October 1st 2016

 

Having travelled up to Orkney the previous evening, we (our team of 5 Sanday veterans and 1 newcomer) headed over on the first ferry from Kirkwall, via Stronsay, arriving at Sanday at about 09:30. We’d shopped with military precision the night before, so one of the first tasks of the day was to unload all of the provisions. I managed a quick half an hour around Lady, the village where we were staying, before all of the food and beer arrived, where a promising selection of migrants were making the most of the calm and bright conditions. Robins, usually pretty uncommon here, were all over the place, and blackcap, goldcrest and lesser whitethroat were also noted.

 

After eating some of the bread for lunch and then finding cupboards to squeeze the rest into, I spent the afternoon wandering round the Cata sand, to the south of Lady, and out to Tresness. This headland of fields, weedy corners and an excellent looking pool has oodles of migrant potential, under the right conditions, and offers an opportunity to scan through the hundreds and sometimes thousands of waders that use the Cata sand. Five pale-bellied brent geese were the best the Cata sand had to offer, a decent bird up here, and a good number of grey plover were among the barwit, redshanks, sanderling and dunlin.

 

The bay of Newark, on the other side of the sandbar, had 9 red-throated diver and a lone great northern, as well as a late 1cy Arctic tern, and as I picked my way along the shore towards the mouth of the sand I noted several red-breasted merganser and a couple of small groups of twite.

 

The headland itself was quiet. Or at least it was before I got out to the pool. Here, about 130 dunlin were feeding and roosting on the muddy fringes so I set up the scope to give them a good grilling. One of the legs on my tripod had been a bit awkward for a while but I didn’t expect it to snap clean off while I was setting up! The crack it made was quite audible to the birds but it was the sound that came from me that flushed them all, unfortunately. I think lots of dunlin learned a new word that day…Birding sanday without a scope was going to prove difficult - but with hindsight was a relief for my back.

 

Now scopeless I had a kick around the walls and weedy patches where a chiffchaff was lurking, before settling in for a ‘bins only’ seawatch, with 1 sooty shearwater being the only noteworthy bird. I made the long walk back to Lady in time to place an order at the chipper and also to dig my first yellow-browed warbler of the trip out of the doctors garden. A merlin also dashed through the village.

 

The others did well between them during the afternoon, with red-breasted flycatcher and a bunch of bean geese (mega up here) topping a bill including more sooty shearwaters, another yellow-browed warbler, and 33 Lapland bunting as well as the usual hen harriers, short-eared owls, whooper swans and large numbers of other wildfowl, including 1500 wigeon and 111 pintail. A good start.

 

October 2nd 2016

 

A day we will all remember for a long time!

 

In the morning I decided to walk a loop from Lady through Overbister, that would take in the little sea and its associated wetlands, as well as some decent migrant cover. As I wandered through Lady at sunrise, a redwing zeeped from a garden and a yellow-browed warbler (unringed, so a different bird from the night before), suggesting that a few new birds had arrived. A merlin sped over the fields at Overmaster but it wasn't enough to disturb the groups of pink-footed geese and golden plovers that frequent this part of the island. The goldie flocks here have hosted american golden plover and buff-breasted sandpiper on our previous visits, but today the best I could manage among the goodies was a lone grey plover, doing its best to look rare.

 

As I headed down towards the little sea, the WhatsApp group that we’d set up to keep everyone in the team in the loop started to kick off. People were reporting multiple yellow-browed warblers from multiple locations - and apart from the bird in Lady earlier on, I hadn't seen a single one! The cemetery at the little sea was devoid, and the first garden at Ladybank was similarly quiet. The next garden though, always a favourite of mine, delivered the goods with 5 yellow-browed warblers! The floodgates had opened, with yellow-brows noted from plenty of other locations as I made my way back towards lady, including 7 at the school and 5 in the village itself. I managed a total of 28 of these little stripey wonders during the morning, which completely eclipsed the handful of redwing and chiffchaff that had also arrived, and even the jackdaw that flew over the school - an uncommon bird here and only the teams second record for the island.

 

Over lunch, we discussed the numbers of yellow-brows that everyone else had seen, and it was clear that we were going to come up with a huge day total.

 

With that in mind we split up again for the afternoon, and with a borrowed tripod, I set off to do the loop around North loch - one of the birdiest walks on the island. The loop starts with a line of gardens, which hosted 4 more yellow-browed warblers, a few goldcrest, chiffchaff, blackcap, and 3 greenfinch, another quality island bird. The fields behind held both hen harrier and short-eared owl, while out on the water were an impressive 117 pintail, 300 wigeon, 36 mute and 23 whooper swans, and a lone, and rather confused looking long-tailed duck.

 

Having scoped the loch from one of the old pillboxes it was time to check the stubble fields and open grassy areas towards Tofts ness. Lapland buntings were very much in evidence, with at least 30 noted in one field among large numbers of skylarks. Golden plover were also here in large numbers. As I was deciding how to negotiate a fence that had rather pointlessly been electrified, an unfamiliar wader call drew my attention to a small, thin and grey pluvius plover flying in towards the flock. Piecing it together as I watched the bird fly in, I figured it had to be an American golden plover, which was backed up as it showed lovely dusky axiliaries on landing among its european cousins. Here I managed to get it in the scope and note enough to comfortably rule out a Pacific bird, and age it as a juvenile. Great stuff! There can’t be many places in the UK better than Sanday for this species.

 

I picked my way back towards the car via various other spots and picked up more yellow-browed warblers, lapland buntings and my only willow warbler of the trip as I went along.

 

On returning to the house at we did the log over a brandy coffee and came up with a conservative estimate of 86 yellow-browed warblers on the island. It really had been all about these little gems but a few other decent birds were noted. A little bunting put in a brief appearance at the north end of North loch during the morning, and a curlew sandpiper was seen at Cleat in the afternoon.

 

October 3rd 2016

 

In the morning I got dropped off on the Burness road and walked a loop around the Roos area, with its loch, marsh, stubble fields and patches of cover. Two Lapland buntings flew past as I walked up the Burness road, and things continued to go well while scoping through the ducks at Roos marsh (doing my best to balance the scope on a tripod kindly leant by the Sanday ranger!) In among the 60 odd wigeon, 230 teal and handful of shoveler, was a brilliant juv pectoral sandpiper. Unlike the AGP from the previous day this one did the decent thing and hung around for long enough for others (ranger included) to see it.

 

Nearby were a few redwing, and a stonechat. Stonechats have been seen as a minor rarity on Sanday in previous years with our team only having 1 previous record, but this year was to mark something of an influx, with perhaps 7 or 8 different birds noted. To emphasise this I had another bird further up the Burness road later in the day, having toured around a few gardens and patches of cover where there had been 2 each of chiffchaff and yellow-browed warbler. On the way back to Lady a merlin spooked a flock of 400 or so linnets from a crop, but they were too quick to do anything with, and there was a magnum from the corner shop with my name on it too…

 

After lunch I tried another balancing act with the borrowed tripod, finding enough shelter behind the hut at Neuks to have a seawatch. The scope only fell off once, and while I was managing to keep it on the tripod for an hour, I noted 33 sooty shearwaters passing. One of the real pleasures of seawatching here is how close the birds pass, with many of the sooties moving just beyond the breakers. Also seen were a single manx shearwater, small numbers of Arctic and great skuas, and a puffin and a red-throated diver. From here I headed up to North loch to shelter from the wind on the pillbox and scope through the wildfowl, and among the scores of wigeon and pintail were single long-tailed duck, goldeneye, and common scoter - only our second for Sanday.

 

The final action of the day came with a message from one of the guys who’d seen a ‘pied type’ flycatcher in the village that he thought merited a second look. We hurried over and eventually got decent views of what turned out to be a pied flycatcher - but well worth the team effort and pied flys are always a pleasure to see - especially when there is a yellow-browed warbler calling away in the background.

 

During the day the others picked up a scattering of jack snipe, and one literally picked up a long dead wryneck.

 

October 4th 2016

 

Another bright and dry morning, although it was rather windy. The wind was in the east all week but was failing to deliver any large numbers of migrants. That said, there were a few redwing and song thrush in the fields on my way down towards the little sea, and the sands themselves held decent numbers of waders, including several grey plover, black-tailed and bar tailed godwit, and a single ruff among the usual redshank, curlew and dunlin.

 

From here I wandered round to the Bea loch. Scoping the south west corner here (where all of the wildfowl usually congregate) can usually be done from the road, but when you’re trying to balance a scope in the wind this isn’t really an option. Instead, I found a very comfortable spot in the lea of the wind in a nearby farmyard - along with a bench to sit on and the offer of a cup of coffee! There were over 1000 wigeon in the corner of the loch, along with smaller numbers of other ducks and two coot - the only ones of the trip. A couple of whooper swans were present and over 700 golden plover fed in the field behind. The best birds however were lingering over on the far side of the water. A little grebe was half expected, but an eclipse drake goosander, our first ever on Sanday, had me messaging the rest of the guys as if I’d just found a major rarity!

 

After lunch, I took a walk along the Cleat road towards the farm at Crudy. This takes in some productive gardens (the site of last years Swainson’s thrush) as well as an excellent network of flooded fields and a lagoon. Again, thrushes were plentiful, and other migrants included a few goldcrest and a couple of Lapland buntings in the fields behind the cottages at Cleat. The wet areas had good numbers of teal and wigeon, and a flock of 97 barnacle geese were grazing at the waters edge. The farm at Crudy held a few migrants (namely robin and goldcrest), and the big flock of house sparrows on the approach track hosted a fine male brambling.

 

So, a quiet day for me (goosander aside…) but migrants had arrived in small numbers, and had been picked up by the other guys. Ring ouzel and common redstart were of note, but the best bird was a Richard’s pipit out at Tresness.

 

October 5th 2016

 

Another quiet day for me, but you need these to make the good ones feel better!

 

The morning saw me out at the east end again, exploring the North Loch loop and the rather exposed headland of Tofts ness, just 4 km over the water from North Ronaldsay. As usual I started around the gardens at the south end of the road, and dug out the usual suspects such as yellow-browed warbler, goldcrest, blackcap, and chiffchaff. There were also 17 whooper swans on the loch of Rhummie with the wigeons and flyovers of 5 barnacle geese and a couple of Lapland bunting.

 

After the last garden I cut across a stubblefield (more Lapland buntings) and then explored Tofts ness from south to north, keeping the wind and bright sun to my back and making it an altogether rather pleasant stroll. Here there were snipe galore, and hundreds of golden plover. Among these were singles of barnacle goose and jack snipe, and the odd spectacle of migrants such as robin and blackcap scraping around in the tussocks of grass. The north facing shingle ridge provided a much more sheltered foraging area for a handful of goldcrest, robin, song thrush and another blackcap, and a merlin was making the most of this as well, almost ditching the blackcap in the sea during a high speed chase. Also here, a short-eared owl came in-off, making a very autumnal scene. I made my return via North loch where the goldeneye count had increased to three birds.

 

In the afternoon, to relieve the legs, three of us took part in a bit of a whistle stop tour of a few spots. An interesting looking warbler had been seen at Stove in the morning so we started there to see if it could be relocated. During an hour or so we had yellow-browed warbler, chiffchaff, goldcrests, and the other two had a barred warbler that I somehow missed despite being about three yards away from it. From here we went up to the school (very quiet) and then on to the ‘Jungle’ at Roos farm. The wind had dropped a fair bit, meaning that it would be possible to work this rather large and impenetrable patch of cover with slightly greater ease. Again there were chiffs and goldcrests here, but the stars of the show were definitely ‘island quality’ – a couple of flyover goldfinch, and our first ever Sanday mistle thrush!

 

On the way back, one of the guys in the car spotted a bird sat in a tree, and then got very brief views of it as it flew off. He was sure it was a shrike, and one of the red-tailed ones at that. Despite the brevity of his view he was convinced it was something really good, but although we got as many of us on the case as possible, it remained hidden for the rest of the evening. One for a concerted effort in the morning.

 

Among the others better bits were a long-eared owl, good numbers of barnacle geese, a redstart, snow bunting, and a common redpoll that gets a mention because it was seen at a place called Bald Willie…

 

October 6th 2016

 

First thing in the morning we went up the Burness road to try and relocate the shrike that had been seen so fleetingly the evening before. Despite 6 of us giving it an hour or so, we didn’t even get a sniff of a shrike. Still, it was a productive hour or so for me with a short-eared owl and ruff in the fields along the northern Roos road, and a yellow-browed warbler in one of the gardens. I think some of us (myself included) had come to the conclusion that the shrike had moved on, either literally or figuratively, and that there were other birds to find.

 

So from here a couple of us went out to the east end and I found myself covering the North loch loop yet again. The gardens still contained good numbers of goldcrests, chiffchaffs and the odd blackcap, but with the addition of a couple of brambling here and there. Again, lapland buntings featured overhead from time to time.

 

After a brief double back to the south to check out an extremely dark (northern) wheatear I got back up to the gallery at Lettan to find a couple of chiffchaffs working along the sunny and sheltered edge. One was a bog standard collybitta but the other was a textbook Siberian chiffchaff, and gave some brilliant views as it moved swiftly along the road. A nice new bird for the trip and a nice illustration of how fleeting the presence of a migrant can be at any one spot - it hadn't been there 30 minute earlier and it wasn't seen again.

 

I then got a rather bizarre text from the ranger about a report from a local about a cattle egret nearby. I headed up to what i thought would be the right place but the only big white things standing around in the fields were cows. The message was then updated by the ranger to say that the bird was in fact a little egret and that it was feeding along the shore of North loch - that made much more sense, and soon enough there were 5 of us enjoying the spectacle of Orkneys 24th little egret, and wondering if we would ever be able to get good enough views of it to rule out a snowy.

 

After a lunch that was basically swiss roll, I thought that I’d walk out to Tresness for the afternoon. Again it proved to be a bit of a damp squib for migrants, although a whinchat was a nice addition to the trip list, and goldcrests were frequently heard from the marram grass in the dunes on the way out. Once again the pool was full of dozing wildfowl. All of the legwork was getting to me too, as having sat down to scan the ducks, the next thing I knew was that a large flock of barnacle geese were flying right over my head! I’d only been asleep for ten minutes or so but I must have needed it! As I headed off the headland I was treated to the spectacle of a peregrine tussling with a hen harrier, scattering the wigeon feeding on the shore below, but that was nothing compared to the spectacle I was about to enjoy. Just as I was getting back to the road I received a call saying that the shrike had been relocated and that it was a brown shrike! Would I like a lift? No kidding! 15 minutes after hearing about this brilliant refund and impressive display of persistence I was watching this mega sitting in an old mans garden and scattering the linnets and thrushes whenever it moved from bush to bush. 6 Ladyboys and a couple of Sanday rangers watched the bird until the sun went down and then retired to the house to toast such a brilliant looking bird and great bit of craft.

 

There were other birds seen on that day but well, none of them were a brown shrike so who cares?!

 

October 7th 2016

 

With a biggie in the bag the pressure was off but we all still felt that there would be more good birds to come. My route in the morning took me along the coast in the northernmost parts of the island, before coming back via Roo and Burness for another look at the shrike.

 

I started off at the Craft centre and the big farm at Scar. Again thrushes were plentiful, with a few of the fields nearby having small groups of redwing coming up out of them. A few blackcaps were scattered about, and at Scar a couple of goldcrests and chiffchaffs fed on the sheltered walls of the farmhouse, much in the way I imagine they do on the cliffs of Fair Isle.

 

From here I headed towards Woo, where crests, and a blackcap flitted around, and a water rail called from the middle of an iris bed. Onward to Roo (on a route that will always be known as the Woo - Roo loop), where the thick cover hosted a big group of 10+ goldcrests, 3 chiffchaffs, a couple of blackcaps and a single yellow-browed warbler. What must have been the same mistle thrush was associating with other thrushes in the fields behind Roo.

 

Despite having a good look around Burness the shrike was nowhere to be seen - and the only birds around were the now usual selection of common migrants. In fact it was a similar story all the way home, apart from the goldfinch that tinkled its way over as I approached Lady.

 

In the afternoon I had another go at the Overbister track to the little sea. The ruined crofts and occasional gardens here were quiet, but a flyover grey wagtail was pretty mega by Sanday standards. At the church I bumped into Martin Grey and had a very pleasant half an hour chat, discussing the Orcadian birding scene and old times on North Ron, before moving on to the little sea which had small numbers of barwits and dunlin feeding along its edge, the rest pushed away by the height of the tide. This had concentrated waders on the pools at Over-the-water though, where I counted 192 black-tailed godwits, over twice as many as we’d ever recorded on the island before. Lurking among the flock was a single ruff.

 

I returned via the school, where three greenfinch were feeding with the linnets, but to be honest I was getting a little fed up of finding birds that were rare for Sanday, instead of birds that were just plain old rare.

 

We had one more day to try and pull something decent out of the bag. Also, 3 of the team had, after much deliberation, decided to bail Sanday and try their luck on Hoy. Surely the stars we aligning for one last throw of the dice the next morning…

 

The others had had a bit more success than me during the day, unearthing bluethroat and green-winged teal, as well as a wee influx of woodcock.

 

October 8th 2016

 

So, the last day dawns bright and clear, and we said cheerio to three of the gang - we three headed eastward while they went west and prayed that they don't hear anything from us on the Whatsapp group. To get the news of another biggie while they were on the ferry would have been awful!

 

I found myself doing the North loch loop again, and started at the garden at Salties, which had a handful of goldcrest and a yellow-browed warbler. For a change of tack I then headed out towards the dunes where there are quite sheltered stands of ragwort and willowherb. There were plenty of redwing there, and several Lapland buntings could be heard over the fields in amongst the skylarks and meadow pipits. It was pretty tough going though, wading through marram grass on an uneven and invisible surface, so I took the opportunity to walk back to the rather impenetrable garden at Nortwa along a decent track.

 

Here, a few goldcrests called, and a phylloscopus warbler flitted ahead of me. The phyllosc did the decent thing and popped out of the cover, revealing a neat, narrow wingbar with none of the other jazziness of a yellow-brow. A quick check of the bill structure, PP, leg colour, and broadness of the supercilium, and I was delighted to see that it was a greenish warbler! I alerted the rest of the guys and managed a few record shots of it as it slunk back into the cover. One of the others was interested in seeing the bird so I headed round to the other side of the garden to relocate it, bumping into a showy and rather spectacular looking common redpoll in the process, as well as a couple of yellow-browed warblers, a chiffchaff, and a blackcap.

 

Five minutes had passed and although I could see the guy who was supposed to be heading over for the greenish, he wasn't making any headway towards me. I phoned him up and it transpired that on his way over he'd flushed a small, browny warbler from the edge on an iris bed and was trying to get better views of it (he had sent a message but it hadn't got through). I rushed the two or three hundred yards to where he was and slowly we went into the irises. The first view was inconclusive, but on seeing it again it was clear that it was a relatively cold toned acrocephalus warbler. We were keen not to push the bird around too much, and managed to get a selection of photos of the bird in flight (and the other guy got some on the ground) that confirmed our suspicions that it was a Blyth's reed warbler. while we were focussing on this a bird seeped overhead and it can only have been a hawfinch, but unfortunately we didn't see it as we were focussing on the warbler - and a water rail scaprered out of the irises when we got too close to where it hid, unseen.

 

While all of this was going on, the guy who'd gone down to Start point had picked up a long-eared owl, and then as he arrived at Salties en route to the Blyth's reed, he found a little bunting! What an amazing hour or so we'd had.

 

Of course it all felt rather tame after that. I headed on around North loch and picked up the usual common migrants along with a couple of chaffinch and good numbers of Lapland buntings in the stubble. We headed back to the house for a bight to eat and to finish cleaning and clearing the house, before checking a few last spots in the south of the island before we jumped on our evening ferry. Stove held a dunnock, several goldcrests and a yellow-browed warbler, and the quarry at Loth hosted a couple of goldcrest. As we waited for the ferry to come in we admired one of these little travelers as it fed just feet away in the warm glow of the evening sun. I wondered about the journey that it, and many of the other birds that we'd seen had made, and felt totally in awe of the sea crossings they manage to achieve. Admiring this common migrant was a fitting end to what had been an excellent week - easily our best yet on Sanday.

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