5th September

Easterlies coupled with rain today has meant more migrants have dropped in. The strong winds pushed a lot of the birds onto the west coast, concentrating most of the action there.

There were more Willow Warblers about, with a conservative count 25 across the whole island. Our first Rock Pipits of the autumn arrived at the south end of Tor Ness, and a nice year tick came in the form of a Quail that was flushed from Nether Linnay before flying north along the dyke. The Wryneck and Rosefinch remained in the obs and Lurand area, but the Wryneck evaded capture in T4 when it flew back out the mouth of the heligoland twice. There was a Wood Sandpiper in the Milldam irises along with an unstreaked acro sp. Another unstreaked acro sp was in the irises around Brides, but difficult conditions and lots of cover for the birds to get lost in meant ID couldn't be confirmed. There were more Whinchats about, with at least eight on the west coast, one at Lurand, and one in the Shooting Gallery. Pied Flycatchers were seen at T5 and T4 round the obs, and there were three on the west coast. There were Redstart at the obs, Kirbest, Holland and the west coast, and there was a Fieldfare at Milldam. Five Siskin were in the Shooting Gallery, and one was in Gue Park, Lesser Whitethroat were at Scottigar and Ancum Willows, a Robin was on the west coast, and so was a Garden Warbler. There were also three Curlew Sandpiper on Gretchen.

There were lots of birds of prey seen over the whole island, with at least two Peregrine, two Merlin, two Kestrel, three Sparrowhawk, and one Short-eared Owl. The pick of the bunch however was an Osprey that was first seen on Bewan before heading down the west coast, stopping at various geos on the way. The only contention to this was a Hobby that was picked up as it speedily flew towards the conservatory windows whilst staff were eating dinner. It stopped just in time, instead landing on the conservatory roof briefly before flying back over the fields north of Lurand.

Redstart - MH

Sparrowhawk - MH

Osprey - GG