Tuesday, 14 August 2018

NORTH RONALDSAY - 13th August


With a light easterly breeze and a bit of cloud cover (would have preferred more!) there were some birds around making it feel like the first day of autumn!   Opened the nets first thing with the highlight being a fresh, pristine young Common Nightingale – only the eighth for the island and the second in autumn, other birds included a Willow Warbler and a Pied Flycatcher while there were 3 Ruff in the fields and my first Merlin of the autumn dashed over the garden.

                I then walked the middle census route with the highlight there being the first Barred Warbler of the autumn seen well in flight at North Gravity while other things of note included 64+ Sand Martins in the Ancum area (a new island record count!), a Short-eared Owl by Gravity which had a little tussle with the Hen Harrier which then followed me round the whole census route, another Ruff, a smart flock of 26 Black-tailed Godwits on Ancum and 2 Willow Warblers.


Nightingale

Black-tailed Godwits

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