Wet and Wild

 Well, the forecast said wet and windy, and boy was it wet and windy! For a period around midday the wind was gusting around 70mph, and being outside was not for consideration!

But, just as forecast, around 4pm the wind dropped (to a much more manageable F5-6) and the rain stopped (bar one sharp shower) and I was straight out into the field. 

A Great Northern Diver in the bay outside the hostel was nice.

But it was gardens I was most interested in, so I headed out towards Broughton and Burness. The first garden I checked held a Redwing which was promising, and over the next 2½ hours or so I saw at least 17 of them, plus a couple of Song Thrushes. 

Also at the first stop a Merlin dashed through, and soon after 2 Kestrels circled overhead together, with another seen hovering later at Scar.

The garden at Thornwald had my second Great Spotted Woodpecker of the trip too.

Stopped in Thorness to scan a field of waders, but they spooked and I only got flight views of a bonus Greenshank .

Up at Burness my first stop was at Woodhouse, an unoccupied house with an amazing garden that ought to hold masses. Last year I visited it loads and saw not a single migrant. Today was very different, as half an hour doing laps of its various corners produced a Yellow-browed Warbler , a Siberian Chiffchaff , a Lesser Whitethroat  and a rather dark-legged Willow Warbler , but only the latter posed for a photo.

I checked out a few more gardens out to Upper Breckan without further reward, although on the way back a male Sparrowhawk completed a rather unexpectedly good raptor afternoon.

Popped to Sinclair Stores for some provisions and while in that area, a nice count of 55 Hooded Crows flew over to roost somewhere near Bea Loch, and a Wheatear was flushed from the road.

Back at the hostel, with it almost dark, a Grey Heron on the adjacent beach rounded off a surprisingly high day list of 46 species.

There had clearly been a decent arrival of birds last night, and it was a shame the weather was too bad to properly get amongst it, but with tomorrow forecast sunny and dry (if quite windy) I'm hoping that it's windy enough tonight to deter too much from leaving overnight.

And maybe something has come in from the west too!