This weekend's birding

After great seabird counts on Friday we headed up to Snab Point for two and a half hours on Saturday afternoon. The highlight was ticking the commonest bird I hadn't seen; Pomarine Skua. One juvenile flew north close in with two Arctic Skuas. The totals were:

1 Pomarine Skua - north
145 Common Scoters
3 Teal
2 Manx Shearwaters
2 Brent Geese - north
4 Arctic Skua-all north
13 Great Skua
2 Velvet Scoter - north
1 Great Northern Diver - north


The weather forecast looked like it might bring down some migrants so this morning we went to Holy Island. There were a few birds moving, but we failed to spot anything rare. The highlights were a Great Grey Shrike which sat on a bush near the harbour for a few minutes and a couple of Mealy Redpolls which showed extremely well on the Crooked Lonnen. The full totals at Holy Islands were:

30+ Goldcrest
45+ Redwing
2 Woodcock
10+ Song Thrush
20+ Chiffchaff
2 Mistle Thrush
2 Fieldfare
6+ Great Spotted Woodpecker
2 Mealy Redpoll
4 Brambling
3 Siskin
1 Great Grey Shrike
2 Grey Plover
2 Black-tailed Godwit

Mealy Redpoll

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Grey Shrike record shot