18th-20th April
Its been a rather quiet few days here with very little to get excited about, rubbish weather has played a large part in that with winds picking up on the 19th and making birding an unpleasant task. However improved conditions yesterday meant some staff were seen with bare skin showing, a novelty in April!
Four Sandwich Terns at Nouster and a Manx Shearwater past the foghorn were highlight birds for the day on the 18th, a few Chiffchaff were scattered around the island but otherwise it was very quiet. This theme would continue into the next day, a cutting 40mph northerly made the mere thought of heading out the door an unpleasant one. The birding was predictably poor also with very little popping out of cover, a Willow Warbler being blown around the obs trapping area and a flock of 51 Black-tailed Godwits on Ancum were the only splashes of colour on a rather dreich day. A break in the weather on the 20th was a very welcome break from wind and rain, although the latter arrived in the late evening. Birding was by no means spectacular but it was nice to be out without the need of wooly hats and gloves! It was very much more of the same on the avian front, a smart Black-throated Diver was seen in the bay at Nouster in the morning, the Goosander remained, this time on Garso and the Barnacle Goose near Hooking had multiplied into two birds.
Hopefully these dreary blog posts will come to end soon with May in sight and some potential easterlies in the offing, that said we're not putting all our eggs in that basket yet, as weather predictions seem to be a bit of a lottery these days!
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