Weather

Shocking weather today with winds gusting up to 70mph and lots of rain, even with my sense of adventure, my decision to check all the cliffs was probably a bit risky.
Plenty of birds in, day totals - 120 Redwing, 40 Fieldfare, 5 Song Thrush, 4 Blackcaps, 3 Goldcrest, 1 Chiffchaff, 7 Robin, 1 Common Redpoll, 3 Wheatear, 2 Reed Bunting (only record this year), 55 Barnacle Geese, 3 Pintail, 5 Whooper Swan and a Short-eared Owl.

Blackcap

Barnacle Geese

Fieldfare

Pintails

Reed Buntings

Wheatear

Garganey

Finally managed to get a few shots of the drake Garganey that has been on the Loch for the last few days, a few other bits and pieces around the patch include 1 Robin, 1 Blackcap, 2 Gadwall, 6 Pintail, 3 Moorhen, 1 Swallow, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 White Wagtail, 6 Wheatear and a Bonxie.

Garganey

Blackcap

Pintail

At Last.... Wheatear

At long last, finally got a Wheatear on the patch, after searching almost daily for the last three weeks ! On the loch, the Duck flock consisted of 22 Wigeon, 14 Tufted Duck, 2 Goldeneye, 6 Teal, 2 Pintail and a year-tick - Gadwall.

Gadwall

Pintail

Wheatear

Wigeon

Two More

Two more year-ticks today - Siskin and Chiffchaff (both in the garden), elsewhere around the patch - 3 Robins, a Goldcrest, 2 Pintail and several Great Northern Divers (10+).

Great Northern Diver

Pintail

Siskin

New Birds

As if yesterday's Dunnock wasn't odd enough, on the patch today - 2 male Gadwall and a Song Thrush, two species I don't normally see until March/April time. Other year-ticks today were Grey Heron, Pintail (with the hybrid) and Tufted Duck (with the Scaup). Aside from that bit of excitement, there were 6 Common Scoters in West Voe and no Iceland Gulls (apart from the remains of a dead one).

Gadwall

Mallard x Pintail hybrid

Pintail

Song Thrush

Angry William

Still quiet on the patch, with only a male Pintail on the 14th to show for all the effort, a juv Crossbill in the garden on 15th was a year-tick.

New and improved ?

With Blogger doing a new and improved version of things, it meant that for several days I couldn't do any updates, plus a couple of posts have gone missing into the ether, and finally, when everything was supposedly OK I couldn't log in !!!

So here's a summary from the last few weeks -



Common Redpoll - one in the garden for a few days, and a year-tick.




female Pintail on the Loch on 25/5




Barnacle Goose on the Loch for a few days towards the end of May




Garden Warbler in the Hotel Garden on 26/5




Icterine Warbler at Sumburgh Head on 26/5




Sedge Warbler in the garden on 26/5 - garden tick !!!




Whinchat - another year-tick on 26/5





Mutes Swans - up to 8 have been on the Loch during May




Wood Pigeon - the only migrant on 4/6





Good, Good Friday.

Thrashing about on the patch, and it was clear that last nights south-easterly had worked a little bit, with 2 Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler in the garden, a Whitethroat in among the stone walls, a male Pintail on the loch and a Common Tern near Moast Beach.
Late afternoon was big bonus time, with a text from Mr Fray saying that there was a 1st summer Med Gull behind his house, unfortunatly it was asleep. Got the 'scope set up on the flock from the top of the garden and after about 20 minutes the bird woke up (thank you Mr Bonxie !) and started preening - house tick 181 in the bag !

Chiffchaff.

Common Tern.

Pintail.