Dunlin

Fantastic day today, bright and warm (this after some days of grey and cool, cold even). The warmth came through yesterday when the temperature suddenly jumped to 20C in the middle of the day but the sunshine didn't arrive until this morn. So good we even cobbled together a barbie.

The Dunlin are on the move, a flock of 17 at Birsay this afternoon were very tame. The local ones seem to have disappeared and this year I've seen no juvs on The Shunan, not a good breeding season perhaps. There had been 6 - 8 daily until fairly recently and on a couple of occasions i'd tracked them flying high over the house back up onto the moor. The 17 were all adults too. However, as we were leaving there were a couple of juvs by the burn mouth.

An excursion this morning to check some Atlas stuff produced an unexpected Slavonian Grebe, very smart. The steam roller was phtographed a few days earlier, on a prior visit to this site, I remember when beasts like this were in serious use.

The moth trap has not turned up anything very thrilling recently, well nothing I could identify at least. I've photographed a couple of things that might be of interest. However, Garden Tigers are always good to see.