25th-30th October

 A very mixed bag in terms of birds over the past few days but a lot of it of fairly decent quality. A spell of winds that seemed to have a whiff of Easterly that produced some scarce migrants. 

The 25th was a mostly quiet affair however the appearance of a Red-breasted Flycatcher in Scarfie Geo in the afternoon provided some excitement, followed by a bit of panic. With some of the photos looking pale it needed re-checking but further photos revealed it to be dodgy light making it look pale. The 26th was equally quiet, the Green-winged Teal remained on Gretchen and the Little Bunting from the 24th was re-found in the obs oat crop. The following day was much quieter in poor weather but news on the neighbouring Papa Westray in the evening would mean most of the staff would be away for the subsequent two days. The 28th however did have its highlights before our flight West. The Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll made a brief re-appearance around the obs croft but was difficult to pin down, however in searching for it the team uncovered a Grey Phalarope on Gretchen, 9 Greenfinch and several Common Redpoll and Siskin. The trip for the Varied Thrush on Papay was largely successful and highly enjoyable if made longer by being delayed for fog on the 29th! The 30th saw us return and pick up where we left off, a big dump of thrushes in the afternoon saw over 800 spread across the island with a few Fieldfare and Song Thrush thrown in for good measure. A second Richard's Pipit of the Autumn was found around Senness in the rain as was a Lark sp. at Dennishill that had all the makings of a Short-toed Lark but seemed to vanish in near unbirdable rain and will have remain as unidentified. 

                                   Grey Phalarope

                                   Grey Phalarope 

                The Papa Westray Varied Thrush, would've been rude not to include a photo of it really!