North Ronaldsay and Mainland, Orkney - May 3, 2018

We were leaving North Ronaldsay quite early this morning and saw just a Gannet and Great Skua whilst having breakfast and three Common Eider and four Sanderling as we drove to the airport.

We were soon on the plane heading back to Mainland but flying lower than when we came over due to the increased wind.  When we landed on Mainland it was quite dull but dry.  Having disembarked from the small aircraft we collected our bags and walked to the minibus, which was parked in the islander’s free area.  Having packed the luggage onto the bus we were soon on our way for a day’s birding on the mainland and our first port of call was a Scapa Flow where we were hoping to see three Orca that have been present in the bay for a number of days.

We viewed the flow from Scapa and found three Common Terns feeding over the water and eight Long-tailed Ducks, five Red-breasted Mergansers, two Red-throated Divers and our first Common Scoter of the trip but there was no sign of the whales and a further look from the pier produced the same result.

We headed east to Deerness in the hope of finding passerines, but we weren't very hopeful.  We saw a couple of Raven and a Whimbrel on route and as we approached the area we saw a Common Buzzard.  An area of bushes, which is used by local ringers was explored and we did find a single Willow Warbler and a Common Chiffchaff.  We walked back to the road and then up the hill to view a small lake, seeing a Great Skua, two Common Ringed Plover, a Wheatear and a Dunlin.

We went back to the minibus and drove a short distance down the road and after parking walked to the beach to view Sandside Bay.  There was two Red-throated Divers in the bay and two Arctic Skua were observed flying south but some distance out to sea.  There was four Eider and a single Black Guillemot also in the bay.

We headed back west through Kirkwall to Waulkmill Bay, which was another area where the Orca had been seen from.  We parked along the approach road looking down into the bay, but the view was rather restricted in terms of the flow.  There was a single European Stonechat alongside where we had parked, and we found a Red-throated Diver and four Red-breasted Mergansers in the bay and a Northern Gannet out in the flow.  I then picked up a ring-tailed Hen Harrier as it flew across the bay, which was to be our only one of the day.  Needless to say, there was no sign of the Orca and we needed to be a bit lucky to catch up with them, particularly has there had been no reported sightings today.

From the bay we headed for the Loch of Harray seeing a couple of Great Skua on route and on reaching the Loch we found there was still 100+ Greater Scaup, sixty-one Red-breasted Merganser and two Red-throated Divers on the loch.

The weather was now closing in and we headed for the Bay of Skill where we had lunch.  There were at least forty Common Eider in the bay and at least eight Arctic Terns.

When we had finished lunch, we headed for Marwick Head and parked in the car park on the beach.  Marwick Head is an RSPB Reserve, which is an auk breeding colony and we could see plenty of auks in flight, but they were too distant to identify.  We did see twelve Kittiwake bathing on the shore and four Northern Gannet out at sea but the only waders on the beach were six Ruddy Turnstone.  As we were leaving Mark noticed a white-winged gull roosting in a field.  It was now raining steadily but after some debate we decided to get closer to confirm our suspicions that it was a first-year Glaucous Gull, which proved to be correct.

With the weather looking as though it had set in, we decided our best bet was to go to the hide overlooking The Loons, which was only short drive away.  When we got there appeared to be fewer birds than on our previous visit but after a few minutes a first-winter Glaucous Gull flew over and I had left the camera in the car.  I went and got the camera hoping it would return but of course it didn’t.  We did see a Common Shelduck, a Little Grebe, at least two Common Snipe and a Common Redshank but with little else we moved on.

Redshank

Despite the rain we headed over Bisay Moor to Burgar Hill where there was another hide.  Surprisingly we had a brief view of a Eurasian Sparrowhawk and a Whimbrel on route and the Red-throated Diver was still on the loch when we arrived.

Red-throated Diver

We went back to Scarpa to have another look for the Orca but there was still no sign, but Mark then received a message saying they were being seen from Gyre, which is west of Waulkmill Bay and so we decided to give it a go.

There was a small parking area and from there we had to walk down to the beach to view the area.  They had been reported near the fish farm, which we could see after walking a short distance to the east but there was no sign of the Orcas.  We walked quite some distance to the east and were looking and must have almost got to the promontory overlooking Swanbister Bay, but we were looking much further into the bay.  We were beginning to lose hope when Mark cried I’ve got them, but they dived before we saw them.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long before they surfaced again, and we then saw them regularly over the next twenty minutes or so.  They were three males and they tended to rise together and at one point they disappeared for several minutes before we picked them up again.

We eventually called it day and headed back to the minibus seeing ten Common Eider, at least five Great Northern Divers, five European Shag and a Black Guillemot.