NORTH RONALDSAY - 2nd March

After a damp start it was a nice and bright middle of the day with a moderate but increasing southerly breeze bringing rain by the end of the afternoon; there was little new in the south end of the island as totals included the Eurasian White-fronted Goose, a Pink-footed Goose, the drake Green-winged Teal still, 246 Golden Plover, 9 Black-headed Gulls, 244+ Skylarks (with several flocks heading south and a big flock of 150+ near the school), 3 Chaffinches, 42 Twite, 2 Common Redpolls and 36 Snow Buntings.   The pond in front of T1 is chock full of mating Common Frogs with a conservative 400 present including an amazing looking albino individual – never seen the like!

The Golden Frog of North Ronaldsay

A bad Saturday night

NORTH RONALDSAY - 27th February

A ridiculous day!   A murky start but it soon burned off to leave an amazing morning with plenty of warm sunshine and not a breath of wind, I’ve never seen the like in February before!   Inevitably though, as if it was a summer’s day thick fog had rolled in by the afternoon; not much was seen though with 3 Linnets and a male Stonechat at the Obs, a Hen Harrier flew past, 6 Red-throated Divers were in the bay and the Eurasian White-fronted Goose and 2 Pink-footed Geese were in the fields.

Frogs

NORTH RONALDSAY - 24th March

A nice day with plenty of sunshine and a moderate SW breeze; walked around the Obs census route where birds included a Hen Harrier, a big young female Peregrine, a Dunnock, 4 Robins, 5 Song Thrushes, 2 Pied Wagtails, 3 Woodpigeons, 70+ Skylarks and 6 Linnets (very slow to arrive this year with 65 present this time last year).   The Green-winged Teal was again on Gretchen after a few days absence.

Pied Wagtail

Collared Dove

Peregrine

Frogs

NORTH RONALDSAY - 13th March

A return to the blazing strong westerly wind making things hard work so it was unsurprisingly quiet around the Obs census route but there was a Grey Wagtail by the Gretchen hide (actually a North Ron tick for me!) where there was also a Glaucous Gull which flew south and the drake Green-winged Teal still, now 3 Woodpigeons at Holland, 2 Pied Wagtails and 2 Fieldfares.

Gannets

Glaucous Gull

Oystercatchers

A relatively recent phenomenon, the pond near T1 is chock full of Frogs and Frogspawn

9th - 10th March

A full day of rain on the 9^th produced nothing but the rain had moved through by 0800 on the 10^th leaving a very pleasant day; I spent it around Kew Villa and Church Field with the nets open where birds included a single Snow Bunting over to the north along with a Rook and 2 Jackdaws while grounded migrants included a little influx of Thrushes with c15 Redwings and 10 Song Thrushes present first thing along with 2 Woodcock.  

The nets produced a few Chaffinches and Goldfinches while other things included a single Grey Partridge, a large Bat sp. which flew in mid-morning, took a drink from the pond and headed off, it was probably a Serotine Bat (or possibly a Noctule) and at least 25 Common Frogs croaking and splashing about in the Kew Villa pond – along with a big lump of frogspawn!

 

[probable] Serotine Bat - note tail projection

Froggy action

Adult male Chaffinch - the Chaffinches caught over the last few days were all adult males, all long winged (>92mm) and all carrying good fat deposits.   They are the first returning birds heading back to Scandinavia to claim their territories, the females will follow a bit later.

Goldfinch

Linnet