Birding days.

 I walked on the patch and into the Uber patch, just to Loch of Bosquoy, on 2nd January. Out of the door and 13 Pink-feet flew over, nice. Checked the stubble field where there were still at least 90 Skylark, perhaps more, and the Chaffinch/Brambling flock also still present. The Brambling haven't been so keen on our garden since the ringing expedition. There were more Pinks down at the loch.

Brambling and Chaffinch.

There was a large flock of Golden Plover, I logged 700 but there may have been in excess of 1,000.

If you want to count them you can let me know how many there are...

Also present were the drake Goosander and four Dunlin, but no Blackwits or surprising quakers. On the home patch, fairly standard birds. Today a flock of Goldfinch, 13, and Greenfinch, 16, arrived and a ringtail Hen Harrier first hunted for voles in the long grass and then had a go at the House Sparrows in their buddleia/honeysuckle tangle, unsuccessfully.

A trip to the crow roost at Durkadale produced a possible Rough-legged Buzzard, jousting with two Common Buzzard, it was elusive and I couldn't nail the ID, annoying as I've never found a Rough-leg for myself. However, there were 162 crows, all Hoodies as far as I could ascertain in the crow pre-roost. Near Kirbuster there had been hundreds of waders and gulls in the fields. I couldn't find anything uncommon except two Ruff, but 79 Redshank was a good count along with 325 Lapwing and not far off 100 more Goldies. A ten minute drive from the house and there are several hundred Black-headed Gulls but at home they are very, very uncommon at this time of year.

Nearly finished writing my sections for the 2020 Orkney Bird Report, a bit delayed in its production. However, things are back on track and I'll be expecting the data for 2021 to be arriving in the inbox early in February, it's not really my favourite job but I don't write many species, shrikes to corvids, not onerus really.