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
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
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
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!!
Though of course, moments after posting that, I find it 😂
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.
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.
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...
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.
Just remembered three more sites, one private and the other two I rarely get to as both tiny trees that have never held owt.
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
The Sycamores at Mire Loch (St Abbs) are very popular with the YBW's - it'll soon be that time of the year!
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 🤞🏼
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).
👍🏼 I’d welcome a Little Egret! Still rare up here. 🤞🏼
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.
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) 👍
I expect it's gone on BirdTrack, hidden as sensitive. Appeared on the Borders WhatsApp group. Egrets are the new Goosanders as far as a section of the salmon-fishing fraternity are concerned.
Great Whites have been increasingly regular up here in recent years. Even have it on the house list 🥱😆
Still a rarity in southeast Northumbs!
That looks very interesting for in a month or so!
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!
I await the Whites Thrush with interest 😉
So do I!
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 🤞🏼
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
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.
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.
I didn’t pick up a single passerine migrant as I flogged the isle today. Waders at least still hanging around with the Curlew Sand count now up to 11. #WestrayBirding
Today’s #WestrayBirding highlight was spending an hour or so watching four Swifts at Noup (they’re usually just fly-bus here). Three were clearly plain, black adults but the fourth was a paler and browner juv. I had to spend time making sure the juv was nothing more than a Common. And it wasn’t.
We had the merest sprinkling of migrants overnight with a few more Wheatear, a Pied Flycatcher and a White Wagtail. Really hoping tmrw’s winds bring in a little more. #WestrayBirding
