Holland.   

                                   Barnacle Geese

                                   Lesser Redpoll