NORTH RONALDSAY - 15th October

A decent day with a moderate easterly based wind and plenty of dry, pleasant conditions to enjoy your birding; the rarity highlight of the day was a bit of a kick in the guts as a dead 1cy BROWN SHRIKE was picked up off the road near Holland House, having been freshly hit by a car – certainly not how we wanted to get our second record of this seemingly increasing eastern mega.   There were birds arriving right through the day with repeated checks of the same areas yielding increased numbers every time – really exciting birding, we couldn’t pull out another high quality rare but some good totals included 9 Herons, 202 Wigeon, 63 Teal, the drake Green-winged Teal still on Gretchen, 23 Shoveler, 3 Hen Harriers, 3 Merlin, 2 Grey Plover, a Woodcock, 20 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Short-eared Owls, 157+ Robins, a Black Redstart, 2 Redstarts, a Whinchat, a Wheatear, a Ring Ouzel, 50 Blackbird, 17 Fieldfare, 93 Song Thrush, 230 Redwing, an eastern Lesser Whitethroat, 20 Blackcap, 3 Yellow-browed Warblers, 22 Chiffchaff, the first Siberian Chiffchaff of the year, 35 Goldcrests, the Red-backed Shrike again at Barrenha, 11 Brambling, a Greenfinch, 3 Siskin, 13 Common Redpoll, a Hawfinch whizzing around (first of the autumn), a Tree Sparrow and 77 Snow Buntings.

Brown Shrike

Fieldfare