Friday 21 September 2018

Stormy conditions resumed today after a brief bit of rest bite yesterday. The winds were howling and rain came down in the bucket load overnight to leave the island looking saturated and with slightly fewer leaves left on the trees this morning. Out at sea it was a four Skua species day, with three Pomarine Skuas, 25 Arctic Skuas, two Long-tailed Skuas and 35 Great Skuas moving south off the West Coast along with four Leach's Petrels and five Sooty Shearwaters. With such strong westerly winds it seemed like only a matter of time before a Grey Phalarope would show up, and sure enough a lovely confiding individual was found feeding along the shoreline in Solfach late in the afternoon. On the land, a Ring Ouzel that flew over Cristin was the first of the autumn and only the third this year.

Other birds logged today included a Great Northern Diver, four Fulmars, 535 Manx Shearwaters, 457 Gannets, 13 Cormorants, 13 Common Scoters, 50 Golden Plovers, a Dunlins, three Whimbrels, 25 Turnstones, 436 Kittiwakes, 30 Sandwich Terns, 173 Arctic Terns, 17 'Commic' Terns, four Guillemots, 1468 Razorbills, 22 Swallows, two House Martins, 111 Meadow Pipits, a White Wagtail, two Whinchats, two Stonechats, eight Wheatears, a Ring Ouzel, a Blackcap, seven Chiffchaffs, nine Goldcrests, two Chaffinches, 33 Goldfinches and 63 Linnets.


The Grey Phalarope showed well just offshore in Solfach, frantically feeding amongst the foam before taking off and flying strongly north up the island. Grey Phalarope photo © Joe Brownlie

No comments:

Post a Comment