September 16th 2011

 

Today was spent travelling north, birding at various spots on the way up to Gills bay for the ferry late in the evening. We didn't come across anything special, but enjoyed greenshanks at loch fleet, and sooty shearwaters at Noss Head (which looks uber rare, by the way but). The best of the days birding was reserved for the crossing, before it got too dark to see anything...we got 4 stormies, a few manx and sooties, and of course the odd bonxies and tysties.

 

September 17th 2011

 

In between waking up with a hangover and doing a biiigggg shop for the week in Tescos (other supermarkets are available...but not in Kirkwall. Unless you count Lidl. Which you shouldn't) we managed to squeeze in a few hours birding. Somewhere along the line we bumped into Eric 'the legend' Meek, who showed us round some of the better migrant spots on South Ron. There were obviously birds arriving with decent numbers of blackcap at most spots. Heart stopping moment of the day came at honeysgeo when a single, incredibly greenish warbler like note came out of the bushes. Despite our best efforts though we couldn't even see a bird let alone string a common phyllosc into a rare one....Which is a shame cos I'd like to promote the name honeysgeo as much as possible.

 

After an uneventful crossing to Sanday we got our first taste of birding on the island at the bushes at Stove. In the dark and in the wind. Needless to say we didn't see much!

 

September 18th 2011

 

With the wind in the south east and drizzle on our faces we had high hopes for today. Birding around the gardens in Lady village (the lady gardens! Ha!) gave us a taste of things to come with both spotted and pied flycatchers, a garden warbler and multiple willows, chiffs and blackcaps.

 

We decided to head out to the east end of the island, and before we even got there, Ian (who was on fire all week) managed to pick up a juv red-backed shrike from a bush as the car zoomed by. This put a wee bit of a spring in our step which was maintained at our first stop. The garden around Salties had redstart, lesser whitethroat, and a wryneck. And so it continued all day, with common migrants at each stop, with the odd bit of scarce thrown in willy nilly, with a Lapland bunting over north loch, and a yellow browed warbler in gardens in the middle of the island. We finished off the day back at the east end of the island, where Dave bagged a little bunting. After giving us the run around for a wee bit, and giving flight views and calls, it eventually rested up on a wall allowing us all to enjoy the bird properly. A really great start to the holiday!

 

September 19th 2011

 

A little quieter today in terms of the scarce birds, but the majority of the common migrants seemed to stay around, which was a bit of a feature of the week. The yellow browed from yesterday was still around, and a new bird was at the Stove bushes in the far south of the island...which was a brilliant little site that held 6 species of warbler and 4 whinchat that day. Among the warblers was the only whitethroat of the trip. Among other stuff seen at various locations on the 19th were barnacle goose, merlin, SEO, the briefest of glimpses of a water rail (and a dead one, the victim of a cat, in the north), plenty of twite, hen harriers and peregrines. There is always plenty to look at on Sanday...

 

September 20th 2011

 

I decided to turn my attention to the waders today, with the large tidal expanse of the Cata sand being my focus. I had a look in the morning when the tide was dropping, and realised that if I could get myself into position for a rising tide I'd get some cracking views of the waders. My morning walk took me along the edge of the Cata sand, and the highlight was a gang of 5 lapland bunts that put on a cracking display among a flock of twite...There are certain birds that I considered rare back in my childhood...things like YBWand sooty shearwater for example, that I can still recall the thrill of seeing for the first time. Lapland bunting comes into this category. My first was a cracking breeding plumage male somewhere in Cleveland way back when, and although I've never seen another one quite like that one, it always sends my mind back to that spot when I hear one tickytick as it goes over.

 

Anyway, also that morning, among the thousands of waders on Cata sand were a curlew sandpiper and a couple of ruff, and a merlin menacingly perching on the salt marsh.

 

My afternoon visit to the high tide roost was slightly less enjoyable, perhaps due to the incessant heavy rain. I say incessant, but that is perhaps slightly misleading as there were times when it was hailing heavily and not raining. I got soaked to the skin and affy cold, but it was worth it for the good views of the large numbers of waders....900 bar wits and 1000 golden plover, among other things, with peregrines and short eared owls keeping me entertained as well. The whole island looks amazing for waders....I'm quite surprised we didn't get a yank somethingorother.

 

Some of the others had a barred warbler this afternoon.

 

September 21st 2011

 

My notebook seems a little sparsely populated for today, so obviously not an awful lot going on...but still plenty to keep you going. North loch had a scaup, hundreds of wigeon and a max count of 68 pintail, there were plenty of waders on the peedie sea, as well as a greenshank in roadside pools on the way there. Stove had a new spotted flycatcher as well as a few other lingering migs, and there was obviously some new stuff coming in as a YBW put in an appearance in one of the Sanday rangers mist nets in Lady. Rod (the sanday ranger) has a mist net permanently on the go in his garden and his, and the other gardens in Lady were getting some good coverage from us so this bird was probably new in or at leasing roaming over the island. See photos in the post below.

 

September 22nd 2011

 

Another quiet day migrant wise, with the best bird of the morning being the YBW in the same garden as it had been all week. I headed out to bird around the spit towards Start point in the afternoon, which was also quiet but looked brilliant....the sort of place you'd want to be in a fall, before the birds moved inland and found themselves some decent cover. In the afternoon, some of the others had a common rosefinch briefly, in the east of the island.

 

September 23rd 2011

 

The last day, which ended well for one of the group who turned up a Richards pipit at tofts ness, in the far north east of the island. We went and had a bit of a stomp around looking for it but to no avail...there were plenty of lap bunts in the area though, and the whole spot looked brilliant for rare larks, pipits, wagtails, and perhaps the odd great snipe or two....

 

So, on the whole, a great holiday! Birding by day, with always plenty to look at and the opportunity to find your own good birds, and of course, the obligatory drinking of whisky and various orkney ales in the evening, along with some great company. What more could you ask for...apart from the odd BB rare I suppose. Next time.....