Monday 8 August 2011

Short-toed Surprise


The day started nicely enough, but the weather gradually deteriorated until a rather unpleasant evening ensued. It’s just kept getting worse and we now have heavy rain and a driving northerly wind, although it does seem to be brightening up as I look out the window, so we may have something to report later.

Sunrise over Buness yesterday morning, a pretty spectacular way to end a Storm Petrel ringing session!
Yesterday’s birds included a Wood Warbler and Whinchat and a variety of waders, but the slightly unexpected star of the show was a Short-toed Lark on the airstrip found by Jason as he completed census. Sadly it didn’t hang around and, by the time I got there, the rain had come in and the lark had rather sensibly done a runner to try to find somewhere with a bit more shelter. Our second Short-toed Lark of the year, this species is more usually associated with May and September/October, so this is an early autumn record (I’d need to check the files properly, but it could be the earliest August on Fair Isle, although two have appeared in July).

It just goes to show that anything is possible on Fair Isle, as we will no doubt find out in the coming weeks…


The only bird of note on the airstrip was this Ruff that flew in whilst we weren't watching the Short-toed Lark.

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