Autumnal

 A day of two halves today, certainly in terms of weather.

The morning was constantly wet, the afternoon more or less dry, and as is Orkney's way, pretty windy throughout. But, importantly, much less windy than the last wet day so it was possible to get out and check a few gardens and scan fields of waders from the car.

Nothing unusual to report of course, but plenty to count. Certainly saw a lot of Snipe, with them flushed from the roadside and near edges of fields - the morning session turned up at least 110 of them.

Plenty of other stuff too, and it's testament to Sanday's diversity that by the time I got back I for an early lunch I already had a day list of 42.

Rather bedraggled Golden Plover and Skylark

A single Whooper Swan was on Roos Loch, as were 2 Red-breasted Merganser.

Back at the hostel I was most surprised to be met by what was presumably "the" Yellow-browed Warbler cheerfully calling away and flitting about (as it wasn't seen yesterday I guess it might just have been a different bird). It was to be the day's only warbler, and today was my first without a Wheatear.

After lunch I headed into the middle of the island, stopping en route to count a decent flock of 65 Swallows near the school (83 in total today, which musty be a decent count up here this late, and so out of context with most of the rest of the day's birding).

I parked up by the surgery (a Brambling was in the trees there) for an anticlockwise lap from Lady to Little Sea and back, including a minor detour to Riverside Cottage, where I was surprised to find the Spotted Flycatcher from two days ago still present, in pretty much exactly the same spot. 

The North Ronaldsay WhatsApp group had been reporting big numbers of moving Redwings and pretty much as soon as I got out of the car it was apparent that Sanday was having some of the thrushy action too. 

Throughout the afternoon flocks were flying through; sometimes they kept going, often they pitched into gardens for a while before moving on, sometimes a few hung around a bit longer.

In the end my total for the day was 642 and no doubt I missed lots when visibility was restricted (and in any case Sanday is quite a big island so presents a pretty broad front). For perspective, my 12 days last year produced just over a hundred in total. Vismig is my favourite aspect of birding, and this was a joy to witness.

Down at Little Sea I counted more waders, and a few ducks (including another 9 Red-breasted Mergansers) and then noticed an auk out on the water. Little Sea is only narrowly joined to the open sea, so, although tidal, is almost semi-inland. Definitely not the place to expect an auk, especially as zooming in revealed it to be a first year Puffin! It was too distant for a photo, so I decided to head out on the little spit of land to try and get closer to it. But by the time I got there, it had vanished. Completely. I couldn't see it on the water or on any of the shores. There were no gulls bigger than Common to blame, and whilst it could feasibly have flown off, what seems likeliest is that it was taken by the seal that was in almost exactly the same spot. Until that point (and the subsequent internet search) I had no idea that seals ate seabirds, although it makes sense that they would if there was an easy target.

Scanning the roosting gulls produced a first year Kittiwake and 3 Sandwich Terns.

Two Common Redpolls flew in at Isegarth, but that was about it for migrants other than Redwings and Swallows.

Back at the hostel there was a Kestrel, and a Ruff flying around the beach before heading off inland was a surprise, although not as much so as the fact that my full zoom full crop photo was actually identifiable!

More rain forecast tomorrow morning, but calmer, so I ought to get out in it, especially as from lunchtime tomorrow I've just got endless strong westerlies to endure for the rest of my stay.