NORTH RONALDSAY - 22nd November

A great day’s birding for mid-November after a spell of NE winds and rain; I walked round and up the coast to Lenswick, then cut across to The Links where birds included an adult Glaucous Gull on Gretchen before it flew north, 7 Woodcock, a Long-eared Owl flushed from The Lurn, a Black Redstart near Torness, a Chiffchaff, 6 Robins, 4 Fieldfares, the same female Hen Harrier, 3 Common Redpolls, 2 Snow Buntings and 2 Whooper Swans.   Birds in Nouster also included 3 Great-northern Divers, 2 Red-throated Divers and 16 Long-tailed Ducks.

The main feature of the day though was another huge influx of Gulls – mainly big, dark argentatus Herring Gulls, as there were 800+ on Torness which flew off north and then 1,200+ on The Links which included another 3 Glaucous Gulls (two adults and a juvenile) and potentially the rarest bird of the day with a very distinctive, very dark juvenile Kumlien’s Gull (the possibility of it being a Thayer’s Gull was discussed and not quite eliminated).   We then had a drive up to the top end where there were more Gulls including another 2 Glaucous Gulls – an adult and a juvenile.

Kumlien's (or Thayer's) Gull