NORTH RONALDSAY - 24th February

A lovely, bright and sunny day with light southerly winds; there were a few new birds found across the land as would have been hoped for in the fine conditions which included a female Stonechat at Brides and an increase to 216 Skylarks and 7 Meadow Pipits.   Other landbirds of note comprised 2 Peregrines – an adult female and a 2cy male seemingly hunting together over Trolla, a Hen Harrier, 20 Rock Pipits, a Pied Wagtail, the 5 Chaffinches still (I thought I saw six at one stage but couldn’t confirm!), 60 Twite, 3 Common Redpolls, 52 Snow Buntings and 7 Reed Buntings.

                There were a few increases noted amongst the wildfowl and waders as well with a few species posting their highest counts of the year during some good coverage across high tide including 284 Teal, 123 Mallard, 61 Coot, 390 Lapwing, 171 Snipe, 107 Curlew, 168 Redshank and 25 Black-headed Gulls.

                Other birds of note comprised 10 Red-throated Divers, the Black-throated Diver again in Nouster, 5 Great-northern Divers, 5 Herons, 4 Mute Swans, the Eurasian White-fronted Goose and 3 Pink-footed Geese with the Greylags, 3 Shelduck, 295 Wigeon, 14 Gadwall, the drake Green-winged Teal still on Gretchen, 18 Long-tailed Ducks, the flock of 47 Black-tailed Godwits again on Brides (last seen flying high south, out to sea), 22 Bar-tailed Godwits, 295 Purple Sandpipers and 228 Turnstone.

Stonechat

Raven

Bar-tailed Godwits

Seals