Fog On.

4th June

Grace prefers to let the vegetation in her section of the garden grow, which is probably because she likes the flowers, but might be because she likes creating habitat for rares.

A fog bound day, with little new movement detected, although a Swift was only about our 4th of the spring. The Subalpine Warbler remained in the garden, showing well at times, the Iceland Gull was still in the South, a Short-eared Owl remained at Da Water and the Snow Bunting flock (of 8) twittered away in the fog on Ward Hill.



Although presumably just late passage migrants, the flock of Snow Buntings do seem rather at home on Ward Hill (where a pair were strongly suspected of breeding in the early 1900s)

After all of the excitement of yesterday, perhaps a calmer day was helpful and will have helped the team be fully recharged for a rather promising forecast next week (alongside about visiting 5 cruiseships, a meeting of the FIBOT Directors and the peak for our seabird work!). Mid-June doesn't usually bring lots of migrants, but the ones that could make it through might be rather tasty, especially with a few days of south-easterly winds forecast. There seems to be a feeling going round that we may be due a spring mega this year, which would be nice!

Waa waa waa. The first fledged Fair  Isle Wrens appeared in Roskillie today (only three days later than the earliest ever fledging), where they gave away their presence with their strident begging squeaks for food. Note the typical Fair Isle Wren habitat: no gardens, hedges or sheds for these hardy little beasts.

You've got to be tough to survive on Fair Isle all year round if you're a small bird (even a good proportion of our Rock Pipits appear to head to the balmy climes of Aberdeenshire for the winter), which is presumably why this adult is not making things easy for this youngster, making it scale down a cliff face and lean into an overhang to get its food.

We're pretty full for the next few weeks (although there are a couple of spaces early next week if you're feeling confident for that Bimaculated Lark!), but if you're thinking of visiting FIBO in 2013 you can find a rough guide to what is still available here .