April Cools

A cold North-westerly wind and some wintry showers made the day not entirely pleasant and the birds were generally similar to recent days. The Green-winged Teal was again on Da Water, but was slightly more settled this time and everyone got better views. The two White-fronted Geese remained and there are still good numbers of Greylags, with 150 counted today.

A star with stripes. The Green-winged Teal (left) posing alongside a Teal and illustrating the main identification features.

A Lapland Bunting was the pick of the small stuff, just one Chiffchaff and very few thrushes remain - at least it will be obvious when we get an arrival of new birds! The wind may have been responsible for the arrival of at least three Iceland Gulls scattered around the island and a Lesser Black-backed Gull was also new in. The Bonxie count crept up to six, although most of these were offshore and with the forecast of Northerly winds and possibly snow in the next couple of days, it looks like spring is on hold for now.