12th April 2010

With no birds arriving overnight (apart from a single Willow Warbler on Middle and a Wheatear on the main island), attention turned to the sea which was calm in the bright sunshine. By far the best bird of the day was a Puffin which flew east at 09.10hrs, but unfortunately did not pitch in to enable all to see it. For the first time in ages there were no Little Gulls to be seen, but the 2 Velvet Scoters did not let observers down. Five male Eiders including 2 adults drifted between the island and Red Rocks from where they were also seen (MGT). Logged during the sea watch were 7 Red-throated Divers, 11 Great Crested Grebes, 16 Gannets, 12 Guillemots, 10 Razorbills, 4 Sandwich Terns, and a flypast of 14 Bar-tailed Godwits and groups of 3 and 5 Stock doves.

Lesser Redpolls were heard over on 4 occasions, 4 White Wagtails were on the rocks at the north end and a Skylark (right) sang first over the south end and then the middle of the island - an event quite uncommon in recent years.

A Common Snipe was flushed from the north end this morning and again from the south end and west side later on. The Whimbrel (above) from yesterday still seemed to be the sole spring arrival so far.
There are still 5 Purple Sandpipers with the 130 or so Turnstones, but the Brent Geese have taken advantage of the fair weather and now appear to be down to just 3 birds (right).
Ringed ;_ 1 Meadow Pipit
(DB,MSC+2,CJ,KMc,CS,CJW) +RW [ 99] photos CJ