A run of the mill #WestrayBirding day with few migrants - a Wheatear, Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine was about it. This Painted Lady was the highlight. #butterflies #butterfly
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Overnight rain finally brought migrants (six year ticks!) but they took some finding in increasingly windy conditions. Most things were either tail-ending away from me or like this Redpoll trying, to find anywhere out of the wind. Pied Fly early doors before the wind got up. #WestrayBirding
aug 31, 2025, 10:00 pm • 30 1 • view
Wigeon have been dribbling in this last week but 54 dropping out of the sky was the largest flock to date. Some Barwits are still looking dandy and this male Hen Harrier has been around for most of the month. #WestrayBirding
aug 31, 2025, 10:04 pm • 22 0 • view
This is the only real woodland we have on #Westray. About a tenth of an acre of sycamore copse by a farm and private house. It’s all contained within two walled gardens of the big house so is private. I’ve only ever been in on organised visits. Until today 🙂 #WestrayBirding
sep 2, 2025, 9:40 pm • 10 0 • view
You'd think more people would plant shelterbelt trees by their houses . . . Been searching all over Westray on satellite view and can't find it!!
sep 2, 2025, 11:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Though of course, moments after posting that, I find it 😂
sep 2, 2025, 11:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Most sycamores are by older buildings. There are so few I can name every one/group on the isle! c. 22 sites but some are tiny like our own (one of two) in photo which is 12-15 yo next to a Hooker’s Willow which is c.7 yo. Newer plantings pretty much all Hooker’s which is useless - see alt text.
sep 3, 2025, 7:44 am • 1 0 • view
Have you got a quoteable reference link for Orkney Council discoraging Hooker's Willow? I can add it to the (very skimpy!) wikipedia page on the species.
sep 3, 2025, 10:24 am • 1 0 • view
Surprising about the willow - I'd never have thought that insects would discriminate between the different species like that. Worth comparing street view pics of islands off W Norway like Utsira, or Faroes, far more trees planted, though just as exposed to gales. Admittedly mostly Sitka Spruce...
sep 3, 2025, 10:19 am • 1 0 • view
Just going back to YBWs, in five autumns I’ve found probably 30 or so here. Only two were out of sycamores - one in a clump of willows (not Hooker’s) and the other was in long roadside grass. Same goes for all Wood Warblers, etc. never found in Hooker’s and predominantly found in sycamores.
sep 3, 2025, 10:25 am • 1 0 • view
Just remembered three more sites, one private and the other two I rarely get to as both tiny trees that have never held owt.
sep 3, 2025, 8:41 am • 2 0 • view
I’ve never sought access. Just bided my time getting on with folk on the isle. At the weekend the owner asked if I’d like access. Sorted. Under the sycamores there’s no understory. A carpet of bluebells in spring. Nettles and ferns now. Nowt in it today. But always the morrow 🤞🏼 #WestrayBirding
sep 2, 2025, 9:40 pm • 19 0 • view
The Sycamores at Mire Loch (St Abbs) are very popular with the YBW's - it'll soon be that time of the year!
sep 2, 2025, 9:47 pm • 2 0 • view
Aye, I’ve found YBWs in most clumps or isolated sycamores around the isle over the years. It’s the only real tree that grows here barring two tiny stands of pines. Other cover is all willow. I’m just hoping this’ll prove to be a magnet for scarce migrants in both autumn and spring 🤞🏼
sep 2, 2025, 9:57 pm • 1 0 • view
A highlight here was one outside the dining room one breakfast-time, next day the kitchen window (my wife spotted that), then in the access-road hedge - 4 days in all. 2nd inland county record I think. 1st home-patch Osprey of the year yesterday, 3 Little Egrets today (patch record).
sep 2, 2025, 10:06 pm • 1 0 • view
👍🏼 I’d welcome a Little Egret! Still rare up here. 🤞🏼
sep 2, 2025, 10:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Sensitive, but most of ours seem to roost yards into Northumberland - up to 60 one evening recently. Had a Great White on the Tweed on Friday, still notable here.
sep 2, 2025, 10:22 pm • 2 0 • view
That'll be the biggest Little Egret count for Northumbs this year (and close to the all-time record of 67 at West Ord, 16 Aug 2022) 👍
sep 2, 2025, 10:49 pm • 2 0 • view
Great Whites have been increasingly regular up here in recent years. Even have it on the house list 🥱😆
sep 2, 2025, 10:24 pm • 1 0 • view
That looks very interesting for in a month or so!
sep 2, 2025, 9:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Aye, timing couldn’t be better. Today’s recce was to get my bearings and viewing angles in my mind. The sooner I know it intimately the easier it will be to cover. Here’s hoping, Steph!
sep 2, 2025, 9:52 pm • 1 0 • view
I await the Whites Thrush with interest 😉
sep 3, 2025, 1:06 pm • 1 0 • view
So do I!
sep 3, 2025, 1:13 pm • 1 0 • view
I say there was nothing in Westray’s sycamore wood. I meant no birds (although there was a Pied Fly along the approach track to the wood). In the clearing I disturbed a moth which when it landed revealed itself to be a Rush Veneer. Recent days south winds doing their thing. Wind down so traps out 🤞🏼
sep 2, 2025, 9:44 pm • 11 0 • view
In other news, this juv Marsh Harrier arrived at the loch by the house yday evening and was still winging around and causing mayhem this morning. Not annual on the isle but this is my second this year. So not even a #PWC2025 tick! The only other migrant I could muster was a Pied Fly #WestrayBirding
sep 2, 2025, 10:16 pm • 17 0 • view
Moths overnight totalled 107 of 7 species and would’ve been very disappointing if it wasn’t for this Vapourer! Second isle record and new for the garden.
sep 3, 2025, 7:19 am • 22 1 • view
Hard work #WestrayBirding dodging the frequent downpours - the Swift photo shows how grey it was for most of the day. Still pulled a few things out tho. The juvenile Tree Sparrow was bouncing around the village and is only the third record for the isle. Also five Curlew Sands new in.
sep 3, 2025, 9:13 pm • 22 0 • view