Sanday, June 2015 (1 Viewer)

[Mark Lew1s]

As our four previous autumn trips had demonstrated, Sanday has the potential to deliver good birds in any conditions, and across a wide spectrum of passerines, waders, wildfowl, gulls, etc. No doubt inspired by a grey, wintery day in the office, a few of the regular Sanday team decided that it would be worth a look in spring, and with the last week of May in our favoured accommodation not an option, we decided that we’d give it a go in the first week of June. We didn’t get any catharus thrushes, but we didn’t do too badly for spring migrants. The birding was set to a background of largely good weather, the beautiful Sanday scenery and friendly islanders, and a plethora of breeding waders, seabirds and wildfowl.

Saturday May 30th

After assembling in Aberdeen, and a quick jaunt up to the Ythan to have a glance at the distant king eider, we boarded the ferry that would get us in to Kirkwall at about 11 in the evening. From the boat we had the usual seabirds – great and arctic skuas, manx shearwaters, and plenty of auks and terns. The journey was neatly bookended by cetaceans, with the impossible to miss bottlenose dolphins in Aberdeen Harbour, and a minke whale as we approached Orkney in the fading evening light. The sunset over the islands was pretty spectacular too…

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Sunday May 31st

Having filled the car with shopping in Kirkwall first thing, we were soon on board the ferry over to Sanday, and enjoying the seabirds that can be seen en route to the outer islands. Tysties were everywhere, and we also picked up plenty of other auks and terns, a couple of red-throated diver, and the odd great and arctic skua. At one point a fine spoony dark phase pomarine skua kept pace with us, giving great views as it menacingly lumbered northward.

On our arrival we popped into the great little spot at Stove where we were welcomed to the island by a hen harrier, and a chaffinch was a rather unexpected migrant. From there we embarked upon a wee run of island megas – our first ever lesser black-backed gull on Sanday was to prove to be the first of many, but the three woodpigeons remain genuinely noteworthy, and the goldfinch is still our only island record! Before heading to our accommodation, we checked a few likely looking wader sites picking up decent numbers of sanderling, looking great in their breeding plumage, and a few knot, not looking quite so ready for action.

One quick unpacking and lunch session later, and we were off out again. I headed out to the north of the island on foot, in what can only be described as a foolhardy move, considering the rain. On the way up, a ploughed field held a flock of 70 dark, and long winged ringed plover, undoubtedly tundrae type birds on their way north. On Roos marsh there were gadwall, shoveler, with a few teal and wigeon. but Roos loch was quiet, save for a brood of 6 mute swan chicks. It was here that I chickened out and phoned for someone to come and pick me up in a nice dry car.

From the safety of the car we decided that North loch was worth a look. Wildfowl were restricted to a few tufted ducks and red-breasted merganser out on the open water, but three whooper swans in the fields were unexpected, grazing among the greylags. A few sand martin were foraging over the open water, and were another welcome Sanday tick for us. After another quick bite to eat we were out again checking the Burness road, but apart from another decent flock of 60 or so tundrae type ringos, it was all a bit quiet. An interesting but relatively fruitless day and a very wet one to boot!

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Monday June 1st

First stop of the morning was Westayre loch, a great bit of boggy habitat that is no doubt full of birds, but difficult to access, especially with the number of breeding waders around the lochside. To reduce disturbance we viewed from a good distance, which was fine this time but might be a little frustrating if we were to ever find anything decent there! Among the more usual suspects there were a single whimbrel, and several red-breasted mergansers and eider. On then to North loch. Here I walked a loop around the loch, taking in the Loch of Rhummie as well, before heading southward towards Start point. The three whoopers were still present by the loch, as was a single black-tailed godwit, and a peregrine went over carrying food. The gardens on the east side of the loch yielded the first ‘proper’ migrants of the week, with spotted flycatcher, blackcap and a chiffchaff. Down towards Start there was a decent flock of about 100 sanderling (including a colour ringed bird), a great-northern diver offshore, and another spotted flycatcher, making use of a sheltered and warm section of beach, much like the thousands of flies that were buzzing around it. It seemed like a few bits and bobs were coming in which boded well for our afternoon session.

It was another session around Roos and Burness for me after lunch, with the various lochs and marshes producing a nice selection of wildfowl, a very late grey plover, a group of 90 or so bar-tailed godwit, and another field-feeding group of northbound ringed plover.

The evening session saw me back out at the east end. Again, there were a few migrants new in, such as another spotted flycatcher and a new chiffchaff, and a count of 10 sand martins was good. Not quite as good as the count of 132 ravens I enjoyed dancing along in the updrafts of the dune ridge that separates the beach from the lochside and fields.

The presence of the spotted flycatchers was encouraging, with four seen across the island in total, as was the small arrival of phylloscs. Maybe the next day would be better. As enjoyable as all of the breeding birds and great landscapes were, we were hoping for some slightly rarer birds.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Tuesday June 2nd

With yesterday afternoons small arrival of migrants, we definitely had our ‘rare heads’ on as we scoured the gardens around Lady village after breakfast. Here, there were two each of chiffchaff and spotted flycatcher new in. Encouraging signs. From Lady I walked down towards the little sea to check for waders and then loop around back to Lady via Broughton. My walk took less time than I anticipated as I got the tide all wrong for waders at the little sea – perhaps because the reasonably strong southerly winds had helped the water into the basin and filled it much sooner than predicted. I had to make do with a further two spotted flycatchers, and a whimbrel over Broughton, as well as a few roosting bar-tailed godwits, red-breasted mergansers, and wigeon using the pools at over-the-water alongside the ever present breeding redshanks and common gulls.

I’d intended to walk all of the way back but the others had different plans, so they picked me up and we went to check Stove again, where two short-eared owls stole the show.

My post lunch walk took me to Tresness, a long hike out through the dunes on the south side of the cata sand, to a remote headland that looks great for migrants and has a large wet area that looks just right for waders and wildfowl. Migrants were clearly still trickling in, with the weedy mounds holding a whitethroat (a rare migrant on Sanday in autumn at least, where YBWs outnumber them about 40:1!). Wildfowl were well represented, with shoveler, gadwall, red-breasted merganser, teal, wigeon and greylag all using the small loch, and the scene was completed by a peregrine dashing over, causing a great fuss from the breeding Arctic terns. I was clearly still focussed on the migrants though, jumping over a wall to chase a disappearing passerine, only to find it wasn’t quite level on the other side, which prompted a good 5 minutes of rolling around clutching my ankle. My only option was to walk it off, so I began the long, slow hobble back towards Lady.

At least I could take my time – or so I thought until one of the others texted out that he’d had brief glimpses of a probable greenish warbler!

A long hobble for me, and for our only driver, one long wait at the pick up point later, we were soon up at Roos farm trying to relocate the little sprite – but to no avail. We gave it a few hours, and the other two headed back up there later while I put my foot up, but the bird was nowhere to be seen. A frustrating day on many levels!

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Wednesday June 3rd

Despite fully expecting the greenish to have moved on, we gave the cover at Roos farm another go in the morning, after quickly checking the cover around Lady. Before we’d even got up to the farm, a small pale phyllosc flushed from the side of the track and disappeared into a patch of stunted willows and docks. While we waited for it to reappear, the song of a greenish warbler began to emanate from the cover! After a few short bursts, it began feeding again and eventually showed well, at some points down to about 10 metres. A good find for one of the team, and great that we managed to upgrade it from a ‘probable’.

Buoyed by this we headed down to the little sea, where again we mucked up the tide, so had to concentrate on scouring the surrounding area for migrants. There was nothing of the magnitude of a greenish warbler (or even close…) but a pair of siskin was clearly new in, and chiffchaff, blackcap and spotted flycatcher were all recycled migrants when we got back to Lady at lunch.

There’s only one place to be on Sanday when it’s on, and that’s out east. And we weren’t going to let the fact that one good bird doesn’t make it ‘on’ dampen our spirits! Migrants were arriving at less like a trickle, more like a dripping tap, but fortune favours the persistent. The gardens at the east end held the same single chiffchaff and spotted flycatcher among the linnets and house sparrows – but there was one new arrival in the form of a fine female red-backed shrike that was on display for no more than a few seconds. A grey heron that went over the loch was another migrant, but the rest of the birds around the circuit were the usual North loch residents.

After tea I went back up to Roos farm to try and get seconds of the greenish warbler, and hopefully record it singing on a sunny and relatively calm evening. Again though there was no sign of it (or much else, for that matter) and the most interesting observation was of a tight flock of 40 or so ringed plover belting over northward. All in all a much better day, and one which we toasted with a large whisky or a cherry bakewell. Or more likely, both…

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Thursday June 4th

First up was a trip south, to check some of the more neglected sites on the island. At Stove, a willow warbler was new in, and a hen harrier gave some great views – but the other spots failed to produce. I was dropped off near the Ayres rock hostel with the intention of walking back to Lady for lunch, but hadn’t managed to get too far when a text came through from one of the guys; he’d just found a red-necked phalarope. As it was only a couple of kms away he came to pick me up and we were shortly scanning over what can only be described as a large puddle in the middle of a field of cows. We’d been rather methodically checking floods in fields hoping for a wood sandpiper or Temminck’s stint, but so far hadn’t had a sniff of anything juicy at all.

With that in mind, the occurrence of the phalarope on this puddle was made all the more remarkable by the fact that was also being used by another bird. As we canned for the phalarope I became aware of a small wader at the back of the pool, which through the scope and the heat haze revealed itself as a pectoral sandpiper! Furtively creeping around in the weeds at the back of the pool it could be quite difficult to follow, while the phalarope spun and pecked in full view – with both birds occupying the same scope view on and off. Great fun!
A quick check of Roos marsh, and another spotted flycatcher later, and it was time for a spot of lunch.

After refuelling it was more wader action for me, with a walk around Colliness to the north of Lady. There were small numbers of dunlin, sanderling and other common species present, and the pools at the end held good numbers of young shelduck, with one crèche of 21 birds. From here I headed back towards Lady with the intention of scanning the cata sand to look for waders, but again I mucked the tides up so I ended up scouring the area for migrants instead. In the relatively calm and warm conditions, insectivorous birds were quite easy to come across, with counts of 2 blackcap, 3 chiffchaff, 2 spotted flycatcher and 2 willow warbler all in Lady. Migrants were incoming – a fact re-iterated by a text from one of the guys out east who had found an icterine warbler. With further SE winds and rain forecast for the night, it looked like a good morning the following day might be on the cards.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Friday June 5th

The last day, and one that was met with much hope considering the weather and small arrival of passerines the previous afternoon. We started with a group assault on Start point, making the most of the low tide (we’d got it right this time..!) to scrabble across. Migrants were thin on the ground (apart from yet another spotted flycatcher) but the place was absolutely covered in breeding seabirds such as fulmars, common gulls and arctic terns, and there were no-doubt wildfowl breeding there too. In fact, there could have been any number of migrants around but I was so concerned about where I was putting my feet that I would never have noticed. I think that had we known about the densities of breeding birds we may well have stayed on the mainland. A couple of otters also showed very well.

Walking back from the crossing point we bumped into our first quality migrant of the day in the form of a quail that flushed from the edge of the track – an unusual sighting in itself, but it was quite a surprise to see it briefly pitch in the sea before turning back and heading inland. A siskin called as it went over, and as I got to the row of houses and gardens at North loch I noted that the female red-backed shrike was still present, along with another spotted flycatcher. A swift (our first ever on Sanday) went over North loch, and in spite of the wind and rain I managed to wheedle a willow warbler out of the cover at Letten. I got a text saying that the tricky Icky was still present so headed back towards the south, only to stumble into a cracking male red-backed shrike. It was shortly joined by the female, and provided great entertainment as they moved along the fencelines, dropping down into fields and lawns to feed together. As the rain increased I managed to get onto the icterine warbler, which was admittedly looking extremely sorry for itself as it hunkered down to avoid the rain.

As the rain had strengthened through lunch, and we were wanting to eat our curry in dry clothes when we got to Kirkwall in the evening, we were mainly birding from the car in the afternoon. At whitemill bay, a breeding plumage great-northern diver was close inshore, and decent numbers of waders included 5 new in golden plover. Roos marsh had a spotted flycatcher, the usual waders and wildfowl, and a peregrine dashed over, too. Before too long it was time to head down to the ferry, a journey improved by a couple of both hen harrier and short eared owl.

And that was it – we fairly seriously considered staying an extra day on the island as we thought that it looked promising, but the lure of the curry (and the fact that we’d already made travel arrangements) made us jump ship, so to speak.

Plans for June next year are already building…

 

[MKinHK]

Sounds like a pretty good return for June - fortune favouring the brave once again!

Any pix?


Cheers
Mike

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Some here on facebook - not sure how accessible they are though. If not, will post some over the weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/mark.lewis.9465/posts/10152976819824072

 

[Paul Higson]

Excellent stuff Mark - makes me home sick !!!

Fortune will favour the brave - you guts back in the Autumn.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Well, I might feel inclined not to answer if you're going to comment on my guts, but if the cap fits... ;-)

We're back for the week 26th Sept to 3rd Oct - and I think TS might be up there at some point in June or July too.

There are a couple of other birders going on to Sanday this weekend too - I've asked them to let me know if they see anything - so if they do, and it doesn't make it on to Orkbird2 I'll post it up.

 

[Paul Higson]

Typo - honest . . . .

Should be a good week - you are certainly due something.

Thick billed Warbler would be acceptable . . .

 

[Mark Lew1s]

yes - thick billed warbler would be acceptable! I think we'd all be happy with a willet.