NORTH RONALDSAY - 28th July

Warm and sunny again with a brisk easterly breeze which slowly eased off to become almost still by the evening; it was fairly quiet but as every day now, there was still a decent turnover of waders, gulls and terns as totals included 9 Herons, a Mute Swan (the first one for two weeks), the two Garganey on Gretchen, 9 Shoveler, 213 Oystercatchers, 245 Golden Plover, 18 Knot, 123 Dunlin, 4 Black-tailed Godwits, 20 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Ruff and the Greenshank still on Gretchen, 356 Common Gulls, 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a big increase to c2,550 Arctic Terns.   Also of note was the first Peacock of the year in with still good numbers of Painted Ladies and a record count of 159 Dark Arches in the moth trap.

Ruff

Oystercatcher fledgling