A blustery south-easterly certainly blew any cobwebs away this morning for those that made the early tide. However, there was little in the way of passerine migration other than the odd Willow Warbler that took cover in the dense areas of bracken.
The rising tide produced several typical September wildfowl - strangely all in threes - Teal, Wigeon and Pintail. The North End produced some noteworthy records early in the day with a Guillemot out of the water (see left) and a couple of Grey Seals also taking advantage of a break from the wind north west of the slipway (see right).
At 9.15am waders and terns alerted observers to the possible presence of a raptor and the fact that these were joined in the air by gulls and then the Cormorants took flight from the East Hoyle suggested the raptor was a 'big one'. An Osprey was soon spotted drifting in from the north-east (see above). It flew slowly between the Obs and Red Rocks a couple of hundred feet up, it momentarily looked downwards as if considering whether to fish the low tide before re-considering and turning westwards and heading over Middle Island and off towards Wales.
A single Little Tern was found amongst still numerous (c250) Sandwich and a few Commons, these were occassionally harranged by up to 3 Arctic Skuas (nine were seen yesterday over the tide). Wader numbers were lower than recently due to the lower tides but a young Peregrine still hunted the island and gave occasional good views (see below).
A single new Robin was caught and ringed and later in the afternoon one of the Willow Warblers found its way into the SK.
[PSW, SRW, TGW & JE (briefly)] [452] Photos SRW (Osprey) others PSW
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