18th September

Another great day which began once more with the now familiar fog and a few rain showers and there was another great bird. This time it was a less than co-operative Olive-backed Pipit which was seen briefly at Lurand early in the morning and then relocated by the visiting Heatherlea tour group a few hours later. It couldn't be found during later searches and this the 21st island record (pending acceptance) will be the earliest by 6 days. Also in the same area the Little Bunting was still present and the rest of the scarcities were made of the Wryneck (at Rue), 4 Red-breasted Flycatchers (2 at Holland, Rue and a new bird at the Beacon), a Barred Warbler (at North Manse), 2 Rosefinch (Holland and a new bird near the Lighthouse) and 5 Yellow-browed Warblers. Another top day's birding during which the first Short-eared Owl arrived and there were also at least 6 Kestrels present, 5 Grey Herons together at Westness, 6 Common Sandpipers along the West coast and a Curlew Sandpiper on Torness. A couple of Goldfinchs were the first of the autumn and there were 2 'flava' Wagtail, 7 Dunnock, 10 Robin, 5 Redstart, 5 Fieldfare, 44 Song Thrush, the Reed Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, 8 Garden Warbler, 25 Blackcap, the Wood Warbler, 9 Chiffchaff, 26 Willow Warbler and 13 Goldcrest while a handful of Finches included 7 Chaffinch and 5 Siskin, while there were 2 Lapland Buntings and the Snow Bunting remains.



Olive-backed Pipit (record photo by Toby Green @ Heatherlea)

Only just better than yesterday's effort-the Observatory Little Bunting