Another great day in the
field but tinged with equal amounts of frustration as a blazing force 8 SE wind
and several hard showers made it difficult to say the least out and about. It was actually calm before dawn so I opened
the nets at Holland and managed to catch c50 birds before the rapidly
increasing wind forced me to close including 6 Robins, 7 Blackcaps, 2
Bramblings, a Chaffinch, a Song Thrush and 20 Redwings while a Long-eared Owl was seen briefly at dawn.
I then walked the middle census route which was
pretty quiet over on the eastern side of the area but there were loads of birds
along the sheltered western side, the highlights included a stunning adult male
Red-breasted Flycatcher on the coast just north of Lenswick
and a Great Grey Shrike at Westness – a long overdue find tick! Other migrant totals included a Kestrel, a
Short-eared Owl, a Woodpigeon, 2 Swallows, 17 Robins, 3 Wheatears, a fine male Redstart at Lenswick, 190+ Redwing, 12 Fieldfares, 16 Song
Thrushes, 2 Blackcap, 15 Chaffinches, 20 Brambling, a Goldfinch, 4 Reed
Buntings and 2 Snow Buntings. Other
birds included 5 Whooper Swans (3 juveniles), 21 Barnacle Geese, 3 Pink-footed
Geese, 5 Gadwall, 8 Shoveler, c200 Snipe and some big rough weather flocks of
200+ Great Black-backed Gulls, 110+ Herring Gulls and 150+ Common Gulls.
There was then a mad dash up to Garso mid-afternoon
to get good views of a LITTLE EGRET crouched
on the side of the loch, hunkered down against the wind looking very unhappy –
only the fourth for the island! I then
went for another little walk round from Lenswick to Torness where there were
still roving flocks of Brambling and Chaffinch, Robins and Thrushes along with
a Yellow-browed Warbler on the Torness coast, my first Ring Ouzel of the autumn and my only
Chiffchaff of the day.
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Great Grey Shrike
Redstart
Short-eared Owl
Brambling
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