Sanday, Sept 26th - Oct 3rd (1 Viewer)

This is personal account of the now regular teams autumn trip to Sanday, focusing on what I saw but mentioning the goodies that were picked up by the others too. Our birding tactics were to split up and try to limit overlapping coverage as much as possible. This meant that as well as looking for (and sometimes finding!) rare birds we could get counts on the various raptors waders and wildfowl that make Sanday such a special place to visit. It's a shame that the island does not receive better coverage, and that the perhaps 10,000 waders and 5/6,000 wildfowl are not monitored more closely. The downside of our attempts to cover as much as possible are obvious - tired legs and blisters! We made a pretty conservative estimate that between the 6 of us we covered over 720 km on foot! A byproduct of this was a final species tally of 126, which I guess would be tough to beat elsewhere in the northern isles. In 5 autumn trips and 1 spring one, our overall species tally is 178.

Saturday sept 26th

A full strength team of 6 Sanday veterans made this autumns trip, having accumulated along various stages of the journey between Exeter and Kirkwall. As usual we had a night sampling Kirkwall's nightlife (a curry, a few beers and then a sleepless night in the Peedie Hostel), and a hectic dash around Tesco before heading over from mainland Orkney first thing on the morning of the 26th.

It was an uneventful crossing, picking up the usual great skuas, tysties and great northern divers, as well as a few skeins of pink-footed geese, and a peregrine harrying waders as we passed Shapinsay. All talk was of the potential of the week ahead, especially given how the promised south easterly gales had suddenly vanished from the forecasts. Expectation levels had been reset to 'moderate'.

On arriving we split up into three pairs who would each check a couple of sites before reconvening at the house in Lady to put all of the beer in the fridge. We started with a bit of a bang: the 2 that went to Stove soon picked up a yellow-browed warbler and a lesser whitethroat, while the 2 that checked the Loth quarry stopped at the 'magic field' (so called for its track record of picking up American waders) and got things kicked off very nicely with an adult American golden plover. I went straight to Lady and saw the back end of an unstreaked acro vanishing into some thick cover. We rallied the rest of the guys but couldn't relocate it despite giving it a good go. It was seen again later in the week, again, very badly, and would remain unidentified...

During the search I picked up several lesser redpoll, a couple of garden warbler, and a woodpigeon (a bit of a Sanday mega) before getting the kit into the house and having a spot of lunch.

After lunch I stayed local to lady, birding a few sites nearby on foot. The Cata sand had a good selection of waders, including 24 grey plover and 2 black-tailed godwit, and the first of many sparrowhawks too. On cleat marshes I picked up a couple of ruff among the many wigeon and teal, and from there I headed towards the little sea via over-the-water, where I had a female type merlin dash past. Again I got the tide wrong at the little sea and therefore missed out on the waders there, but my first hen harrier of the trip made up for that. By this time it was beginning to get dark, so I headed back towards the house for the log and the first brandy coffee of the week. Our good start had quickly tailed off and it seemed like the only excitement that I missed out on was a yellow wagtail over North loch (rare here), a couple of YBWs and a small pod of Risso's dolphin off the east end.

Sunday sept 27th

I walked out to Tresness first thing in the morning, a beautiful and extremely 'rare' looking sandy headland on the east side of the island, along a route that took me along the edge of the Cata sand. I hadn't been going along here too long before I stumbled into a flock of 35 snow bunting, and had also had a merlin fly by. Settling half way out I scanned the waders and had good numbers of golden plover (1100), and about 300 dunlin, and a quick search of the other side of the dunes produced a couple of great northern divers and 4 red-throats.

Out on the ness itself I struggled to find any migrants of any consequence, but had a great hour watching the world go by at the pool at the end of the headland. Here, plenty of ducks and waders fed, and pipits and wagtails bounced around in the short grass. Moorhen and water rail lurked in the reeds, and sparrowhawk and a fine male hen harrier drifted by. Twite, redpoll sp, and reed bunting (probably a migrant) joined the scores of meadow pipits and swallows passing over. It was difficult to get up tight about the lack of scarcities when you could sit in the sun with this world of birds around you. Although something rare would have been nice....

After lunch I checked the school garden looking for migrant passerines, and was surprised to flush a jack snipe from the edge of the garden. I walked the little sea loop again, and again got the tides all wrong ( it fills up very quickly, giving you a very small window of wader opportunity), before heading back to Lady where I had a ringtail hen harrier and a female blackcap. Others had a slightly more productive day than me, with red-backed shrike, barred warbler, several YBW, and a wood sandpiper (a Sanday tick) being found.

Fat Paul Scholes said:

Expectation levels had been reset to 'moderate'.

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You'll be resetting your expectation levels to 'duff' now you're back at Girdle Ness! Although perhaps it might be interesting this week.

Look forward to reading the rest of this - it sounds as though you had a good trip.

I think that the middle of this coming week could be good! I hope it is, anyway. And then it can go back to being quiet the week after when I go off to Ouessant!

Monday sept 28th

After a quick and unproductive scoot around Lady I got a lift out to the east end to do the loop around Tofts ness and North Loch. I started off well, with a juv lesser black-backed gull (the first one recorded in 5 autumn Sanday trips) and enjoyed the rather exposed walk around Tofts as I shared it with about 200 snow bunting, and a buzzard, my first on the island. North loch and the loch of Rhummie produced about 400 wigeon, and 15 black-tailed godwits. On checking a recently cut corn field on the west side of the lochs I came across a group of 6 reed bunting, and as they took off, they were joined by another rather hefty, plain brown passerine, with a gentle, brambling like call - a common rosefinch. Luckily this coincided with my ride home appearing and soon the three of us were enjoying the bird doing more of its distinctive call. A nice way to stop for lunch.

Having had my fill of cheese on toast I was about to head up to the Roos area, but got sidetracked by a call from one of our Lady neighbours, who had a small bird in her kitchen! We piled round to find she had cornered it and placed it in a wee tweety-pie style cage, covered with a towel to keep it calm. Not a sound emerged from the cage, but as I lifted the corner of the towel I was met by a very angry little yellow-browed warbler! I'll never tire of these birds despite the fact that they could well be the most numerous passerine arriving on the northern isles some autumns...

A little later than anticipated I got up to the Roos area. The marsh had a good count of 8 ruff, and the loch had a great count of over 700 wigeon. No sign of any Americans, unfortunately, and I wonder if the bird that was being seen on Westray was the bird that had turned up on Sanday in the previous two autumns. I made my way back towards Lady via Otterswick, where I picked up a whitethroat, and then jammed into a 2cy glaucous gull flying over. From here, things got a little crazy...

The phone rang, with one of the guys asking where I was, and did I want a lift to go and see the Swainson's thrush that one of the gang had just found! Not quite believing my ears I quickened my pace towards the meeting place and was soon piling out of a still moving car to find a couple of team Sanday obviously not looking at a mega thrush! It has vanished, but luckily one of the other guys soon refound the bird, and as the sun began to set it put on an incredible display, with scope filling views and the bird posing for photos in the evening light. Cue much celebrating, back-slapping, and blowing up of mobile phones once the news got out. And beer, later.

Before the thrush, it had been another productive day with one team member bagging a pectoral sandpiper, and several YBWs being seen around the island.

Tuesday, sept 29th

As I wondered along the road in Lady first thing, a calling YBW made its way into the notebook before I headed back out to the Roos area. I wanted to have another look through all of the wigeon but the main excitement of the morning happened before I'd even arrived there. As we drove along, what had initially looked like a small rock in the middle of the road revealed itself to be a turtle dove! We managed to avoid it and luckily it hung around for long enough in the same area for some of the others to come and add it to their Sanday lists. Much the same selection of birds were present on the marsh and loch at Roos, and a check of the rather jungle like cover at Roos farm produced another yellow-browed warbler. The return journey along the Burness road produced a chiffchaff and a water rail, and as I passed through Otterswick, the glaucous gull drifted over again.

In the afternoon I went looking for waders once more, checking the Overbister area for golden plover flocks and then the little sea for other waders. Again I drew a blank here but managed to connect with the glauc yet again, as it drifted over the airstrip.

Others searched for, and failed to find the Swainson's thrush in the morning. In fact, aside from a handful of YBWs, the only other bird of note was a swift that went over the loch of Rhummie - our first autumn bird and in the same spot as our only spring one.

Wednesday sept 30th

I was pretty keen to find myself an American wader so I spent the beautiful, calm morning in the Whitemill Bay area, checking the shore and working the fields inland for golden plover flocks and whatever goodies might lurk within them. I managed to find about 2000 golden plover, but failed to find anything rare among them. The most interesting bird was a golden plover that was almost completely monochrome and would best be described as a silver rather than a golden plover. A stunning bird. Also in the area were small numbers of twite and snow bunting, a few red-throated divers in the bay, a ruff, a hen harrier and a light passage of pink-footed geese overhead.

After lunch, I decided I needed to give my feet a rest from stomping around in wellies, so I thought a seawatch in my trainers was in order. I got out to Lopness and immediately picked up a few sooty shearwaters pretty close in - and on looking at my map I realised that I'd be even closer to them if I headed out to the little bothy at Neuks, where you cross over to Start point on the low tide. This proved to be an extremely jammy decision as on approaching the bothy, a wheatear and another small passerine flitted down onto the beach. Two steps later the other bird was flying past me and revealing itself to be a bluethroat! I got a quick record shot and then texted the others, but lost it while I was messing around with my phone. A few of the gang who were already at the east end came out to twitch it, and although it gave us the run-around for a while it eventually showed nicely feeding on the beach. My third bluethroat found on Sanday and the first anyone else had caught up with. While we were trying to refind this bird, a YBW zipped past, and a group of 30 or so snow buntings flitted to and fro from Start point. Pink-footed geese steadily passed overhead, and sooty shearwaters continued to trickle past at close range. To complete the picture, a group of 5 white-beaked dolphins (not the Risso's I was both expecting and hoping for!) drifted South. All of this on a balmy, windless, sunny afternoon. You don't see many of them on Sanday!

Not much else from the rest of the guys apart from another sighting of the glaucous gull, making a couple of us wonder if there was more than one bird present - this one being miles away from the other sightings.

Super reading Mark.Well Done.

Excellent write up! can't wait for the rest.

Thanks for the nice feedback, guys.


Thursday Oct 1st

My notebook reveals that I spent another morning checking the Overbister area and the little sea, on another fruitless quest for rare waders. I enjoy this route and it has the advantage of being do-able in trainers, which was another opportunity to rest my now heavily blistered feet! There was nothing more interesting than some decent counts of the usual wildfowl and waders.

In the afternoon a couple of us went towards Roos to look through the ever growing flock of wigeon there. On the way we stopped at the large gull flock that was gathering around Quivals and picked up a 3cy glaucous gull, confirming the presence of a second bird as the other one was a 2cy. On Roos loch the highlight was a dabchick (a potential Sanday tick for a few of the team) and there was a ruff among the usual wildfowl and waders on the marsh. We then headed east. At Salties I successfully twitched the very showy Lapland bunting that had adopted the track as its home, and a brambling was also in the garden there. From here I walked down towards Start point as I was really fired up by the prospect of a bit more seawatching - the proximity of the sooty shearwaters was a bit of a novelty for me (from land, at least), and I was not to be disappointed. In an hour I had a manxy and 10 sooty shearwaters, but my far and away the best was a single Balearic shearwater that lingered with a feeding group of gannets for a couple of minutes and showed really well, before landing on the water and disappearing. The minute I'd put this news out I got a text back from one of the other guys who'd just had a grey phalarope from somewhere further south on the island...the seawatching was paying off! I then met up with another of the team who had been doing the east end, who'd just found an American golden plover! Photos showed that it was a different bird to the adult that had been seen at the beginning of the week, and although we were back to the right spot about 15 minutes after he'd seen it, it was nowhere to be found.

Other birds seen included the original glauc, a wood sandpiper, a smattering of yellow-browed warblers, and a Sanday mega - only our second ever goldfinch!

Friday Oct 2nd

I spent the morning walking around Tofts ness in the far NE of the island, and having covered that, birded south down the beach towards Start point (making a point of avoiding the grey seal colony in the Bay of Sowerdie).The weather, and recent arrivals elsewhere had made looking for nearctic waders a priority. I failed to score on this front again, but did have a lovely walk down a nice sheltered beach! There were plenty of waders around, including a good count of sanderling (with several colour ringed birds) and the odd snow bunting, peregrine and great northern diver put in an appearance too. I approached Start Point with the intention of having a nice sit down/seawatch before lunch...

At this point I got a message from one of the other guys, who'd just had a dowitcher spp briefly at the north end of the island. We sped over there (well, it took about an hour to get back to the cars and round everyone else up) but the bird could not be relocated. The original finder didn't get enough on it to call it either way (and didn't hear it either), and was duly gutted. It would have been great to nail a second BB rarity for the week, but you win some, you lose some...

In the afternoon after a late lunch we coordinated a search for the dowitcher, which took me to the muddy creeks and pools of Colliness, just north of Lady. There were no waders on the creeks as the tide was too high, and a merlin had dashed over the best pool on my way out so could have spooked a few roosting waders. From here I went back to the Cata sand to see if anything turned up on the falling tide. Here the usual suspects gathered on the growing expanses of mud, and as I sat I was treated to some really close up views of the bar-tailed godwits and grey plovers. All of these promptly took to the air as a huge juvenile peregrine came over and started hunting wigeon. Thoughts of rarities quickly diminished and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the ebb and flow of predators and prey on the sands.

Others had the bluethroat and lapland bunting at the east end, a wood sand and little stint were found while searching for the dowitcher, and various YBWs were seen.

Great report! Will there be any pix posted?

Cheers
Mike

Thanks - at some point, although they're still on my camera at the moment...!

Saturday Oct 3rd

Being well and truly bitten by the Sanday seawatching bug (and the non-Sanday seawatching bug, to be honest...) I had another session at Neuks in the morning, doing two hours between 08:20 and 10:20. There was only the briefest interlude at the beginning, to have another look at the bluethroat that had decided it was going to hang around for a while. After 2 hours down the scope, I'd notched up 86 sooty shearwaters, 2 manxies, 4 great northern divers, 2 long-tailed ducks, and several small flocks of pink-footed geese, among the loads of gannets, fulmars and bonxies. The sooties continued to pass by at what felt like arms length, making my mouth water at the prospect of spending some time seawatching there slightly earlier in the year.

On my way back towards civilisation from my seawatching spot, I picked up the two Slavonian grebes that one of the team had texted me about (full on team Sanday tick), before heading up the side of North loch, where migrants included redwing, willow warbler, and Lapland bunting. A hen harrier hunted over the loch, and our first coot of the trip eventually appeared on the loch of Rhummie (an inordinate amount of effort goes into getting coot each year...).

After lunch, and clearing the house of wet weather gear and uneaten rocky bars, I headed out to do my usual loop around the little sea. Again, I drew a blank on rare waders, but the walk out was made well worthwhile by the 6 big spoony pomarine skuas that lumbered through the sty wick, behind the little sea. 10 red-throated divers were also in the bay.

Onto the Bae loch via a blackcap at ladybank, where two of Sanday's most wanted wetland birds (coot and little grebe) were present, along with a new in whooper swan and loads of new in mallard and wigeon. I was being picked up at the school (where I hid from a hen party and picked up a YBW) before having a check of Stove before getting on the ferry. Stove had a chiffchaff and a monstrous female sparrowhawk, and the approach road had a wing tagged buzzard, and a good count of 63 ravens.

The other guys had a few yellow-brows between them, and a little stint, and one of the glaucous gulls.

And that was that. Apart from a minke whale seen briefly on the Pentland Firth crossing on the sunday morning.

The next trips are already in the planning....

Fat Paul Scholes said:

Thanks - at some point, although they're still on my camera at the moment...!

Click to expand...

Get Your Pics Out For The Lads..! :-O

Fantastic reading Mark.Shall have to visit Sanday some time.

Really good report

Really enjoyed your report.
We really must do more birding on the Northern Isles.