Glaucs a go go.

A spell of wintry weather didn’t deliver much on the bird front, with the year list growing by the addition of Knot (in the fields at Taft from 12th, a remarkably similar time and place to the first Knot last year) and the first returning Ringed Plover (14th). The best sighting of the period was four juvenile Glaucous Gulls together on Buness (11th) in what has been a quiet winter for white-winged gulls. A superb summery day on 18th saw temperatures soar to 11 degrees and Skylarks heard on the move (at least three were noted, but they were passing high overhead), with an increase in Ringed Plovers to eight and Oystercatchers to 12. ‘Old favourites’ lingering included the Greenland White-fronted Goose, Great Tit, Peregrine, Merlin, Water Rail and two Woodcock.

Two of the four young Glaucs viewable from the kitchen window as they sheltered from strong winds with around 100 Great Black-backs on the South Gavel of Buness.

Today sees easterly winds and a drizzly fog, it’s presumably too early in the year for that to produce anything of much excitement though. However, with a birding friend currently visiting (taking a break from his normal life of island life looking at birds on the Farne Islands!) we’ll be able to cover most of the island today, so watch this space…