Wee migrants

The Sedge Warbler in the garden on Sunday was the first seen actually in the garden in the time we've lived here, despite the species breeding just a few hundred metres away. There was another in a more familiar haunt yesterday, one in the hawthorn hedge.

A surprise on Sunday was a Whooper Swan on the sea amongst the summering flock at Palace. I didn't get Whooper on the Palace patch last year so very welcome.

This smart Knot was at Northside.

Breeding waders at The Loons.

There was a smart Reed Bunting at the beginning of the hawthorn hedge yesterday evening which tempted me with the camera, it disappeared into the thorns but then something flicked. Suddenly I was on to a flycatcher. It looked quite small and short-tailed. No white in the wing, no white in the tail and I couldn't see any streaking on the breast or flanks. However there did seem to be streaking on the forehead. It took about half an hour to get a view that showed the feint streaking on the breast, but in that time I had ruled out something more exciting due to the lack of an eye ring and feint flank streaking. Educational.

I'd been hunting around the hedge as there were the first hoverflies of the year in the ditch by the track, at least three Eristalis pertinax and a number of bumble impersonators which I've not yet got around to identifying, later. I should have put the moth traps out as well but somehow fell asleep in front of Jules...

Palace morning

Arrived at high tide to see the encouraging mob of gulls along the tideline, but surprisingly there were no interesting ones. However, there were plenty of waders, 175 Dunlin and 200 Turnstone along with smaller numbers of Purps and Ringed Plovers. Star bird was a patch tick of a Yellow Wagtail, not a common bird in Orkney, indeed I've seen flava here but not flavissima before. A few White Wags and a Chiffchaff.

 The view on arrival

 Waders

Purple Sand

Dunlin

Ringed Plover

Turnstones

Redshank

White Wagtail (alba.alba)

Yellow Wagtail (patch tick)

Arctic Terns at Palace, there were at least 22

Back at the ranch one tree Sparrow became two, then three and finally four.

Then there were two

The moth trap went out for the second time this year and three moths were caught, 2 Hebrew Character and a Common Quaker.

Common Quaker

Hebrew Character

 Common Dog Violet in the garden

A quick trip in to town to purchase locusts for the refound Sydney, younger daughter's large lizard eventually recovered hiding under the TV furniture, involved a trip to the PDC where there were Common and Arctic Terns as well as lots of hirundines.

Common Tern

Patch tick, patch gold

Record shot, Great Crested Grebe, Loch of Bosquoy

It was a good idea to take the dog for a walk then...

Also a pile of Meadow Pipits seem to have dropped in with scattered birds all over and the occasional larger flock.

Couple of nice evening skies from this evening

And from yesterday, wagtails at Palace, some nice alba.alba This one was a bit darker but my feeling it is of that race.

Migrants and nesting

April ended with a flurry of migrants, not to get carried away that means two good waders over The Shunan and hirundines being bumped into more frequently.

Siskin have appeared again,  a pair on Saturday morning. In the last hours of the month, either side of a hail shower, a Whimbrel and then a Greenshank went over The Shunan. Blackwits have been present on three occasions with 25 the max.

 The Shunan

 Mute Swans have a nest on The Shunan, the first since we've been here, with nests on Bosquoy (maybe two), Loch of Banks and Loch of Skaill as well. Shoveler and Gadwall are likely breeding around the Shunan as there are single drakes hanging about. Short-eared owl is likely up to something not too far away. Kestrel is hanging around our neighbour's house which may indicate another breeding attempt on the building. The Rooks still have noisy young and there are at least 63 nests.

More pictures from the weekend.

 The Brough with the 25 Mute Swans, an annual build up

55 Harbour Seals (sample)

Ringed Plover, Palace

Stonecrop on the top of Palace beach, in the splash zone

Evening seawatch Skaill, 13 Bonxies and first Arctic Terns for the year

Can't decide if I like this blurry photo or not

I was pleased with this though

Seawatching possibilities

I wandered over to Skaill on Saturday to catch up with the Great Crested Grebe, bumped into some Scaup, a Whimbrel, a Swallow and investigated a possible seawatch spot for skuas. The trouble with Yesnaby is that birds can fly too close and disappear under the cliff, last year I missed more than I saw. The low cliffs at Skaill, to the north of the bay look like a good bet, and there's some shelter there. I think I'll give it a try this year, let's hope some come by. The brief seawatch produced a flock of four Common Scoter, really uncommon here, a GND, Puffin, Razorbills and piles of Fulmar and Kits. On the way back to the car there were Swallow and Wheatear.

Scaup duck

Fulmar

 Common Gull

Rock patterns

Today a tramp around Mirkister and then on to Bosquoy produced all three commoner hirundines, a couple of Ringed Plover on a very nice flood at the back of Bosquoy and a huge flock of 200+ Mepits. There seem to be loads of Leebs about, but no white winged gulls unfortunately.

 Still a few of these around

The Shunan held its first five Blackwits for the year yesterday and today there were 21. There was a Siskin on the feeders on Friday and three pairs of Brown Hare by the track on Thursday.

Blackwit roost

Through the kitchen window

Laying low

Evening light

Melanistic rabbit, common around the garden