NORTH RONALDSAY - 20th September

The wind finally swung round into the SE but it wasn’t coming from that far away so the northern census route was amazingly quiet again with no grounded passerine migrants; birds seen though included 10 Rock Pipits, 28 Purple Sandpipers, 51 Wigeon, single Arctic Tern and Arctic Skua offshore and 3 Knot.   A bit of a walk round Hooking in the afternoon before rain moved in produced a Wood Sandpiper, 2 Merlins and a Lesser Whitethroat at Scotsha while there was a Goldcrest and a Robin at the Obs giving some slight encouragement.