1st - 12th July

The first days of July have been a bit slow birding wise, mainly due to staffing shortages with outbreaks of covid and some away for a few days. The weather has also presented difficulties with days of thick fog leading into strong winds, not the most inspiring conditions for birding.

The 1st saw 5 Orca off Stromness point, cruising round to the north end before going out north. There was also a juvenile Stonechat in East Loch Park, a species that doesn't breed so is presumably from elsewhere on mainland Orkney. 12 Siskin in Holland were an unseasonable surprise, and 2 Greenshank on Gretchen added another species to the year list. Elsewhere, the Turtle Dove was still present, being flushed from Lurand before flying towards the bothy on the West Coast

The Turtle Dove was present until the 4th and represented the only bird of note across these days. 

An extremely slow few days for birding between the 5th and 10th meant very little was seen. However with more staff arrivals coverage of the island has now increased again, so hopefully there is more out there to be found.

An effort on the morning of the 11th saw 4 new Oystercatcher chicks ringed and a single Curlew chick colour ringed, part of a project taking place on the rest of Orkney. 2 Swift flew past the obs in the late afternoon, but other than that the day was filled was sheep work and a few obs jobs to make the most of the grim weather.

Over 500 Kittiwake showed up around Bewan on the 12th, and a satellite tagged Common Seal was seen off the north end, so it will be interesting to see where this individual was first tagged.

With the weather set to stay windy and wet over the next few days, it seems the birding will continue to stay slow, but with silaging starting to take place in fields over the island, hopes that this will pull in something more interesting remain high.

Juvenile Arctic Tern

Lesser Black-backed Gull in the silage