Two
weeks on North Ronaldsay, Orkney, here are the highlights of each
day:-
Saturday
6th August Ferry Kirkwall to North Ronaldsay
Leaving the superb Bed & Breakfast, Hildeval, in
Kirkwall, caught the 9:00am ferry.
A gentleman walked with me to the
ferry terminal, Steve, saying that he had met a person biking and
birding in the Lake District, on the Shap road back in 2010. “That
was me,” I said. We quickly told of remembered details of that
encounter and told of what we had both been doing since.
With barely a ripple on the sea and almost no cloud or
wind, the ferry crossing was a delight. Birds seen included over
fifty black guillemot, twenty or so puffins, eight arctic skuas, five
bonxies (great skuas) and numerous arctic terns, fulmars, gulls,
gannets and shags. The only cetacean seen was a single harbour
porpoise.
Arriving at the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory,
thrilled to find that Sam Perfect and George Gay were both still
there, having stayed on as assistant wardens for another year. Sam
and George are two superb young birders with phenomenal knowledge and
commitment to birding, part of the new 'let's find our own rarities'
generation. As with the members of the Next generation Birders, Sam
and George give an old cynic hope for the future.
With them were a number of young girls; Erin and Bryony
from Cheltenham, Larissa from Canada and Ellen. Then there was
Heather, the daughter of the wardens, Alison and Kevin and finally
Laura, Alison's niece.
Sunday 7th August A
walk along the whole of the west and north west coastline of the
island, seawatch with George, Erin and Bryony and run back to the
Observatory.
Reacquainting myself with the island and the famous
seaweed-eating sheep, walked the rocky coastline counting all birds
seen.
These included no less than 177 black guillemots, 15
bonxies, 15 arctic skuas, four of which were pale phase birds, 27
purple sandpipers and vomit chucking fulmar chicks. The latter were
tucked in against the high dry stone wall that surrounds the island
keeping the sheep on the coast. The first chick I came across
unexpectedly as the rocky, Rousay flagstone coast was the centre of
my attention.
The shock of being so close to a large yet unobtrusive
chick that immediately started trying to spit the evil oily gunge at
me had me looking out for others to avoid disturbing them. I didn't
want them wasting their food on me.
Seawatching gave a new bird for the Green Year list;
sooty shearwaters, 8 of them, bird number 272.
Other birds seen included 9 storm petrels, 14 manx
shearwaters and 2 arctic skuas. A lone greenshank was by a rockpool
nearby.
A report came in of a leach's petrel in the bay back at
the Bird Observatory four miles away. I ran/walked as fast as I could
but it had gone when I got there.
Monday 8th August Walk to North End
and Seawatch.
Tremendous gale, 50-60 miles per hour north westerly,
cloudy.
What a storm! Seawatch as the tallest waves I have ever
seen created wall after wall of pounding surf and cappuccino froth on
the rocks.
Fulmars and gannets were passing in good numbers, 2
arctic skuas with one pale phase, the other dark and a couple of
bonxies did likewise. A strange sight were 4 greylag riding the
waves.
Tuesday 9th August strong NNW sunny
intervals & showers
Morning spent clearing the first part of the beach of
plastic and the afternoon seawatching from the hide at the north end
of the island;
one hour of which gave:-
kittiwake 167
gannet 216
fulmar 343
arctic tern 179
manx shearwaters 2
sooty shearwaters 4
guillemot 3
puffin 4
auk sp. 2
bonxie 2
arctic skua 3 (all dark phase)
storm petrel 1
Wednesday 10th August light NW sunny
intervals & showers
Invited to participate in the surveying of the island's
birds. Now the island is divided into six sections, A to F and the
assistant wardens take turns covering each one, counting every bird
seen. One person does a seawatch.
Section B – south east corner of island. Along
Nouster Bay beach to Burrian Broch, to Brides Loch and back to the
Observatory via dykes, iris beds, ruined crofts and fields.
38 bird species seen. 128 seals, common and grey.
Thursday 11th August light SE,
cloudy, misty, mild.
Section E –
centre of island to north coast, including Ancun Loch and Garso Wick,
a large bay with good wader numbers.
42 bird species, including a strange redpoll, whimbrel
and a snipe drumming.
Early evening spent seawatching with Gavin, the son of
the wardens and a superb birder. Gavin is also a bird ringer and last
year, having set the mist nets up in Holland House garden, found a
veery!
In two hours we had 4 sooties, 2 arctic skuas and a
single bonxie.
Friday 12th August
strong W low cloud, dry
Section F – North east of the island icludes
Garso and Bewan Lochs, the area around the lighthouse, the tallest
lighthouse on land in the UK, and various fields, dykes and
coastline.
Around 700 arctic terns were roosting at Bewan with an
attendant 7 arctic skuas. A grey heron was new, as was a little grebe
on Garso.
Sunday 14th August light W low
cloud, showers
A prolonged 5 hour seawatch from 6:30am, an overnight
petrel trapping session.
Fulmar 1730
gannet 419
arctic tern 132
black guillemot 6
puffin 22
auk sp. 37
storm petrel 14
bonxie 10
arctic skua 4
kittiwake 197
manx shearwater 10
sooty shearwater 38
shag 2
great black backed gull 21
Petrel ringing with Gavin, Erin and George. Mist nets
are set up along the coastline edge near to the Bird Observatory and
speakers send out petrel calls into the darkness. Birds attracted and
caught are measured ringed and carefully released.
leach's petrel
1 (Green Year tick to take me to 273)
storm petrels 44
Monday 15th August light to fresh S/SE
very sunny, clear.
Seawatch for two hours in the morning, able to see fair
isle from the hide. Section A surveyed in the afternoon for four
hours.
Seawatch highlights – 5 sooties, 2 manx, 2 stormies.
Section A – the south west corner of the island
including Holland House gardens, the Old Kirk graveyards and the Bird
Observatory. Gretchen Loch has a bird hide and there's rocky
coastline and many dykes and fields to cover.
Willow warbler and chiff chaff in the garden at Holland
House, which by the way is the large home of the island's laird.
Sedge warblers were back at the observatory.
Tuesday 16th August light S/SE
very sunny and clear.
Seawatch in late (!) morning with Larissa. Very calm sea
and few birds in a two hour watch:-
114 fulmar, 41 gannet, 1 sooty shearwater, 2 black
guillemot, 2 puffin, 3 auk sp. 5 bonxie, 9 cormorant, 2 shag, 16
arctic tern, 1 herring gull, 1 great black backed gull
Section D – mostly the west coast and inland
fields and dykes. Also a few croft gardens.
Talked with Lotti who was born on the island and at 77
years young has lived here for nearly all of her life.
Highlight of the census was 3 willow warblers in Lotti's
garden.
Wednesday 17th August fresh SE
very warm and sunny
Visited Cruesbeck in section B, a large iris bed with a
deep ditch full of the same and a small area of marshy water out of
which came 21 snipe, a ruff and 2 redshank.
At Ancun later on I saw a very strange hirundine that I
can only think of as a hybrid between swallow and house martin. As it
came towards me I saw a pure white throat and thought, house martin.
When it hawked in front of me I was shocked to find swallow like tail
streamers and no white rump. Strange bird.
Thursday 18th August light SE very
sunny and warm
Early morning ringing in Holland House garden with Erin,
Gavin and George. A twite was caught as were two willow warblers and
a female pied flycatcher. Migrants are coming!
A filming and interview with Richard, Cameron and Ian
from BBC Scotland's The Adventure Show takes a few hours. This will
be broadcast around Christmas. Lunch with them afterwards was
wonderful with all of us contributing anecdotes and stories. We were
joined at the table by the well known photographer, Keith Allardyce
who has written books about beachcombing.
Section E – highlights included a curlew
sandpiper, two whimbrel and a willow warbler.
Friday 19th August fresh S/SE
high cloud rolled away to give a sunny afternoon, warm until evening
the strong E and cold!
Holland House – unringed willow warbler
Old Kirk graveyards – black redstart, willow
warbler, two wheatear
Section F –
highlights included a female merlin, two willow warbler and four sand
martins.
An evening
on the beach for the birthday BBQ to celebrate Gavin's 19th
birthday.
