West is best (for a rest)

Sunday afternoon is traditionally a quiet time at the Obs: no transport arrivals, everyone is well fed after Sunday lunch (and it was another superb one today, thanks Ann and Chris) and it's the time for wardens to have a bit of a recharge (especially after Lachlan Shaw celebrated his 18th birthday at the Obs last night!). This is much easier to do when things are quiet for birds and, even though there were people out all day, census and trap rounds were quiet as the westerly winds continued and seemed to put a bit of a halt to migration. A few common migrants were still around, the Canada Goose remains and the flock of Carrion Crows (which peaked last week at over 60 birds, apparently Fair Isle record) is slowly dwindling. The lack of migrants has enabled us to spend more time checking breeding birds and a few broods of Lapwing and clutches of Ringed Plover have been found this week.


So all in all, a pleasant enough day and we’re all ready for a few more migrants next week…

The sky looking rather bonny from the beach this evening (although Grace was far more interested in throwing stones).