The Great Snipe is the obvious highlight from today, but three Wrynecks were also pretty good. A Quail was flushed on the way to the Snipe and proceeded to give some good views in nearby fields and a Tree Sparrow around the crofts was also new for the year. The early Swift (first seen yesterday) was also still present and some common migrants seen in good numbers included Ring Ouzel and Tree Pipit.

Great Snipe: the black panel bordered with white in the wings and the extent of white in the outer tail are important ID features.



The bulky size and wing and tail pattern were all pretty distinctive in the field. Full credit to Will for finding and calling this unexpected spring vagrant.

This Quail was an added bonus at the Great Snipe twitch.

Seabirds are starting to look a bit more settled, with the first Razorbill eggs discovered and several pairs of Arctic Skuas on the island, it'll not be too long until the seabirds dominate our working days, we just hope we're kept busy by them having a good breeding season.

In the meantime, there is no end in sight to the forecasted easterly wind, so perhaps there will be a few more birds to report tomorrow...