April 01st - April 07th

A calm start to the month with sunny skies and calm seas, saw a good few days birding on the Island. The 01st saw our first Great Skua (Bonxie) of the year with one being seen at Torness but also our first Sandwich Terns of the year with 2 feeding in the bay at Nouster. However the highlight was a Slavonian Grebe that headed quickly past the seawatching hide. 

April 02nd saw the team carry out the first of our two annual Black Guillemot counts and with 1145 it looks to be another record year for the species already beating previous years by over 100 birds we look forward to our second count on the 14th. 

After two days of nice weather the inevitable happened and it was back to the usual strong winds and a real mix of snow and hail. A different Black Throated Diver was sheltering in Nouster Bay with a good number of Great Northerns, 3 Rooks headed south over the obs on the 3rd, the lingering Short Eared Owl at Peckhole and 2 Dunnocks remained at both Holland House and Westness.

The continued bad weather saw a influx of thrushes trying to make landfall in this tough conditions with 73 Redwing, 45 Blackbirds, 16 Song Thrushes and 5 Fieldfare, Raptor numbers climbed with 4 Merlin and a Hen Harrier present but also attracted our first Kestrel of the year trying to make use of these conditions on the 06th. April 07th also saw our first 2 Woodcock for a while with 1 flushed in the Obs Garden and another by the airfield. 

With forecasts changing we look forward to the week ahead. 

Wheatear and Rock Pipit