NORTH RONALDSAY - 20th October

An awesome autumn day with a light easterly bringing with it mist and murk which drifted in and out through the day; opened the nets for a while in the morning and caught a Long-eared Owl (two were roosting in the bottom Sycamores) and a Woodcock in amongst plenty of Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Redwings, Robins etc.

                I then went up and did the northern census route where there were thousands of birds all over the place – fantastic birding!   The highlight was finding a cracking PALLAS’S WARBLER in the garden at Bewan House which showed brilliantly while other highlights included great views of the long staying Bluethroat at Sandback, at least 12 Ring Ouzels, a Black Redstart and an Eastern Lesser Whitethroat; migrant totals comprised 1,785 Redwings, 102 Song Thrushes, 186 Blackbirds, 94 Robins, 18 Goldcrests, 21 Bramblings, 9 Chiffchaffs, 2 Mistle Thrushes, 24 Fieldfares, 4 Blackcaps, 2 Woodpigeons, 3 Mealy Redpolls, 6 Chaffinches, a Yellowhammer, a Wheatear, 7 Snow Buntings, 2 Woodcock, 3 Jack Snipe, 2 Pintail, 45 Teal, 70 Wigeon and a late Arctic Tern.

                There were thousands of birds elsewhere but the highlight was a flighty Great Grey Shrike at Ancum but it didn’t really allow close approach.

Long-eared Owl

Pallas's Warbler

More Whooper Swan action from Ancum

Brambling

GEDSER - 21st October

After some prolonged rain overnight it was another fantastic October day with another all day ringing session in sometimes very pleasant conditions; we were again flat out through the morning with the bulk of the 715 Goldcrests being caught which in turn formed most of the 917 new birds trapped; there were again some good highlights with a stunning PALLAS’S WARBLER caught in the afternoon along with another Yellow-browed Warbler, 2 Firecrests and 9 Northern Bullfinches.

                Overhead passage was much reduced from yesterday but there were still Finch flocks and really high Fieldfare flocks heading out (30,000 were counted at the point although they weren’t obvious over the garden) while other little bits included a couple of Hawfinches, a Woodlark, a few raptors with 4 Rough-legged Buzzards, a couple of Red Kites and many Sparrowhawks seen and some big Barnacle and White-fronted Goose flocks.

                Other things of note included my first 2 Whooper Swans of the autumn which flew noisily over the garden at first light, 2 Black Redstarts and an awesome little Weasel which was capering around my feet near one of the nets at dusk – hopefully he doesn’t get start to associate them with food….

 

Pallass Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler