Friday 15 September 2017

With the predominantly westerly airflow over the past week, Obs staff had been hoping, too optimistically we thought, for a nice neararctic wader to kickstart the autumn. With a quiet day for seawatching, we'd even walked all the grassy fields around the island hoping to find one! The glory, however, was taken by two guests staying at Cristin, who reported to us a very tame wader, which they described as a "small Whimbrel", being only a bit larger than a Dunlin, with a very short bill and straw-yellow legs. We all had our hunches, and to everyone's delight their description was spot on, at about 16:00 we confirmed the sighting as a first-winter BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER! It continued to delight the small group of birders currently present on the island for the rest of the day, and could be very approachable. A selection of some of the best photos are below.





Buff-breasted Sandpiper (www.ephraimperfect.co.uk)

Before the excitement of the rarity, however, it had been a pretty quiet day. Out to sea, there had been a little bit of passage off the South End, although 910 Kittiwakes were the only species moving in remotely large numbers. A nice flurry of Tern passage and the odd gull was also seen, with 33 Arctic Terns, 29 Sandwich Terns and two each of Common, "Commic" and Little Terns (the fourth and fifth of an excellent year), 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, one Black-headed Gull, one Common Gull and one Little Gull. Otherwise seven Canada Geese were the highlight, with 94 Gannets, 47 Manx Shearwaters, 38 Gannets, 11 Common Scoters and four Arctic and two Great Skuas the best of the rest. One of two Kestrels seen during the day also headed out to sea over the South End.

Other waders for the day were represented by 54 Curlews, 28 Turnstones, 11 Redshanks, a good count of eight Whimbrels, two Snipes in the Wetlands and singles of Dunlin, Purple Sandpiper and Ringed Plover. On land it was even quieter, with 56 Goldcrests, four Chiffchaffs and the first four Starlings in a while on land, 12 White Wagtails on the South End and the Narrows, and eight Grey Wagtails through overhead.

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