Saturday, 19 May 2018

NORTH RONALDSAY - 18th May


Another lovely day, extremely calm with varying cloud cover; it turned out to be a decent day in the field with the highlights being a Great White Egret on Ancum, twitched in the morning but still present in the afternoon (only the 4th island record!) and a cracking female Hawfinch I caught in Holland a bit later.   I also caught a Blackcap, a Willow Warbler and a Collared Dove in Holland.

                The definite highlight of the northern census route was a pod of at least 6 ORCAS off the seawatch hide which showed well but distantly as they moved off south and out; birds included a Wood Sandpiper on Garso, 4 Tree Sparrows, also at Garso, 4 Chiffchaffs, a Sedge Warbler, 2 Common Redpolls (I guess they were anyway but they were almost Lesser-like), an influx of 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and at least 12 Bonxies following a fishing boat.

                The pod of Orcas reappeared later in the afternoon and I saw them distantly off Gretchen as they headed west and out; there were a pair of Garganey on Gretchen along with 4 Black-tailed Godwits and at least 8 Great-northern Divers offshore on flat calm seas.



Hawfinch

Wood Sandpiper



Redpoll sp.

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