White-billed Divers

A WBD was finally confirmed off South Ron today, this bird has been seen a few times but I don't think anyone had nailed the ID before, well done JB. What with ALs bird off Papay on Friday, in full summer plumage to boot there are clearly a few around.

It would have been very neat to have rebounded JBs bird with my own (we're having a bit of a listing competition) and but for a couple of seconds I think I would have, unfortunately.... I'd gone to the Broch of Gurness with that very plan in mind. Having scanned the water for about half an hour, two GNDs, one very smart in summer plumage, and two Red-throats, I decided to look at the hills of Rousay, across the sound, for raptors. As I was scanning the hill tops a diver flew through the scope. I realised immediately it was one of the big two and the huge feet and goose like flight made me think it was more likely a WBD. (I do see quite a few GNDs flying, this bird did have proportionately huge feet and an even slower wing beat than I'd have expected.) Trouble was I got on it too late and couldn't see the head properly, so I'll never know, as it just got higher and headed north to the open sea.

However, there were other highlights today, displaying Arctic Skuas over the moors,  a Siskin on the garden feeders (first for the year), great views of Short-eared Owls and (live, healthy) Hen Harriers, including a fair bit of sky-dancing, a smart Black-tailed Godwit appeared on The Shunan late afternoon too.

The Short-eared Owl had been sitting on a fence post and I'd stopped hoping for a picture but it flew off. I pulled in and parked as i wanted to check this spot for redpolls and saw the owl coming straight at me up the ditch.

This is the cropped second picture (probably the sharpest)

...and this is shortly before it flew in the car window and shared a biscuit

****ing barbed wire fences

Eating tea in the garden on a lovely evening and occasionally scanning with the scope - Red th Diver overhead, Shortie, Hen Harrier, selection of ducks and corvids. Then, ****! Male Hen Harrier about a mile away obviously caught in a fence. Leap into car with trusty assistant and a short drive, a bit of a tramp and a few gates and fences later we get there. Hen Harrier well and truly stuck in a single strand, a barb embedded in a wing muscle.

Not how you want to see a Hen Harrier

Manage to get it out but it doesn't look great, muscle a mess so a call and manage to get hold of AL who kindly drives half way. The bird's knackered though, I already had figured this as I'd fairly easily managed to extract the talon from my thumb. There's a vet here who will look at such casualties but we don't hold out much hope. The death of the male could lead to several nests failing, depending how many females he's servicing. I hate barbed wire.

That's harrier blood, not mine on the jacket, and you can see its in a bit of a state

Not the best end to an otherwise rather good day.

A post at last...

Busy, busy busy... poor blog, no posts.

Have been away south, seeing (the now murdered) Caper at Loch Morlich and seeing Black Grouse, the first I've seen for twenty years I reckon.

Migrants are now appearing, two Grey Plover on Loch of Bosquoy this morning were a surprise, Wheatears, Swallow and White Wagtail at Birsay yesterday. There were still two Glaucous Gulls at Loch of Skaill this evening. Up to three Brambling were in the garden yesterday as was a Goldfinch this evening. It seems a White-tailed Eagle may have flown by this afternoon whilst I was clearing out the shed...

Sunny with showers

Here's some pictures now things are back to normal as I've finished my bit of the bird report and the bird race is done and dusted (I'll post about the bird race shortly). This morning found me checking the local tetrad, yesterday's ploughing had encouraged plenty of gulls, but no white wingers, however, 28 Lesser Black-backs was a good count. Best bird was a Black-tailed Godwit, the first of the year. Snipe was calling and Curlew were on territory.

The confiding Little Auk in Scapa Bay earlier today. 

Had a bit of a tour around after checking the local patch as I had some things to get in Kirkwall. On the way I noticed that there was a lot of gull activity at the fish cages just outside Hatston so I stopped and looked. I didn't have the new Nikon scope with me but all the same in good light the faithful Zeiss did the job and I spent a good time sifting through the distant flock, in the air and loafing on the cages and water. Most surprising was the lack of any white winged gulls and in the end I counted 280 Herring Gulls, at least a third of which were 2cys. I'd thought that there were more gulls further out but when I looked carefully found they were Eider and a bit of a scan towards the harbour found some more, in the end I counted 600 which is a fairly hefty flock here. I could check the closest males and they were all standard but the distant ones and the females needed more optical power, or a boat.

There was a single Iceland Gull, a 2cy on the PDC. Shopping done I headed to Scapa and after a brief hunt around one of the reported Little Auks was found close by the quay.

Louise had a female Hen Harrier at the end of the day and I tried coaxing a Shortie towards the garden but failed. Hen Harriers pretty regularly hunt in and around the garden but I've only once had a Shortie closer than this one, 100 m or so distant, and that was at night.

Aurora not visible

Its been grey, misty and windy for a few days now, not good for aurora watchig. On Friday you could tell something was going on as it seemed too bright and there were occaisional glimpses of green behind the clouds. Yesterday nothing doing but tonight looks and feels quite good but loads of cloud again at the moment.

Bird race

Not so much planning, at least on my part, this year and we tried a different route, starting in the east and working west. Some plans went out of the window through lack of time, and maybe that walk at Orphir would have brought us a few more species, but 91 was a good total and equal to our effort last year. In addition I managed to hear the Finstown Hawfinch, which at least one other team saw and a disaster at the end with Little Grebe meant we couldn't add that to the total either as only two of us saw it and the clock ran out before it resurfaced in view. However, we did see the Burray Whimbrel (but dipped on the nearby Little Auk as two of us failed to see it before it vaporised). I was well pleased with the Toab American Wigeon which I'd dipped twice the previous weekend. Merlin at The Loons was good, both races of White-front were a combination I've not seen on a day before (only one tick though) and awkward things like Meadow Pipit, Dunnock, Song Thrush and our resident Tree Sparrow all played ball. The next effort will be in April or May when I have a go at the on the bike day, I'll need to beat last year's 71 which was a score curtailed by aweful weather in the afternoon meaning it was more like a half day score.

Spring perhaps

Not a very spring like day as a cool easterly was blasting across Harray and it stayed grey nearly all day. However, there were four Woodpigeons in the wood and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls on The Shunan. Fieldfares continue to head off with seven or so today across the fields, heading east.

The bird of the week was the Iceland Gull on The Shunan, a 2cy which flew in over my head as I was getting the girls into the car heading for work. We met the green van man on the track, picked up our parcel and had slightly better views.

I'm still battleing with the bird report, just two wader species to go now, thus the rather brief posts. Also it is bird race time and there is a crown to be defended. A certain amount of preparation has gone on but I wasn't very enthusiastic today and anyway had to go on a mission to Kirkwall to replace the completely disintegrated toilet seat which had been capable of giving one a nasty nip on the bum given the chance.

Some track repairs this afternoon ended up with the trailer shedding a tyre, should have checked the tyre pressures shoudn't I ...

The target for tomorrow is to better last year's 91, we shall see.

Goose count

Today was spent over on the East Mainland counting geese of which there were:
Greylag Geese - 3335, Pink-footed geese - 518, Eurasian White-fronts - 42.

Also seen were the Firecrest, 30 Great Northerns, 6 or so Slav Grebes and ten Iceland Gulls.


Probably the most notable event of the day was the spring arrival of Woodpigeon at home first two came in from the south and dropped in then another seven came over five of which continued northward.


Yesterday's track works seem to have held up, it may be a bit early to start fixing it up but some of the craters are of wheel swallowing size and I fear for the Fiesta's life.

More white stuff

A day off and the dog needed walking, so Marwick it was....

 A few Iceland and Kumlien's Gulls

There were 22 Iceland Gulls in the roost in the field and another two on the far pond when I got there with a couple of Glaucous Gulls. The tide was in so there was nothing at The Choin. However, birds were moving backwards and forwards every few minutes so it was quite hard to keep track.At the geos there was a nice roost of Icelands and the various chunks of deceased whale were still providing plenty of food. In the end I counted 63 Iceland type gulls of which five (at a minimum) were Kulien's type. There were six Glaucous as well. Also present a hybrid crow.

Kumlien's Gull - a 3cy - it seems to me that Ks are typically "less advanced"  compared to correspondingly aged Iceland and tend to have more brown plumage in the coverts and on the body; note the pink bill on this bird making it look quite Glauc like

Three ages a 4cy, a 3cy and a 2cy. The 2cy is clearly Kumlien's but the other two are possibles (not included in totals) as well. The 2cy has a pale eye, most K at this age would have a dark eye.

 Here's a nice group, just the one K here

I think this could be argued to be Kumlien's, P10 and P9 look grey to the tip

And now for something completely different....

Rather tame Rockit

It was clear out day, so en route to the tip I finally had a go for the Firecrest in Finstown. It took a little doing, I would have found it sooner if there had been less noise around but in the end I got brief but very good views. No photos though, as soon as I got the camera out it vapourised.

Back at the ranch the Tree Sparrow is still present. Fourteen Fieldfare were by The Shunan. The rooks roosted last night and it looks as if they were roosting this evening as well, joined by 42 Jackdaws this evening that all came in high at about five, no chance to check through them..

Yesterday at home in the morning there were three Shelduck on The Shunan, but just two in the evening  and the Oystercatcher flock was reduced to one.The Woodcock flew through the garden again in the dusk and 105 Pin-feet came north. Plenty of Wigeon and Teal on The Shunan as well.

Winter Moon

The sky is spectacular at the moment with four planets showing well, Saturn's rings are especially smart early morning. Here's the Moon rising this evening.

There are still plenty of white-winged gulls about but the star birds of the weekend were the five Goosander on Loch of Bosquoy.. Four were initially located from the garden whilst trying out the new scope, I went down there to give them a bit more scrutiny and found an extra one, not a common bird here so a nice record, five males and one female type.

New scope is pretty impressive. Someone was selling a Nikon 82 Fieldscope locally. Optically excellent but the Zeiss will still remain the staple I suspect, for reasons of portability.

I still haven't bothered to go and look for the Finstown Firecrest, and it might be too late now as its very cold tonight.

Kumlien's?

I'm reliably informed that the criteria for Kumlien's Gull has changed and that some birds are now being called, "brown winged" Iceland. These are the individuals with the venetian blind like effect in their wings, I think.

I snapped the two birds below at Bay of Skaill this morning. One is clearly Kumlien's but the other one appeared to be an Iceland Gull, but then in flight its tail would surely make it Kumlien's????

 Don't think anyone would argue with this as Kumlien's (3cy)

 This one looks like Iceland (3cy) though

 ...but that's a tail bar isn't it? Kumlien's then?

The brute was slightly more straightforward

There were 10 Iceland (type) Gulls in the bay this morning, with two Glaucous, on the loch there were two more Glaucous.

Awesome sky

Having dipped severely on the aurora the other night, saw the glow in the sky and didn't bother to check it properly, dow! Then having two evenings when we thought it was buzzing but the cloud prevented a view, it was neat this morning to awake to a clear sky to the south. Of late the morning sky to the south has been at best misty. Mars shone brightly to the SW, but best of all was Saturn low to the south with its rings showing really well at x 45. Then just around 7:00 a.m. the ISS passed under it, very neat.

A little later as I went out to the car to de-ice it (that is not to scrape off Iceland Gulls you understand) a Woodcock circled the house and garden. 

Yesterday, to and from Kirkwall to a meeting, a 3cy Iceland Gull on the PDC and then a 3cy and an adult west of Finstown plodding around in a field near Binscarth, didn't even bother to stop to use the bins, well they're trash birds now (only kidding, honest).