Roger and I were out birding close to the hotel looking for
White-throated Dipper but without success, but we did find a single Willow
Warbler and at least six Eurasian Siskin before having to go for breakfast.
We were joined by Margaret Auld and David Ball and as there were only
four participants on the trip we had plenty of room in the minibus. We left Nethy Bridge at around 07:30 and
headed northwest picking up the A9 and continuing north over the Moray
Firth. We eventually made our first
birding stop at Loch Fleet, finding the tide well out and consequently areas of
exposed mud. The area to the north of
the road was most productive with two Common Sandpiper and three Common
Greenshank being found. There was also a
single Red-breasted Merganser and several Common Shelduck and Eurasian
Oystercatcher. On the main estuary on
the other side of the road there were several hundred Pink-footed Geese and
some feeders in a garden produced a couple of Siskin. A singing Willow Warbler was also located and
just before we were departing a Red Kite was observed to the north. One of the birds hoped for was Western Osprey
and after about thirty minutes there had been no sign and we needed to be on
our way and got back into the minibus. A
we turned to leave the car park Mark picked and Western Osprey fishing over the
estuary and it gradually came closer and passed over our heads, heading in the
direction of the nest site. Western
Osprey, Red Kite and Common Greenshank were to be our only sighting on the
trip, making the short stop worthwhile.
Our next stop was for coffee at Latheronwheel, which was a nice harbour
tucked away below the village. There
were Northern Fulmar around the cliffs and several Gannets along with four
Common Eider, a Black-legged Kittiwake and a Black Guillemot out to sea. There was also our first Hooded Crow of the
trip and a Common Buzzard provided some nice views as it soared over the cliff
before perching on a post and two Eurasian Rock Pipits were active within the
harbour.
Common Buzzard
We made one final stop just north of Wick, before heading for a ferry
crossing to Orkney, and again it was a small harbour looking north over
Sinclair’s Bay. We saw a single Eurasian
Curlew as we drove down towards the harbour and found a couple of Sandwich
Terns resting on the old harbour jetty.
Sandwich Tern
Out at sea we picked up five Velvet Scoters and a Black Guillemot and
there was a Common Eider closer in.
There were also at least five Great Northern Divers and a single Shag
and then Mark was quite excited as he found a summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe
not too far out. It was a new
Scottish-tick for him and the first he had seen in several years. A final scan produced a couple of Razorbill
and three Whimbrel flew over just before we departed for our ferry, the
Pentalina, to St Margaret's Hope on South Ronaldsay.
As we drove west along the A836 Mark picked up a white-winged gull flying
east which was identified as an Iceland Gull before it dropped out of sight
below the cliff top. When we reached the
ferry terminus it was clear that the ferry would be almost full and after a
lunch break and an unsuccessful search for the Iceland Gull we bordered the
ferry.
Although we were almost the last on the ferry we were able to get an
appropriate position just behind the bridge and at least get some shelter from
the rather cold northerly wind. As we
left the harbour there were good numbers of Common Eider and during the
crossing we had a Common Shelduck, circa forty Northern Fulmar, four Northern
Gannet, three Black-legged Kittiwake, four Great Skua, a 100+ Guillemot, circa
twenty-five Razorbill and ten Atlantic Puffin.
As we approached the Orkney Islas there were circa seventy European Shag
and two moulting Great Northern Diver and there was a Red-breasted Merganser
and six Black Guillemots, including a winter plumaged bird as we approached the
harbour.
Moulting Great Northern Divers
Nortthern Fulmar
Northern Gannet
Guillemots
Black Guillemot
Winter plumage Black Guillemot
Being one of the last to board the ferry we were one of the first off and
we were soon making our way northeast along the northern coast of South
Ronaldsay towards Burray. We made our
first stop after crossing the barrage for a comfort break and to view the sound
where there were plenty of Common Eider and Long-tailed Ducks. A Great Skua flew over with several Whimbrel
flying over a few minutes later. Mark
walked through the dunes to see if any Little Terns had returned and came
running back beckoning us to go to him as he had found a first-year Glaucous
Gull on the beach. Although the gull was
quite distant it was still very distinctive, and we walked further through the
dunes to get a close look. There was
also a Stonechat in the dunes and a Common Ringed Plover and a Northern
Wheatear on the edge of the dunes.
First-year Glaucous Gull
Mark decided to try and locate the Whimbrel that had flown over and we
found thirteen in a field from a small by-road.
Whimbrel
A stop on another barrage on Burray produced more Long-tailed Ducks, four
Red-breasted Mergansers, eight distant Black-throated Divers and three Great
Northern Divers.
We stopped at the Italian Chapel but it had just closed and so we went
across the final barrage to reach Mainland Orkney ad stopped briefly on the far
side, where we found another four Red-breasted Mergansers displaying and two
distant Red-throated Divers. Another
stop, a little further along the road overlooking the Loch of
Graemeshall to the north and Holm Sound to the south and produced four
more Great Northern Divers, two Sandwich and two Common Terns to the
south. The loch had a variety of
commoner water birds but five swans flying over flew off to the north without
being identified and shortly afterwards as we were about to set off they
returned and landed on the loch and we able to see they were five Whooper
Swans.
Drake Red-breasted Merganser
Pair of Red-breasted Merganser
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swans
Time was now pressing, and we continued on our way to our hotel in
Kirkwall but not before we added Raven and a ring-tailed Hen Harrier to our day
list.
It had been an excellent day with eight-five species recorded, nine of
which were year-ticks that moved my year-list onto 200, which for me is a
pretty good list before the end of April.
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