NORTH RONALDSAY - 18th August

After a few showers in the morning it was a decent day with moderate SSE winds which died off in the evening; it was a good day in the field with a few new arrivals hinting that proper autumn might just be on the way.   Birds seen included a Sooty Shearwater off the Lighthouse, a Heron, a Merlin, 107 Oystercatchers, 495 Golden Plover, a good 179 Knot (still mostly juveniles), 23 Ruff (again, mostly juveniles), an excellent arrival of 62+ Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Green Sandpipers, a Greenshank, 3 Sandwich Terns – first ones for ages and finally a few passerines with 30 Wheatears, 2 Reed Warblers (Scotsha and Holland), a Whitethroat at the Obs and a Willow Warbler.

The fledgling Herring Gulls at Trinley