New Year

 It's fair to say I've been neglecting this; indeed I've written nothing since I left Sanday in October. Partly this is because I've not been particularly in the mood (when I'm not on any sort of decent mental form I struggle to translate it into enthusiastic words), but also I've not really done much that I haven't been able to fit nicely into a tweet, often with a link to more details on Trektellen.

Purple Sandpiper - incessant onshore winds have largely deterred them this winter so far

That's not to say there hasn't been decent birding, pretty much all of it on patch, plus a sneaky trip to Pennington when the American Wigeon showed up - 4 miles being about the absolute limit of my twitching these days.

Vismig on patch was pretty decent (albeit with a virtual absence of the likes of Siskin and Redpoll), including some nice Woodpigeon days

and also connecting in my own relatively small way with the massive country-wide Redwing movement on 19th October - 653 birds surpassing my previous patch best by 620!!.

And the Arctic spell in mid December providing me with some decent wader numbers, including a Green Sandpiper as the 159th and final addition to the 2022 patch yearlist, plus a bonus Cattle Egret

Despite the added incentive of the resurrection of the excellent Patchwork Challenge yearlisting in 2023 has been pretty subdued. The weather has been largely atrocious - often very wet, nearly always very windy, and quite frequently both. It's been like being back on Orkney again, except that here I know the limitations of my patch, and battling out in unhelpful weather isn't going to get me flocks of passage wildfowl and a realistic chance of something rare, or even too much that's common. So I've limped up to 73 species so far, largely on account of a nice day on 2nd January which allowed me to get out all day.

I have managed to do a couple of seawatches on the windiest of mostly dry days, but Barton isn't blessed with a nice dry shelter to hide in, just some beach huts to hide behind if the wind isn't due south. So, given that seawatching in Hampshire is more miss than hit at the best of times, there just isn't the incentive to brave wet conditions. That said, despite not having seen a large amount, rather as expected, I have already had a big bonus of a Manx Shearwater, only my second record on patch, and a bird I suspect may not have been seen from the county in January before. 

And to have already found two Black Redstarts means 2023 is already a good year

Female on the clifftop

Male in a customer's garden, this one taken with my phone

Haven't really been able to make the most of any dry days either, for the same reason that I am delving back into the blog - in mid November I made the rather spur-of-the-moment (and in hindsight extremely financially imprudent) decision to book flights to Nairobi, where I'll be heading next Tuesday! 22 days in Africa, mostly remaining in Kenya, but also straying for a few days across the border into Uganda. This has meant that pretty much any dry weather has had to be used for getting on top of work, and attempting to not let the bank account completely implode.

It's fair to say I'm getting pretty excited, as long as I don't think about the finances and try not to get too down about the carbon footprint (which is more of a struggle than ever). Having had the good fortune of visiting Kenya twice before (plus two South Africa trips, and a 10 week visit to Cameroon in 1992 that literally nearly killed me) I have the luxury of not having too many lifers to chase (although if anyone has a Grey-crested Helmetshrike recording they'd be willing to share I'd be grateful!), and so I'll be able to relax a little: for starters all except the last week will be done by public transport, and mostly camping. It'll be my first tropical birding trip since January 2019, so I just want to get on and enjoy it. In spite of all of that, I am indulging in a RAV4 for the last week so I can enjoy some big game. It wasn't in the original plan, but somehow it seems wrong to go there and not see elephants and giraffes!

And also I hope to blog about it, as far as energy levels (because even a relaxed trip is likely to involve dawn-to-dusk birding) and access to wifi will allow.

Last Day

 Final day on Sanday (but still with a second boat crossing to do and then 700-ish miles to drive tomorrow, and possibly Sunday if I don't last the distance in one day!).

I shall miss it for sure, the wilderness, the solitude, the relaxed atmosphere. But I won't miss the wind, which this year has been pretty persistent. 

Today was no exception, with more sharp showers thrown in, but despite the testing conditions it's been an excellent day for swans and geese.

I didn't exactly rush out though, waiting for a couple of particularly nasty showers to pass. And most of what I've done has involved driving around scanning fields and lochs. It's mostly been too windy to be getting amongst bushes after small birds, and similarly I didn't fancy walking any loops, being battered the whole time and intermittently drenched!

First decent birds were a group of 4 Pale-bellied Brent Geese on the Overbister road, a small taste of things to come.

Heading out east I encountered my first flock of Whooper Swans of the day: seven birds at Newark that briefly settled on the water there before continuing into the howling westerly.

I decided to head straight for seawatch, and there on the sea was another Whooper flock, that eventually headed over land.

Next up was another flock of seven, which rather conveniently flew right past Start Point's humbug-striped lighthouse.

A Merlin zipped past Neuks a couple of times, and 4 Snow Buntings were accompanied by a bonus Siskin, the 111th and final addition to the trip list.

The seawatch itself (1¼ hrs of it) included 8 Sooty Shearwaters, 100 Kittiwakes, singles of Arctic  and Great Skua and perhaps as many as 3 Great Northern Divers.

Also more wildfowl, with two flocks of Pink-footed Geese passing through, plus a pair of Barnacle Geese and a couple of small flocks of Greylag Geese arriving.

I drove the North Loch loop today, stopping off for more incoming Whooper Swans , plus good numbers more on Loch Rummie and North Loch.

More Pink-footed Geese  headed over too, with a final count of moving birds of 222 (plus a grounded flock of 15 at Oyce later).

And one last flock of Whoopers on Loch Langamay took the total for those to 150.

A Brambling was seen along the Cleat road.

After lunch I drove the roads of the Burness peninsula again, scanning through loads more wader flocks and failing to find anything rarer than the Ruff.

And Stangasettar "garden", which last year was a great source of migrants, but this year has had none, turned up something at last, in the shape of a late Willow Warbler.

So I'm now off Sanday and waiting to board the boat at Stromness, very sad to be leaving Orkney again.

Wild Weather Again

 Been a wild day of persistently strong winds, gusting frequently to force 9, and lots of squally showers, often torrential, and including some hail.

Rock Pipit struggling to stay stood up on the harbour wall

Basically, if I'd been at home I probably would barely have set foot outdoors! Even here, effort has been lower than usual, and most birding has been done from the car. The exception was this morning, when I had a most unlikely seawatch; more of that shortly.

Early on I was basically restricting my birding to watching the Bay of Brough through the kitchen window. Good numbers of Shags were flying in and feeding in a tight group in the inshore waters.

Clearly a lot of fish had been pushed into the bay by the wind and swell, confirmed by plenty of Gannets diving out there too. At one point a Great Skua menacingly monitored the feeding, but this was soon driven off by large gulls. A single Kittiwake and a female-type Red-breasted Merganser also added themselves to the garden list, and a ringtail Hen Harrier did a couple of fly-pasts over the land.

After a while it struck me that perhaps I should be heading to somewhere where seabirds may have been forced to shelter from the winds, hopeful of maybe a petrel or phalarope. A quick glance at the map suggested Kettletoft Harbour would be the place: somewhere with shelter of sorts from the elements, and overlooking the bay there. But certainly not somewhere that could be classified as ideal for a seawatch.

Whilst there was nothing untoward there when I arrived, it was nice to see close Red-throated Diver, Black Guillemot and Guillemot.

There was a steady stream of Gannets heading into the westerly wind through Sanday Sound, which divides Sanday and Stronsay to the south, many of them really close.

Also reasonable numbers of Kittiwakes.

Adults

And a first year

Then at one point I picked out a couple of Arctic Skuas, a pale adult and dark juvenile, not too far out and I reached for the camera in the hope of some sort of record shot. But I was just about to take aim when another juvenile skua came gliding in and flew directly over my head no more than five metres up. I had a hunch what it was, based on jizz, but aimed the camera near it and took a lot of pictures of sky as it wheeled about nearby, close enough that I even heard it call. It then flew off a bit further and sat on the sea for a while, but further photo attempts were thwarted by the fact that I was facing into a howling gale, and it soon departed.

Fortunately a few of the early shots had been accurate, if not entirely in focus, but good enough to confirm my original suspicions that it was a Pomarine Skua.

Also of interest during the watch was a couple of flocks of Barnacle Geese, of 32 and 12 birds. The first flock headed out over the sea, so low they were dodging between the big waves. I'm hoping they all made it safely to the SW peninsula of the island and then had the good sense to rest up!

Also in the harbour were 3 Sandwich Terns and 11 Eider, and then after about an hour and a half I headed home to warm up!

Eider and Black Guillemot

After an extended lunch break I headed out in the car for more searching through wader flocks in fields in search of that elusive AGP or buff-breast. No joy unfortunately, although I did find the Greenshank at Thorness again.

And a Ruff near Oyce. 

Searching gardens up that way was as pointless as expected, although a single redpoll sp flew over Thorwald calling.

Popped in to Riverside Cottage on the way through to Lady, and found the Spotted Flycatcher still present in the same spot. 

Gardens in Lady produced just a single Robin, a male Hen Harrier was seen briefly out towards Cata Sands and then a check of the Cleat Road/North Hill area turned up a very flighty Wheatear.

Back at the hostel early further scanning of the bay revealed a first-year Arctic Tern, although the fact that it was often resting on the choppy sea may not bode well for it.

And that was about it for what was a very exhausting day, despite not having actually done that much.

Redefining Rarity

 Another day on Sanday, another morning North Loch loop walk!

A little late starting as I waited for early rain to ease, and a nice treat on the drive over with a Short-eared Owl at point blank range beside the car, just before Sinclair Stores. It flew so close I could look into its eyes, before it nonchalantly wheeled away. A magical moment.

First decent bird of the day was a high-flying southbound Grey Wagtail over Salties, a bird that is barely annual on Sanday.

At The Gallery I was welcomed for the second time this trip by a Sparrowhawk, but once again there were still other birds to be had, not least a Yellow-browed Warbler, badly photographed as ever! 

Also a Chiffchaff and a couple of Goldcrests.

Plenty of Redwings were about again, inluding the odd incoming flock, but mostly hanging around today, with at least 159 seen through the day.

2 Goldfinches dropped in briefly at Galilee, and then shortly after this I nearly overlooked what is another "barely annual" species on the island. They had been calling a while, I realised after, but suddenly something in my head clicked into Sanday mode, and I had myself a Sanday tick in the shape of two Jackdaws! Needless to say I was a bit late with the camera. Sometimes you have to concentrate on the most unexpected things when somewhere new.

Honest

7 Whooper Swans were on North Loch today, but other numbers were down.

Coming back round towards Loch Rummie the regular large Northwall Linnet flock contained at least one Twite, which had the decency not only to call but also to pose in full view.

Soon after this I got the day's almost obligatory Great Spotted Woodpecker sighting.

Headed down to Neuks for what ended up being a 45-minute seawatch as I hid behind the hut from downpours. 4 Sooty Shearwaters were seen, but it was pretty quiet, as I'd expected in the now-quite-strong SW winds. A Great Northern Diver practically overhead was nice though.

On the way back to the car a Snow Bunting flew over calling, but unseen.

After a late lunch I headed down to Stove to see if anything was there. En route I passed 2 Pink-footed Geese in a stubble field, my first since arriving on the island. Last year I saw quite a few here, so I'd wrongly assumed that those I saw over Speyside (and Charnock Richard Services!) on the way up were the prelude to more regular sightings, but it hasn't been the case.

Stove had a Goldcrest and 2 Stonechats and, remarkably, the second Grey Wagtail of the day, which dropped in for a couple of minutes.

Stopped off at the school (after closing time!, where the wood had a Brambling and a Chiffchaff, whilst adjacent fields still hosted good numbers of Swallows (at least 60, out of a total for the day of 89+). 

A Buzzard away off to the north of the airfield was another Sanday tick for me, and then when I got back to the hostel I was treated to cracking views of a ringtail Hen Harrier to round off a day which had 75 species, including a good dose of surprises.

With the aforementioned Sinclair's Stores in the background