A bright, sunny day with a light NE'ly breeze made it very pleasant to be out, with or without any birds! Thankfully, there were lots to be seen and it was Simon's turn to claim 'Bird of the Day'. I was working my way up Malcolm's Head with Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Robins flitting about on the cliffs when I got the call.....a distorted message about 'a probable Blyth's Reed at the Haa'.....'I've left Micky with it. I'm on the way to twitch the OBP at Schoolton!' Simon already has several Blyth's Reed Warblers on his Fair Isle list, but Olive-backed Pipit was strangely missing! Its not now! Anyway, I descended Malcolm's Head and ventured over to the Haa. The bird had gone missing, but a walk along Walli Burn relocated it. I had good though fairly brief views before it flew and was lost again. I birded my way back to the Obs for lunch (with Becca & Phil for company, picking up a Barred Warbler at Midway.
After lunch I lugged a carpet around for a bit then headed back to the SW cliffs. There were lots of birds but limited to a handful of species, with nothing rarer than a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers and the Treecreeper, which has now moved to Hjukni. I was on Hoini late afternoon when Micky Maher phoned to tell me about a Red Kite being mobbed by two Ravens. I turned round and spotted them travelling up the east coast. I phoned round to tell everyone and continued on my way. I met Jack at Gunnawark who reported that North was pretty quiet. He did clock the Kite though.
Some good totals were achieved (see the website for numbers) and it looks fairly settled tomorrow so hopefully some more rares will turn up....
No comments:
Post a Comment