Saturday
20th
August fresh to strong E rain AM, cloudy PM
Gavin, the wardens'
birthday boy son, rushes into the observatory and soon everyone is
rushing into the ringing shed.
He has trapped a juvenile red-backed
shrike in one of the nearby Heligoland traps. Crowded into the small
shed everyone admires the angry bird whilst I after a quick view
quickly head off in the direction of the tall stone wall around the
Observatory's fields. Gavin has seen a number of migrants sheltering
from the rain and the gale along the sea wall and they included an
icterine warbler; arguably the most important of the target birds for
August. Gavin had texted me but I had stupidly not carried my mobile
with me into the Obs, having left it on charge by my pillow!
I search the wall and
am joined by Larissa, George and Gavin.
Together we search as willow
warblers, pied flycatchers and a garden warbler flit in front of us.
No icky, four of the birds end up in the Heligoland trap box and are
taken to be processed.
What a wonderful start
for Gavin's 19th
birthday. There has obviously been a fall of migrants and who knows
what else will turn up.
Larissa, the Canadian
volunteer, has asked me to accompany her on census duties and
together we set off for the expansive section B. We walk and chat and
pass Holland House before turning right towards a large area of
irises and docks.
A phone call from Sam.
He has found an icky and so I head off towards the potential Green
Year tick. Within a couple of hundred yards Sam is phoning again,
Gavin has found a barred warbler by the Post Office.
Gavin's bird is on the
way to the icterine and I meet up with him. For half an hour or so we
search together but can't relocate the chunky warbler. I head off to
the croft where Sam had seen the icterine. Reaching there I spend
another half an hour watching a dense rectangle of willows and short
sycamores but once again fail to see the special one. On returning to
my bike I find that the gathered group of young bulls has chewed all
of the laminated signs on the front of my bike. Gone is the RSPB –
A Home for Nature, gone is the Marine Conservation Society and gone
is the Stop Me and Buy One. They have eaten the lot, plastic, paper
and all! At least they haven't eaten Albert the cuddly albatross of
the Birdlife International Albatross Campaign.
I rush back to Section
B to try to find Larissa. I phone repeatedly but only receive leave a
message answers.
Eventually we do find
each other. Larissa has found garden warbler and pied flycatcher
whilst I was away. Larissa came to Britain with little knowledge of
British birds but she has excellent field skills and sharp eyes. I
can't help but be very impressed with her attitude and ability.
We spilt up again in a
short while as I head off for Brides bay and Loch and she heads
towards Stromness Point. This way we can cover more of Section B.
I meet two of the
locals, Sheila and Ian, as they are persuading a group of black
bullocks into a new pasture and spend fifteen minutes or so talking
about the island. Both born and bred on the island they say they
would never consider leaving.
Two whinchats are on
fence posts along the road down to Brides and a pied flycatcher is
the only migrant seen from a long walk along the seawall and
extensive iris beds at Bridesness Point.
Five tufted ducks are
on Brides Loch and I wait here for Larissa who I can see some way off
searching around a ruined croft.
Together we circle the
Loch, crashing through iris beds and tall grasses.
At one point
Larissa disappears and I am panicked thinking she has gone down in a
muddy ditch. She has but luckily she has fallen horizontally, into
the mud only up to her knees.
Duck are flushed out,
shovelor, teal and mallard. Waders too including two green sandpipers
and a ruff. A reed warbler is with a sedge warbler in the long grass,
a new bird for Larissa. We find the whinchats and Larissa has yet
another new bird for her growing British list.
