Saturday 9 June 2012

All that glistens.

Star bird today was the Golden Oriole, which was tracked down to Kirn O’Skroo where it went against the grain of this species on Fair Isle and proved to be twitchable.
Somewhat out of context, seeing birds like this in these situations is one of the special things about Fair Isle.
It then decided it may as well go the whole hog and made the relatively short hop to the Obs where it landed straight in the mist net (and was the only new bird caught in there today!).

A beautiful bird, but difficult to age and sex; this one may have been an adult female but it wasn't possible to say for sure.
There were some new birds in, with a Marsh Warbler at Steensi Geo (the Marsh Warbler at Lower Stoneybrek also reappeared), Long-eared Owl, 2 Short-eared Owls, our first Cuckoo of the year, Mealy Redpoll and an increase in some warblers with counts of 10 Willow Warbler, 8 Garden Warbler, 8 Whitethroat and 3 Sedge Warbler, whilst 34 Swallows was also an more than recent days.
Lingering treats included the Crane, an Icterine Warbler at Schoolton and Midway and the Grey-headed Wagtail on Meoness.
After ten years of volunteering and working on Fair Isle, Becki will finally have to start believing in Golden Orioles and stop saying 'no such thing' whenever it is called at Log! Having ringed only the 9th Golden Oriole to be caught on Fair Isle, it is likely that she'll be smiling for the rest of the season at least!
So, another good day and the winds remain in the North-east, so anything is still possible...

3 comments:

  1. Go on Becs! Well chuffed for everyone at the obs, STUNNING. I Tried netting one at Spurn the other day with no success which is even more soul destroying no I have seen these images, p.s the Oriole on the rocks sums up everything I love about migration and that place. MAGIC

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  2. Hi David

    Have a look at this PDF www.iberacajalav.net/Img/400_GoldenOrioleOoriolus.pdf
    Looks like an adult female, nice catch.

    Cheers
    Jason

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