Flu

Horrible flu and ghastly weather on Saturday so very little birding done. Weather was better today and the flu had abated somewhat, but Louise had the flu so I had ponies to care for, hay to fetch, girls to sort out etc.

 Blue

 Chatter

The Blue-winged Teal showed well on The Shunan and I managed to add Slavonian Grebe and Scaup from Loch of Harray, despite it being pretty choppy. Amazingly enough I'm only five species short on last year's patch total for January around home, so not bad. Quality species as well with the teals, Iceland Gulls and the uncounted Gyr. Ruff, Jack Snipe, Goosander, Merlin and Kestrel are all worth a mention, a January Pied Wag was quite a turn up. Missing were Buzzard, Black-headed Gull, Skylark and Woodcock.

I failed to get to the coast in quite promising weather for seawatching so no extra points there.

A bit of a recalculation with the numbers from the downloaded BirdTrack lists give:

Patchwork running totals for 2015
Old Nisthouse - 60 species (84 points)   FootIt - 53 (66)    Comparitive PWC 2014 - 117 (169 points)

Palace, Birsay - 44 species (56 points) - Comparitive PWC 2013 - 93 (121 points)

 Token bird...