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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment