Spring gets some Swing.

8th May
The 7th saw the promising weather continue but there was little in the way of migrant action; the Osprey was seen early in the morning as it flew south-east out to sea but there was little else to report as the slow-burning spring continued to smoulder unconvincingly. The 8th saw sparks of life in the morning as there were a few more migrants about and heading back out into the census areas in the afternoon paid off as the spring was finally fully ignited by Will turning up a Thrush Nightingale at Pund, our first BB rare of the year.

The 59th Thrush Nightingale for Fair Isle, it arrived just a week shy of the 102nd anniversary of the species being added to the British list here (when one was shot at South Light). Although elusive at first, it went on to show well.

There were obviously more birds coming in and an Icterine Warbler was found at Loangie on Dronger later on. Also new for the year were an Arctic Tern on Buness this evening and 3 Spotted Flycatcher.

The sheltered cliffs around Dronger are often good for migrants, the first British Icterine Warbler this year (I think!) was the pick of the bunch today.

Three Spotted Flycatchers were in the same area.

A good day ended up with Log totals of: Woodcock, 15 Whimbrel, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Short-eared Owl, 9 Sand Martin, 58 Swallow (including one that appeared to be a juvenile), 8 Chiffchaff, 22 Willow Warbler, 12 Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Whitethroat, 3 Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, 3 Black Redstart, Redstart, 2 Whinchat, ‘Yellow’ Wagtail (a male that seemed most likely to be a hybrid involving Grey-headed and something else), 11 White Wagtail, 17 Tree Pipit, 6 Common Redpoll, and a Lapland Bunting. All in all, not a bad day!

This Short-eared Owl was also on Dronger.

Grasshopper Warblers put on a good show today, with one on early traps, this one in the Kirn o'Skroo and one in the Kiln o'Skroo that also showed well (how many were skulking elsewhere around the island I wonder).

Aside from the birds, Obs life is getting busy now, with plenty of visitors (including a group from Jordan, including staff from the Aqaba Bird Observatory, here to observe life at British Bird Obs) and the breeding bird season starting to get going. We also celebrated Grace’s 4th Birthday yesterday (and a 50th Birthday down the island this week!) and have Freyja’s coming up in a couple of weeks. Surely the only thing more exciting than double birthday cake is wondering what birds will be around tomorrow...

Happy Birthday! A Thrush Nightingale was found on Freyja's birthday last year, but Grace missed out by a day on a birthday rare this year!

Pec in Order

6th May (pm)
The improved conditions did indeed deliver some birds, with the highlight of the day being an unexpecetd fourth spring record of Pectoral Sandpiper. Found in a ditch near Stackhoull by Richard on census, it showed well until mid-afternoon at least.

Pectoral Sandpiper and dubious Mallard

Another impressive visitor was an Osprey seen heading south over the Obs by Rob (who has proved to be a renowned Osprey magnet in his years on Fair Isle).

Osprey from the Obs kitchen window, being pursued south by Oystercatchers as it gradually builds up courage to head North.

There was also an increase in migrants noted, with 9 Chiffchaff, 8 Willow Warbler, 7 Tree Pipits, 4 Blackcap, 17 Brambling and singles of Stonechat, Lesser Whitethroat, Grasshopper and Sedge Warbler recorded and Meadow Pipits reached an impressive 427.
There were also a few more waders, including Greenshank, 13 Whimbrel, 4 Dunlin, 3 Sanderling and a Knot. Two Shelduck, a Tufted Duck and a slight increase in Arctic Skua (to 9) were also noted.
With a couple of days of south-easterly winds to come, there'll hopfully be more to report again tomorrow.

This is it! hopefully...

6th May (am)
At last, a change in the weather has seen a calmish morning, with a light southerly wind. It's brought poor visibility, but also birds, with several Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers seen already this morning and a Sedge Warbler on morning traps. After a run of birding that has seen a few dedicated migrants pushing through, but a lack of scarcities or decent numbers of birds, we might be about to see some classic Fair Isle migration, with SE winds forecast for the next couple of days. Exciting stuff? You bet.

Jumping for joy. This Black Redstart seems unable to contain its excitement!

There have been a couple of Black Redstart in recent days.

House Martin put in its first appearance on 3rd, a day that also saw the year list boosted by Common Sandpiper, Whinchat and Sedge Warbler. Further additions to the year list included Lesser Whitethroat on 2nd and Bar-tailed Godwit on 4th.

A small arrival of thrushes on 3rd/4th included up to 4 Ring Ouzel and a Mistle Thrush.

Small numbers of finches have also arrived, including a few Brambling, other birds of note in the last few days have included Sparrowhawk, Long-eared Owl, Moorhen, Collared Dove, Waxwing (3rd-4th), up to 3 Tree Pipit, 3 Goldfinch and 9 Snow and 3 Lapland Buntings.

These Carrion Crows were part of a group of 34 seen on 5th, with 23 Rooks on 2nd during a spell of corvid passage.

The wintering Greylag flock has largely dispersed now. These two birds were heading out to sea off South Light - presumably returning to Orkney to breed?

A slightly calmer morning on 4th allowed us to get some counts done, with 97 Black Guillemots counted on the east coast and whole island counts of 27 singing Fair Isle Wrens and 146 Eider.

Bonxies are back in good numbers, but Arctic Skua counts haven't yet surpassed three. At sea there was a 'blue' Fulmar on 4th off Buness. A day of gull passage on 5th included at least 49 Lesser BLack-backed Gulls, one of which was a very good candidate for 'Baltic' Gull (the fuscus subspecies of LBBG).

Noisy neighbours! Seabirds are finally starting to settle, with Shags on eggs from 2nd and good numbers of Gannets incubating. Lapwings are also on eggs.

This Fulmar has probably seen a fair few good falls on Fair Isle, will it get to witness another one today...?

Goodbye April, Hello May...

So, that’s the end of the month and it pretty much petered out as it had gone on for the previous couple of weeks – a variety of westerly winds and only a few determined migrants making it through. The month’s star bird, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, remained until 29th and a selection of new arrivals were topped by Long-eared Owl (trapped on the 28th, with probably the same bird in the Obs garden on 30th), Short-eared Owl (28th-29th), Moorhen (27th-28th) and the year’s first Tufted Ducks on 27th (when three flew north past Buness). There was also a Kestrel (a fine adult male that arrived on 30th and was trapped the following day), Dunlin (30th-1st May), a freshly dead Little Auk found on 26th in the middle of the island, 2 each of Goldfinch and Brambling and a slight increase in Buntings, with 9 Snow and 4 Lapland the peak counts.


Surely May could do better? It opened with westerly gales on 1st but, whilst good birds in April always feel like a bit of a bonus (I’ve done most of my birding in the North, so March is still winter and spring often doesn’t get going until May), you can almost sense the urgency of birds to move north in May and they seem to turn up regardless. Sure enough, despite the conditions, the year’s first Yellow Wagtail appeared amongst a very small arrival of birds, with ten each of Pied and White Wagtails, singles of Willow Warbler and Blackcap, a couple of Chiffchaff and 2 Brambling also new. A Barnacle Goose was another addition to the year list (with a Pink-footed Goose also present on the same day amongst a small group of Greylags, making it the best goose day so far on the island this year!), a new Black-tailed Godwit was also seen and Lesser Black-backed Gull numbers rose to 24.

There seem to have been one or two more birds today, but it looks like the hot chocolate could be the highlight of Log tonight!

Seabirds are having a strange season, it’s been generally slow and Puffins are still not settled on land (by this time last year we’d achieved a count of almost 11,000) whilst Arctic Skuas are, like many other migrants, very slow to arrive with a peak count of just three so far.

Although westerlies are set to dominate the next few days again, the wind made it to the east this afternoon, just before it started with persistent rain (and sleet at one point) and seems set to stay from that direction overnight at least. It’s Fair Isle in May; surely even a hint of easterly wind will see us have something new to report tomorrow?...

Northern Block

26th April

A calm start to the day brought some promise (and even a brief spell of 't-shirt weather'), but a freshening northerly wind and brisk showers (some of which feel like they're trying to snow) has meant it's pretty much 'business as usual' today on the bird front. The start of my census brought Chiffchaff and Robin on Hill Dyke then a fine male Ring Ouzel in Gunnawark, which was a good start, but that was about it. A Snow Bunting on Ward Hill was about the only other bird I saw in the North that may have been new and word from the rest of the team wasn’t much better, with just a thin scattering of migrants (including another Ring Ouzel at the Obs), although Will did have an immature Iceland Gull in Hjukni geo. Henry and Raven saw an owl on their way to school, but that wasn’t relocated, whilst an intriguing skulking bird in Schoolton evaded Nick’s best attempts at pinning down its identification, although the whistling ‘rosefinch-like’ song certainly sounds promising. Hopefully whatever it was will reappear somewhere on the island tomorrow.
The Great Spotted Woodpecker, Waxwing and Great Tit all remained and given the forecast for strong westerly and north-westerly winds for the next few days, we may not have many new things to report. This is Fair Isle though, so you never know!

Even when migration is slow, there is plenty to see, like the Fair Isle Wrens, which  are starting to slowly get into singing mood. Plenty of auks returned to the cliffs today, with Puffins starting to look more at home after their winter at sea. We've also had a couple of sightings of colour-ringed Rock Pipits recently - more on those later.

It's grrreat!

25th April

A pre-breakfast call from a very excited Henry at the Haa alerted us to the first Great Spotted Woodpecker on the island since 2009.

This spring, it is fair to say, is proving to be a slow-burner, with the strong SW winds that have dominated recent days (gale force at some stages and rather wet with it at times) keeping movement somewhat limited. A slightly calmer and more southerly wind today did see some new birds in though including a rather stunning Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Haa.

Gone are the days of photos of woodpeckers on Fair Isle forlornly hanging onto fence posts or creeping grimly along stone walls, they now have a plethora of feeders around the island to choose from! This one stayed most of the day at Haa, where it emptied the seed feeders in the search for its preferred sunflower seeds.

A couple of Chiffchaffs included a bright individual that showed some plumage characteristics of Iberian Chiffchaff, although further observations suggested that ‘common’ Chiffchaff was perhaps more likely. There’s a Chiffy dropping in the post that should provide the answer!

I don't think the photos do justice to the yellow tones of this bird, which was certainly an interesting individual in the hand.

There was also a Willow Warbler (with another on 22nd), whilst other warblers recently included the first Grasshopper Warbler of the year on 23rd and Blackcaps on 23rd and 24th. A further long-distant migrant arrived on 22nd, when a smart male Redstart was trapped, with possibly the same one seen again on 24th. The best of the rest on 25th included a Waxwing (which moved from the Haa to the Obs), three Lapland Buntings (following one on 23rd and two new birds on 24th), 11 Swallows (the highest count so far this year) and a distinct rise in Bonxie numbers.

This Waxwing posed obligingly outside the kitchen window after a quick northward migration up the island.

An increase in Twite today was accompanied by an increase in Linnets to 10, including this bird singing at the Obs. After a probable breeding attempt last year, are we about to see the colonisation of Fair Isle?

Perhaps not the most exciting of migrants, but six Collared Dove and 15 Woodpigeon today represented a distinct increase (although this tail-less bird is presumably the one that has been lingering around Haa recently, occasionally trying to do impressions of Quail in flight.

A Great Tit at Utra may have been a new bird, although the absence of the lingering birds at Barkland and the Obs could suggest it is one of those having a wander.

Was this one of the recent birds searching round the island for the shortest sea crossing to get home, or could it have been a new arrival from the south?

Other sightings in the last few days included up the 3 Cormorant, Water Rails (23rd and 25th), Black Redstart (23rd-24th), Stonechat (remaining until 24th), an increase in alba wags (including two White Wagtails), 3 Goldfinch, 7 Siskin, 2 Common Redpoll (24th) and 2 Reed Bunting (24th).

A welcome splash of colour on the Obs feeders, this Goldfinch and Siskin were clinging onto the feeder as it swung wildly in a gale!

A few waders heading north included Whimbrel (increasing to 8 on 25th), Green Sandpiper and Knot (22nd and 25th), whilst wildfowl included the first Pink-footed Geese of the year (6 on 24th and one still today), a Wigeon (23rd-25th) and 2 Red-breasted Merganser (24th).

One last woodpecker photo as it was a Fair Isle tick for me (which means I owe Henry a pint, best make that a coke!). It was also the first predictable species of the year in our Prediction competition, with only two people getting three points for a spring prediction and five getting a single point for predicting it out of season.

With a strengthening NW wind from tomorrow, I guess things may stay slow for a while, although there'll probably continue to be one or two surprises. A lot of people had thought that the large scale invasion of Northern woodland species into the UK last autumn may have resulted in a few spring records for Fair Isle this year, and with at least two Great Tits and a Great Spotted Woodpecker so far, that seems to be holding true. Maybe that will be the source of the next good bird (Pine Grosbeak anyone?) or perhaps one of the southern goodies hitting the south of England recently will make it up - I'd certainly settle for a Rock Thrush!

21st April
A period of generally windy weather has seen migration continue at a rather slow pace, although a more southerly element to proceedings has seen a few more birds arriving recently. The highlight of the last few days has probably been the male Hawfinch that arrived at the Obs garden on 21st, with other additions to the year list including Tree Pipit, Black-tailed Godwit and Arctic Skua the same day, a male Shoveler at Da Water (20th-21st) and Jackdaw, Willow Warbler and Blackcap on 18th (with two of the latter on 21st). Other summer migrants included two Chiffchaff (20th), Black Redstart (19th with two on 21st, one of which was found by Henry at the Chapel), White Wagtail (20th), three Sand Martin (20th-21st) and up to 10 Swallow (21st).

This Blackcap was on the feeders at the Obs on 21st.

The Great Tit remains at the Obs and a second individual (and third of the year for the island) was found at the Plantation on 18th before moving down the island to Barkland (with both still present on 21st). Another species enjoying a good spring for Fair Isle is Hen Harrier and another ringtail was seen on 19th-20th, whilst a Kestrel was present on 20th-21st.

Shetland's earliest ever Swift remained until 19th. Also lingering was the Stonechat near the Chapel until 21st at least, the Stock Dove (seen again on 20th) and the Lapland Bunting until 20th (with a second on the latter date).

Whilst thrush numbers are dwindling there has been an increase in our breeding species, with peaks of 302 Meadow Pipit (19th), 230 Skylark (19th) and 95 Wheatear (21st), which will all have also involved birds whose destinations lie even further north than 59 degrees.
Light corvid passage has included up to five Rook (21st) and three Carrion Crow whilst a few more waders included Green Sandpiper (19th-21st), Greenshank (19th), Whimbrel (18th-21st, with 2 on 20th) and increases of Curlew (26 on 21st) and Golden Plover (23 on 21st). A Water Rail (18th) and Moorhens (18th and 21st) were skulking in the ditches, whilst at sea there were Red-throated Diver (17th), Long-tailed Duck (19th) and a ‘blue’ Fulmar at Ditfield on 20th (perhaps the bird that lingered there for several weeks last autumn?).
We’ve also seen the first guests arriving at the Obs and had an opening night get together in the bar with the staff and islanders (and cocktails!). It’s all go and the next few weeks will see the Obs going at full pelt as more guests arrive, migrants pour in (hopefully) and the seabird work gets fully going.


Twite will be around the feeders for next six months at least, but Goldfinches are always scarce visitors, with up to three on the island in the last week.