NORTH RONALDSAY - 25th June

A bright and sunny start with a light southerly breeze; there was nothing really in the nets first thing apart from fledgling Wrens, House Sparrows and Linnets before I walked the Hooking census route as it clouded over.   It proved quite productive with a summer plumaged Black-throated Diver on the sea off Hooking, an adult male Hen Harrier which flew high north over The Links (pretty unseasonal!) and a female Garganey on Hooking.

                Other birds included 21 Bar-tailed Godwits, 32 Golden Plover, a Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Wigeon, 4 Gadwall, 30+ Sand Martins (I counted 39 burrows on The Links) and an increase from yesterday to 73 Black-headed Gull fledglings.   I went over to Gretchen in the afternoon where I had good views of a smart pair of Red-necked Phalaropes in the middle of the loch along with 14 Dunlin and the 10 Shelducklings still hanging on.

Wheatears were busy feeding fledglings

As were Wrens

NORTH RONALDSAY - 24th June

Back to lovely sunny conditions but the previous few days rough weather took their toll though as three out of the four Swallow broods we were due to ring were unfortunately dead in the nest, the Raven chicks didn’t survive the westerly storm (although it was a stupidly low nest on the west cliffs) and the Bonxies failed as well with a small chick dead in the nest.   The days birding highlight was a first-summer Little Gull bobbing around on Hooking with 40 Black-headed Gull fledglings.

Arctic Terns

NORTH RONALDSAY - 23rd June

A horrible day with a blasting westerly bringing nasty showers in the morning and thick, drizzle murk in the afternoon; there were thousands of birds offshore in the morning as totals in 1.5hrs included 1,200+ Kittiwakes (on land and at sea), 1,167 Puffins, 1,700 large Auks, 340 Gannets, 20 Arctic Skuas, 11 Manx Shearwaters and 2 Storm Petrels.

Huge numbers of roosting Kittiwakes at the foghorn

Which include good numbers of these very worn 2cy birds

This slightly darker mantled Lesser Black-backed Gull made me look twice but it was nothing special - maybe a touch of intermedius in there somewhere

More Kittiwakes - taken a few days ago

NORTH RONALDSAY - 17th June

Nice and bright with a calm start; nets at Holland first thing were quiet as I caught nothing new but there was an unseasonal Greenfinch briefly in the garden (only the second of the year).   The north census route was then pretty quiet with 46 Knot on Trolla the pick but there were c300 Kittiwakes loafing around on the rocks – there were quite a few first-summers but its not a good sign that there were so many lingering around here when they should be breeding somewhere else!

Kittiwakes - 1st summer and adults

NORTH RONALDSAY - 16th June

A nice calm day with a light SE breeze with the days highlight being a female Red-breasted Flycatcher I caught in Holland first thing; there wasn’t too much else in the middle census route with a single Black-tailed Godwit with 60 Bar-tailed Godwits on Ancum and 29 Dunlin at Westness.

Red-breasted Flycatcher

NORTH RONALDSAY - 15th June

Didn’t do much through the day with the highlight being a flock of 8 Canada Geese on Gretchen – a good island year-list bird!

Baby House Sparrow

NORTH RONALDSAY - 13th June

A calm start but the wind gradually increased through the day bringing rain by late afternoon; opened the nets first thing where I managed to catch a new Chiffchaff, a female Blackcap (although she had no tail and high fat levels so had been here for some time!) and one of the six Collared Doves but the highlight was a Quail heard singing somewhere just outside Holland over towards Kirbest.

Arctic Tern

This French ringed Black-tailed Godwit was on Gretchen yesterday

and this Black-headed Gull from 2016

NORTH RONALDSAY - 11th June

Another nice day with light westerly winds and varying amounts of cloud cover; changed my routine and instead of going to nets I went for a seawatch which produced, in two hours, an unprecedented flock of 55 Common Scoter (more than double the previous island record count!), 36 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Storm Petrels (my first of the year), 195 Gannets, 2 Red-throated Divers, 45 Puffins and 1,544 Auk sp.   That was pretty much it for the day as far as migrants went with 4 Black-tailed Godwits on Garso the only other things to mention.

Arctic Skua giving its distraction display

Bonxie giving its full on attack display

Pied Wagtail fledgling

Meadow Pipit with food