Monday
5th
September fresh to strong SW
cloudy start then sunshine day!
The day after the banquet and everything is quiet. I
walk around the south of the fair Fair Isle. The red-throated diver
is asleep as usual in South Harbour and Tommy's Guest House, Da Haa
has a greenish warbler in the garden.
Into the graveyard I look at each headstone. The ages of the people interred here are mostly in the 80 years bracket and there is even one gentleman who lived to be 101.
The
War memorial details the names of eight men who died in WW1 and one
in WW2. Such a high figure for such a small island.
Utra
has a single dunlin probing its mud. Will an American wader drop in
on the island soon? There are reports of buff-breasted sandpipers on
North Ronaldsay. Send one here please.
A quiet day for me with some
time spent pensively atop clifftops. I do though venture down a very
steep incline to access a beach. The surge of the sea here is
thunderous and the cliffs to my left of Malcolm's Head are huge.
Plastic on the beach, long lengths of rope and a lesser black-backed
gull, a juvenile, that doesn't look as though it will sadly last much
longer. It is being battered by the waves and every time it gets
purchase on a rock it immediately gets washed off again.
The evening log at the Bird Observatory details ten
species of warbler; 35 willow, 4 garden, 3 lesser whitethroat, 2
chiff chaffs and singles each of icterine, greenish, booted, blackcap
and whitethroat. 135 wheatears, a couple of redstarts, 9 lapland
buntings and 11 pied flycatchers.
Tuesday
6th September Fresh SW High cloud and sunny later.
A spotted flycatcher around Pund first thing; Pund is my
favourite starting point for a day's migrant search.
On the trap rung with David Parnaby a new robin is
caught, as is a meadow pipit, three rock pipits and a willow warbler.
Of great interest though is a pied flycatcher with a Norwegian ring
on it's leg. This is the first ever occurrence on Fair Isle.
I set off down to North and South Haven, ostensibly to
clear these two beaches of plastic rubbish washed in on the tide. A
bin liner full latter, I find a set of wings and the gruesomely
bloody head of a sanderling. There's a bird of prey around somewhere.
Beaches cleared I head for the south of the island
again. Now by the Kirk a lapwing has been seen by everyone else but
me for the last week. Come log time, Lapwing? One.
Today I have it walking amongst grassy tussocks that
have been hiding it.
Down to Meadow Burn and the booted warbler is still
there. The Raeva geos have a single redstart and Lower Stackhoul has
a lesser whitethroat.
My daughter's birthday yet I have to be happy enough
that I can message her on facebook. My mobile phone is dead and I
have no other way to say . . . HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Looking at the feral
nature of the so-called rock doves here I may be able to send a
message by carrier pigeon. Pure rock doves they are not
Wednesday
7th September calm with light SW High full cloud cover
A
male Greenland wheatear is caught on the trap run this morning. Great
to see one in the hand, a favourite bird.
Lee
Gregory shows me some of the detail to be seen on the dead sanderling
I found yesterday including the lack of a hind toe, a diagnostic
feature of the bird.
I
walk the cliffs away from the Observatory and via the Gully,
where a dunnock is hiding in
the small patch of bushes, I head for east of the island and views
over to Sheep Rock. The weather is benign and mild, a little
soporific and I spend a long time sitting on cliff edges watching the
activity of rock pipits and fulmars on and around the steep cliffs
and beaches.
Thursday
8th September Fresh to very strong E cool, thick fog
mid-morning, heavy rain all afternoon. Clear skies and Milky Way to
lead me 'home' around 10:30PM.
Up early, I set off before sunrise towards the south
west of the island. There aren't many migrants but there are the
usual good numbers of bonxies. Maybe you know them better as great
skuas but they are one of my favourite birds. Big, bulky and
occasionally quite aggressive, they come to investigate as I walk
near to them. By North Raeva a flava wagtail keeps going just over
the next rise as I try and get good views of it.
I decide to seawatch at South Lighthouse but can't for
when I arrive there fog descends and I can't even see the sea!
Walking back along the road towards the Observatory I
take the small track to Setter, my friends Gordon and Perry Barnes'
croft back in the sixties and through to Hill Dyke. With the wind
freshening I stay sheltered by the long tall wall but sensibly think
that searching the geos won't be a safe activity.
Instead I make my way down Sukki Mire, adjacent to the apirstrip, and watch as a
greenshank gets chased by a bonxie.
On reaching the Observatory boot room I am feeling that
the morning has been OK; not one where rarities were everywhere but a
nice solid morning's birding. Tony Vials soon changes my mood.
Ortolan bunting!
I had just divested my thick waterproofs and jumper. I
put my coat back on a trudge to search the area where the scarce
bunting was last seen. After two hours of squelching through wet
grass and along broken stone dykes still no ortolan. I need this
bird!
Tony and Cath Mendez join in the search. Tony hears it
and points to some grass where he thinks it has dropped in. We circle
it and tighten the circle. No bunting. I head off towards the Gully
trap. Three birds land on some rocks nearby. The first two are meadow
pipts. The third has a large moustachial, a very distinct eye ring and
a pink bill . . . ORTOLAN!!!
photograph by Lee Gregory
It
pops behind the stones. The three of us go nearer and it flies over
our heads calling, plopping down into the long grass some distance
away.
Rain
starts to pour and Lee Gregory arrives. We both want to find the bird
for Cath Mendez to see. We go in search of it and find it. Turning to
call Cath over we can only see her departing along the stone wall
back to the dry warmth of the Bird Observatory. Fair weather birder!
Lee
and I laugh and enjoy reasonable views of this skulking flighty
bunting.
Green
Year list – 282. This is twenty five ahead of this time last year.
This day last year was my first birding day on Fair Isle, a day in
which I saw a citrine wagtail and an arctic warbler. The latter was
just before a group of orcas went past North Lighthouse. What a
welcome!
Great Blog As always. X
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