There is a Season, Tern! Tern! Tern!

21st-27th June
After starting the period murky, a couple of days of easterly winds brought sunshine, then rain before the wind switched to the north and things started to feel distinctly cooler. With an increasing swell and grey skies, there was almost an autumnal feel and, as the longest day came and went, there was certainly the sense that the seasons had turned.

The end of spring, as sun rises on the morning of 22nd June (photo: Ciaran Hatsell)

After the first attempt at counting the nesting Arctic Terns on Buness was interrupted by the finding of the Bridled Tern last week, the first attempt to cross to Shalstane to count tern nests suffered a similar fate, when two Roseate Terns were discovered on the rocks there on 24th. It won’t make as many headlines away from Fair Isle, but this represented only the 4th record for the island and the first multiple occurrence. Nowhere near as rare, but equally important for the year list was the Sandwich Tern that called into North Haven briefly on the evening of 26th. Five tern species in a year is as good as it gets on Fair Isle (the maximum in any previous year is just four species, with Arctic, Common and Sandwich the most regular, joined by very occasional vagrants) and the rather good year for rarities (both national and more local) continues.

After previous records in May 1988, July 1996 and July 2013, the two Roseate Terns found at Shalstane on Tuesday were a surprise.

The other rarity of the period was a Blyth’s Reed Warbler, which was trapped at the Obs on 25th and was still present to 27th. Remarkably, it was already ringed and proved to be the bird that had been at Virkie (in the south of Shetland Mainland) on Sunday. Not a huge distance by any means, but interesting that it had started apparently reorientating. After an autumn Blyth’s Reed Warbler trapped on Fair Isle in 1993 that later moved to Sumburgh, this is the second movement of a ringed bird of this species between here and Shetland (the only movements involving birds trapped in the UK that I’m aware of).

The very plain wings and short primary projection are good indicators of Blyth's Reed Warbler, as is the lack of any rufous tone, the overall dull brown coloration and the facial pattern.

For a species such as Blyth’s Reed Warbler, a ringing recovery is probably the only way of proving a movement of an individual between two sites, but for other (particularly larger) rarities, individual plumage features may also provide clues. Two such examples have surfaced this week, with the Honey Buzzard seen in late May looking very like the North Ronaldsay bird of the previous day and a Bridled Tern picture from Northumberland seemingly now confirming what seemed the most likely scenario anyway – that the bird on the Farnes is the same individual seen on Fair Isle.

The Honey Buzzard from late May (thanks to Keith Betton for the picture from North Ronaldsay), showing obvious similarities in wing and body plumage and wear on the primaries, all suggestive of the same bird being involved in both sightings.

When seen initially on Fair Isle, it was thought the Bridled Tern may have lost a feather in the right wing, although closer views revealed that not to be the case and in fact it appeared the feather may just have been damaged. A photo taken a couple of days ago in Northumberland shows exactly the same apparent damage, confirming the same bird is responsible for both sightings.

Despite the late date, there were still a few migrants on the move with the 25th seeing Pied Flycatcher, Whinchat, Robin, Woodpigeon and Mealy Redpoll arrive and there was also Kestrel (22nd), Whitethroat (23rd), 2 Blackcaps (26th) and a new Marsh Warbler singing at Skerryholm (25th), with the two Marsh Warblers lingering throughout at the Obs.

There’s always speculation about birds moving this late in the spring and it seems possible that some are late overshoots, whilst others (including the Pied Flycatcher and one of the Blackcaps, both females with brood patches), could be failed breeders wandering.

On the subject of breeding birds, it’s still looking relatively positive for the seabirds, hopefully I’ll get a blog update on the season so far for them posted soon.
It looks like we’ve got northerlies for a while now, so any lingering spring migration will surely be brought to an end, but I’d not rule out anything the way this year has been going.

Garden Wildlife. Grace and Freyja enjoying the morning sunshine at the Obs.

Unbridled

20th June

Not too much to report today, with Guillemot and Bonxie monitoring taking up most of the time. The only bridles on show today were those we were counting in the Guillemot colonies (as part of a repeat of a national count done in the 1980s) as the Bridled Tern was nowhere to be seen. That was until news broke of what must presumably be the same bird making its way to the Farne Islands, where it spent a decent part of last summer. A quick calculation would suggest that if it had left Fair Isle immediately after we last saw it yesterday, had flown in a straight line with just 3 hours allowed for resting up and was found as soon as it had turned up on the Farnes, then it must have averaged 17mph for the duration of the trip. With a decent NW wind behind it, that doesn’t seem unreasonable, although it was clearly in a hurry to get there as it would have had to pass several other tern colonies on the way.

Despite searching at Shalstane, there was no sign of the Bridled Tern here this evening either (or the Laughing Gull), although given the wanderings of the bird last year, any Shetland listers who failed to catch up with it may not be entirely without a chance of pulling it back. No doubt there is more to come from this bird yet (and a quick search of the Birdguides database show a number of records from the North Sea over the last decade or so which could, just maybe, hint at its story having begun further back than last year). We've been very lucky to catch up with this stunner, as presumably it was only the better breeding season for seabirds that saw it drawn into the (larger than recent years) tern colony here. With no Little Terns ever recorded on Fair Isle, Sandwich Tern a scarce visitor (with no records this year) and just a couple of Common Terns recorded so far in 2014, it perhaps gives you an idea of how unlikley a vagrant Sterna (or Onychoprion) is here.

The finding of the Laughing Gull yesterday coincided with the football and was nicely timed for the weekly addition of the Fair Isle Times to merge the two into an unlikely topical joke! © Neil Thompson, Fair Isle Times

The surveying today carried on the general theme for the summer of it looking like a reasonable breeding season for seabirds on Fair Isle (with a similar picture for Shetland as a whole), although it is still early days. Certainly the Bonxies seem in good spirits and rude health; with a couple of the decent kicks I took today including one that caught me across the temple and jaw!

The wind is set to go easterly tomorrow, although the charts suggest it’s very localised and is unlikely to bring anything in the way of surprising migrants (although it could bring more fog), but we’ll still be checking, so you never know. Also, by Sunday the days will be getting shorter again - autumn is on its way!

Having a Laugh

17^th-19^th June

The Bridled Tern remained on the island throughout and drew a few admirers from Shetland, although it became more erratic in its appearances, disappearing from Buness on the morning of 17^th and not reappearing until around seven hours later when it was at Shalstane (near South Light, so at the opposite end of the island to its previous appearances).

On the 18^th it was seen in the morning only (again around Shalstane, although it also took a couple of tours up the island when the fish it was bringing in for the Arctic Terns were spurned) and it wasn’t seen at all on 19^th until ex-Assistant Warden Rebecca Nason and Phil Harris spotted it at Shalstane again at about 4pm. 

Displaying to an Arctic Tern on its first day (photo: Roger Riddington)

And following an Arctic Tern in flight. The behaviour is certainly very similar to the 2013 bird on the east coast of the UK and would suggest a bird that has been without a partner of the same species for a while! (photo: Roger Riddington)

Phil phoned the Obs so we could let our other guests know, then phoned back a minute or so later to tell us that there was also a Laughing Gull there!

Ha ha. Another amazing rarity to add to the spring haul (photo: Ciaran Hatsell)

After initially being found in the Arctic Tern flock, the Laughing Gull switched to Kittiwakes for a while, but seemed equally as unimpressed with them and was last seen drifting off east round Meoness, although it may yet reappear.

Although not quite in the same league as Bridled Tern, this is still a remarkable rarity; only the 10^th for Shetland and the first for Fair Isle since the only previous record in 1975.

Susannah has had a tremendously poor run with Laughing Gulls over the years and it looked like her luck was out with this one as well as it has disappeared by the time she arrived. Thankfully, just a couple of minutes later (as we were watching the Bridled Tern sat on Shalstane), Richard picked it up right over our heads. It even called a couple of times - sounding not dissimilar to Bridled Tern!

After initially disappearing west past Malcolm’s Head, it thankfully reappeared around the South Harbour and showed to all those on the island who were interested in this smart American vagrant.

This really is an amazing spring for Fair Isle, with most folk now agreeing that this has been the best for the island; certainly it’s the best for high quality rarities. Even the last couple of days of strong westerlies hasn’t been enough to stop the current run (although similar conditions in early June 2012 brought a Ring-billed Gull and Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll, which shows you can never really switch off from the possibility of surprises). There’s not too much else to report really from the last few days (not that we’re complaining with the birds we’ve got!), just the odd migrant passing through – with all the details here: http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/latest_sightings.html .
This spring of seemingly never-ending good birds will have to come to an end soon surely – although it’s only six weeks until the first Barred Warblers could be with us, and who knows what the autumn could bring…

Terned out nice again

11th-16th June
‘I can feel something good coming’, Ciaran Hatsell. 16^th June 2014 11.45am.

‘I don’t think we’ll get to count the terns, there’s going to be something good found first’, Richard Cope. 16^th June 2014 2.10pm.

My Assistant Wardens were certainly brimming with confidence that, despite a couple of days of north-westerly winds, we were due a good bird. Still, with seabird monitoring work dominating the daily routine, our chances of finding something seemed diminished.

Indeed, on a distinctly un-unlucky Friday 13^th it was down to Rob to find the goodies, when (having finished his RSPB seabird tracking work for the day) a wander down the island to check the areas that the Wardening team hadn’t got to produced a Blyth’s Reed Warbler and cracking male Western Subalpine Warbler virtually side-by-side at Schoolton!

The Blyth's Reed could be very skulky, but would occasionally show well (although this is the closest I got to a shot showing all of the bird at once).

The Western Subalpine Warbler on the other hand was more of a show off! (photo: Richard Cope)

Not only did Richard enjoy views down to a few metres, but the bird approached him as he moved through the grass, apparently on the look out for insects he may have disturbed! (photo: Richard Cope)

Back to today though and, as we all headed out to Buness to check on the progress of the Arctic Tern colony after lunch, it was Richard’s guess for the ‘how many nests will there be’ sweepstake that was to prove the most prescient…

No sooner had we spread out to begin our first sweep, than an unfamiliar honking call caused me to look up...

'The moment' captured by Ciaran on his phone. (photo: Ciaran Hatsell)

What I saw then caused my eyes, brain and mouth to fall horribly out of synchronisation, but despite my incoherent gruntings, the rest of the team were able to work out that I was pointing at a bird flying right over our heads – a BRIDLED TERN!

A very distinctive bird, but not one that was widely predicted to turn up on Fair Isle.

There was a classic moment of rarity panic as notebooks, canes and even cameras were dropped as we all took in the astounding sight of a mega rarity (the 6^th Birdguides ‘!!!’ moment of the spring for Fair Isle) floating around just over our heads.

Generally, the views were excellent, often just a few metres above our heads, when it would often call as well. (photo: Ciaran Hatsell)

Despite a slightly worrying half an hour or so when it disappeared, it eventually showed well to everyone on the island (including Nick Riddiford whose confident prediction that we’d get something good when he was off Fair Isle was thankfully proved wrong by less than two hours!) and even a few quick-off-the-mark Shetland twitchers who made it in on the last flight. There were a lot of happy faces in the sunshine this afternoon!

The Arctic Terns didn't seem to know what to do about the Bridled Tern, often mobbing it as it came in to land. On occasions it was seen to follow individual Arctic Terns, seemingly trying to display to them (and at one point it towered up rather high as it joined in a display flight with a pair of Arctics).

It's the first Bridled Tern for Fair Isle (and Shetland) and is presumed to be the bird that roamed the North Sea last summer.

 

Last July I had a trip off Fair Isle that, on a birding level, proved to be a disaster; I missed Swinhoe’s Petrel, 8 Two-barred Crossbills, Marsh and Icterine Warbler and a group of Killer Whales. Thankfully, I caught up with most of the birds when I returned home, which made up for the fact that my plans to twitch Rock Thrush in Aberdeenshire and Bridled Tern on my former work place of the Farnes were both scuppered when they shifted off just as I got south. The fact that the Tern then went back to the Farnes after I returned to Fair Isle and even had a sojourn to the Ythan Estuary (about five miles from where I lived before moving to Fair Isle) made it a little bit personal between me and it, but all that is now forgiven!

A total stunner and a superb bird to finally see! Surely it's the first first for Fair Isle that involves an individual that both the Assistant Wardens have seen the previous year (Ciaran from his time working on the Farnes, Richard from a fortunately timed visit to Aberdeenshire)!

All the other recent sightings are at: http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/latest_sightings.html and, although things had otherwise been a bit quiet of late, a trickle of Marsh Warblers has seen the ringing total for the spring rise to six, whilst the Gadwall remains and a Common Rosefinch (11^th) and at least 3 Red-backed Shrikes have all also arrived.
What next? Who knows... Fair Isle has never exactly been predictable, but this year is proving pretty amazing so far and there's still a while to go yet!

June Boon

2nd-10th June

 

Buness, North Haven, Sheep Rock and Mopul viewed from the North (photo: Ciaran Hatsell)

A week is a long time at a Bird Observatory it turns out, with far too much happening (Directors' Meeting, Susannah's birthday, Grace having lessons in 'Big School' etc) since my last update to be able to squeeze everything in here.

So, for a start, you can find the full list of bird sightings at: http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/latest_sightings.html . Don’t forget that, as well as this blog and the website, you can follow FIBO on Facebook and Twitter, where Susannah (who is younger than me and therefore more technologically minded) posts regular updates on  sightings and Obs life in general. We’re always keen to make sure you can keep track of Fair Isle’s birds and the goings on of the Obs, so please do let us have any feedback on the sightings page, social media etc and if there’s anything else you’d like to see.
The start of June has seen largely south-easterly winds (the predominant theme for the year it seems, but I’ve a horrible feeling there are going to be none left by the autumn if this keeps up), with glorious sunshine and very pleasant conditions interspersed with fog, poor visibility and the occasional day with rain.

Lesser Whitethroats are amongst the species still passing through in small numbers.

The winds have meant that what can be a potentially quiet time of year, as spring migration starts to slow down, has been anything but; with a reasonable scattering of common warblers and the likes livened up with some classic late-spring scarce migrants. Red-backed Shrikes had a particularly good run, with 2 on 4^th increasing to 6 the following day and numbers gradually decreasing to 1 on 9^th.

Male Red-backed Shrike at Pund on 5th, when 6 (4 male, 2 female) were scattered across the island.

A couple have made their way into the traps as well (photo: Ciaran Hatsell).

Another species typically associated with early June is Marsh Warbler and, after the first on 5^th there have been daily sightings of up to 2 to 10^th, with at least 5 individuals involved.

This Marsh Warbler has found the Warden's Garden 'habitat pile' to its liking and has often been seen from the kitchen window.

Ringing has proved that there has been a reasonable turnover of Marsh Warblers (photo: Ciaran Hatsell).

Other scarcities included Common Rosefinch (at the Haa on 9^th, in what has been a quiet spring for the species), Icterine Warbler (5^th-7^th), Quail (possibly one of the birds from late May singing at Houll on 4^th), Grey-headed Wagtails on 2^nd-3^rd and 7^th-10^th and a late Dotterel (5^th).

Icterine Warbler, another one of the scarce species that  has had a relatively quiet spring (photo: Deryk Shaw)

Dotterel on Ward Hill (photo: Ciaran Hatsell)

Some of the less expected commoner species have included 3 Black-tailed Godwit (7^th with 2 on 9^th), Fieldfare (5^th), Cuckoo (2 on 5^th and one on 8^th) and Goldfinch 8^th.
The highlights though have been the Greenish Warbler in the Good Shepherd’s noost on 6^th (initially found after fog caused the Guillemot count to be abandoned, it was elusive for most of the morning, before showing well later) and a tremendous day on 9^th, when fine conditions saw a Honey Buzzard and Hobby both pass south, whilst a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the south of the island was probably the least expected find of the day (there having been less than a dozen previous spring arrivals, none of which have been in June, although a couple have lingered into the start of the month before).

Honey Buzzard heading south. Unlike the previous bird, this one was in a bit of a hurry and headed south with just a couple of pauses for circling and gaining height over the island. With a missing tail feather and secondary on the left wing, it should be possible to find out whether it was the same bird seen moving south over Shetland earlier in the day. 

Technically also in the ‘highlights’ section was the Gadwall on Da Water (10^th), although a drake Gadwall going into eclipse, barely visible through thick fog, struggles a bit when lined up alongside some of the other birds this month.
Amongst the old favourites, the Caspian Stonechat hasn’t been seen since May, so has presumably moved on, whilst the Kumlien’s Gull was last noted on 7^th. The gull featured in the last blog post seems to be most likely to be a Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid, with several people who are familiar with such pairings having been in touch. Thanks to everyone who commented on that interesting bird.
I’ll try to do a summary of the seabird season so far shortly, but it actually looks relatively promising (although the next few weeks seem like a long time for things to stay positive given the recent performances of most of our seabird species). Other breeding news included the first fledged Fair Isle Wrens of the year from 2^nd.

One of several Razorbill chicks seen during colony visits this week (photo: Ciaran Hatsell).

It’s been a good time for other wildlife, with an amazing cetacean day on 7^th producing around 15 Killer Whales seen from a yacht 20 miles east of the Isle, 4 Porpoise and an unidentified whale seen from the Good Shepherd and an unidentified dolphin off the south end. Migrant insects have also been much in evidence, with 5^th producing a large fall of moths, involving several Silver-Y and thousands of Diamond-back Moths (along with another Green Lacewing), whilst 16^th saw 16 Red Admirals and a Painted Lady arrive.

So, that’s me up to date, although it feels like there’ a lot I haven’t told you about, but no doubt there’ll be more happening soon (although I’m hoping 11^th is uneventful on the bird front as I have to spend most of the day in Orkney on a fire training exercise).

2nd June

2nd June

A quiet day, despite the easterly winds (although looking at wind charts, it seems like the easterlies have only been coming from about half way across the North Sea, whereas from Wednesday, it seems like they’ll be coming direct from the mainland of Europe, interesting…). A smart male Grey-headed Wagtail was at Easter Lother Water (then Golden Water later) was new in and other new migrants included Black Redstart, Redstart, Swift and Shelduck. Lingering birds included Kumlien’s Gull, Brambling and Lesser Redpoll and breeding bird news included an early brood of fledged Fair Isle Wrens, at Furse.

However, the big talking point of the day was a gull, first seen briefly at Midway during morning census, before disappearing for most of the day, then relocated in the same area in the evening. Basically, a large white-headed gull with mantle colour between Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and yellow legs, it showed many of the features of Yellow-legged Gull. However, this is an incredibly rare species in Shetland (with just one record) that has never been recorded previously on Fair Isle. The last suspected record on Shetland was eventually thought to possibly be a hybrid between Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gull, so it is an identification that is potentially fraught with difficulties; please do let us know our comments, either below or by emailing fibo@btconnect.com .

The Yellow-legged Gull (centre), with Lesser and Great Black-backeds.

On the far left here, the Yellow-legged Gull can be compared with a Herring Gull, showing that the mantle colour lies between the two species. The size was probbaly midway between the two species, although there is a lot of individual variation.The head (and bill to an extent) appeared large, with the bird sometimes looking a bit top-heavy.

The mantle colour varied depending upon the angle, but the bird always stood out as distinctive (it's the paler mantled bird in the middle of the image here). The Kumlien's Gull was also present in the same flock.

In flight (front bird), showing the underwing.

In flight, the dark feathers in the coverts showed the bird to be a 4th-year individual. The black bar on P5 starts broad, but is much narrower on the inner web, perhaps more so that would be expected of a Yellow-legged Gull (although could the birds immaturity also effect this?).

 



Kitt-chat, Chiff-smash and a Monster Honey

29th May – 1st June

The view from the boat on the evening of the 31st. It's not very often the Atlantic is this calm. Photo: Ciaran Hatsell

It’s been an eventful few days and, with the seabird monitoring season really getting going and census still in full swing, it’s been rather busy. A couple of very calm days brought some extensive foggy spells, although these cleared on 31st, whilst the south-easterly has picked up again now (and seems set to stay for another week at least according to the forecasts) and it’s been generally pleasant.

The Good Shepherd heading to Shetland on 31st on one of those wonderful mornings where the sky and sea merge and Fair Isle feels like it's floating separately from the rest of the world.

A fantastic day on 31st saw an early start for a breeding bird survey and census, followed by a visit of the first cruiseship of the year then a long session in the boat, monitoring Puffin nests on Greenholm and counting nesting Kittiwakes on the west coast (along with Shag plots). In the end, we had about 16 hours in the field (and on the sea), then came in to do Log!

Gannets and a Maalie (Fulmar) following the boat off Dronger. Photo: Ciaran Hatsell

We’ve still got the east coast to do, but things don’t look good for Shags or Kittiwakes so far (Puffins seemed to be doing ok at this early stage in the season), with the dramatic decline of Kittiwakes on Fair Isle remaining a shocking, and much talked-about, statistic. For those who aren't aware of the figures, Kittiwakes peaked at over 19,000 pairs on Fair Isle in the late 1980s, but there were less than 800 pairs recorded last year.

The boat work is always one of the highlights of the year, with the chance to see some areas and views of Fair Isle that very few people are privileged to enjoy. Photo: Ciaran Hatsell

Migrants continue to come through, with a scattering of scarcities including up to 5 Red-backed Shrikes (on 29th, with 3 on 30th and 1 on 31st, followed by a new male on 1st), 2 Icterine Warbler (29th), Red-breasted Flycatcher (29th), 4 Quail (31st, with three singing and another found dead) and an absolutely stonking Honey Buzzard on 30th.

The Honey Buzzard emerged a few metres away from Ciaran through the fog and was found sat on the clifftop at Furse shortly afterwards (thankfully avoiding all of our 60,000 Fulmars). Once the fog cleared it was airborne again and flew towards us, before drifting around the island for a couple of ours.

The Honey Buzzard appears to be the same bird that was seen on North Ronaldsay the previous day. Whether it had been lurking unseen on Fair Isle for a day, or had perhaps stopped off at Foula, or maybe even been to Shetland and was returning south is unknown (but it wouldn't be birding it these things weren't speculated upon!). As with many species, the views on Fair Isle are often better than you would get elsewhere in the species' range; whether it's Hawfinches on the garden feeder, flocks of Yellow-browed Warblers on a lawn or Blyth's Reed Warbler on a drystone dyke, the lack of suitable habitat often forces tired migrants into compromising their usual habits.

Other notable migrants included just our second Long-eared Owl of the year (1st), Short-eared Owl (30th-31st), Cuckoo (31st), Blue-headed Wagtail (30th), White Wagtail (4 on 30th) and Tree Sparrow (28th-29th and 1st).

The White Wagtail total included a male which has been holding territory (he's been recorded singing, as he is in this photo) throughout most of May.

Amongst the commoner species there were small numbers of most of the regular warblers, with some turnover indicated by ringing. The ringing included 3 Chiffchaffs, which were trapped on the hectic day of 31st and took the total ringed so far this year to 75 – a new annual record total for Fair Isle (and completed before the end of May no less). Interestingly, eight of the nine previous highest totals have come since 2000, possibly an indication of a change in status (although perhaps the increase in cover in the garden has allowed higher numbers to be mist-netted - we’ve not had time to examine the various hypothesis yet). Spotted Flycatchers were present throughout, peaking with at least 13 on 29th, there were up to 2 Black Redstart, 2 Redstart (29th), Whinchat (29th and 1st), 2 Pied Flycatcher, Brambling (31st-1st), a new Robin (29th – along with the lingering bird still at the Obs), occasional Tree Pipit and flava wagtail, peaks of 15 Woodpigeon and 9 Collared Dove, Snow Bunting (1st June), up to 10 Mealy and 1 Lesser Redpoll and light hirundine passage on 1st that produced 19 Swallow and 7 House Martin.

At sea there were both Red-throated and Great Northern Diver on 31st and a couple of Porpoise sightings, whilst some light wildfowl passage included our second Canada Goose of the year (which was one of the first birds seen by the disembarking cruiseship passengers, who weren’t as impressed as the wardening team!) and 4 Shelduck (29th), with a Pink-footed Goose remaining to 1st amongst the tardy returners north.
Lingering goodies included the Caspian Stonechat (until 31st, although the 1st was the first blank day since its arrival – has it finally gone?...), Collared Flycatcher (which relocated to Guidicum on 29th), Short-toed Lark (30th) and the, now rather faded, Kumlien’s Gull (until 1st).
Finally, some breeding news, where Kittiwakes and Arctic Skuas are the latest species to be confirmed as being on eggs, Great Black-backed Gulls, Hooded Crow, Snipe and Ringed Plover chicks have been seen and Starlings and House Sparrow have fledged, with Lapwings hopefully not far behind.

The Greenholm Great Black-backed Gull chicks usually grow fat on a Puffin-heavy diet.

It’s all go at the moment and, with another cruiseship due in on Monday and the weather feeling pretty rare still, I suspect it’ll be a while yet before we put our feet up!

It's not just birds either, with a small arrival of insects being recorded as well. This Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea agg.) is a scarce migrant to Fair Isle, whilst more famililar visitors included Silver-Y and Diamond-back moths and Painted Lady, whilst Nick and Elizabeth trapped Fair Isle's first Pale-shouldered Brocade overnight on 30th/31st.