Archives
Archives - November /December 2006 sightings
31/12/06
1st Nov.
Three Chiffchaffs were seen together in Holm. A Waxwing was a welcome find in Deerness, since very few seem to have arrived so far this autumn.
2nd Nov.
Flocks of 146 Knots and 141 Bar-tailed Godwits were seen in Deerness. Two Chiffchaffs remained in Holm.
3rd Nov.
Two juv. Black-tailed Godwits and an ad. male Ruff were found in Deerness (the Ruff being a different bird from that found in Toab on 23rd Oct).
4th Nov.
A juv. male Ruff was again seen in Toab. A first-winter Mediterranean Gull was a surprise find in Holm.
There has been certainly three, and now possibly four records of individuals this autumn, of a bird which is still considered a vagrant this far north.
5th Nov.
A Blackcap was in Deerness, attracted to rose hips (as they often are here at this time of year).
6th Nov.
146 Turnstones, 23 Sanderlings, 17 Purple Sandpipers and a Jack Snipe were all seen at a regularly monitored site in Deerness.
7th Nov.
Seven Red-throated Divers were in Scapa Flow, off Holm.
The ad. male Surf Scoter remained off Tankerness, along with the Velvet Scoter flock which has declined to 16.
30 Great Northern Divers and three Velvet Scoters were also seen nearby.
8th Nov.
The juv. male Ruff had moved a little way along the coast from Toab to Deerness, where it was feeding with Lapwings and Redshanks.
49 Greenfinches and 17 Chaffinches were seen coming into a roost in Tankerness.
9th Nov.
The Ruff remained in Deerness. A Black-tailed Godwit was with a flock of 779 Lapwings in Tankerness.
10th Nov.
The Ruff was still there, with flocks of 249 Knots and 145 Redshanks nearby.
11th Nov.
Ruff still present, along with a juv. Black-tailed Godwit.
12th Nov.
An ad. male Ruddy Duck was a recent arrival in Tankerness.
13th Nov.
A lingering (potentially wintering?) male Blackcap remained in Deerness.
14th Nov.
The Ruff and a juv. Black-tailed Godwit were with other waders, including 378 Knots in Deerness.
15th Nov.
A Chiffchaff was seen in Holm. The Ruff and two juv. Black-tailed Godwits were again seen in Deerness.
16th Nov.
Two Black-tailed Godwits were back together again in Deerness.
17th Nov.
16 Whooper Swans accompanied 52 Mute Swans in Holm. A Scaup was also present.
18th Nov.
Two Carrion Crows were with a flock of 32 Hooded Crows in Holm.
19th Nov.
The Ruddy Duck was seen again in Tankerness. One of the Black-tailed Godwits remained in Deerness.
20th Nov.
Three Scaup were seen in Holm.
21st Nov.
One of the Black-tailed Godwits was feeding with a flock of 128 Bar-tailed Godwits in Deerness.
22nd Nov.
235 Purple Sandpipers and 22 Sanderlings were seen at a regularly monitored site in Deerness.
23rd Nov.
A Jack Snipe was seen in Holm. After an apparent absence of three weeks, the Snow Goose was again seen in Deerness. A drake Pintail was seen nearby.
24th Nov.
Nothing new to report!
25th Nov.
The Black-tailed Godwit count had increased to three (all juvs.), in Deerness. A Woodcock was flushed from the top of a beach in the same area.
The drake Surf Scoter was present again off Tankerness. Shortly afterwards a female/imm. Common Scoter was found on a freshwater loch. A flock of 70 Snow Buntings was found nearby.
26th Nov.
The Ruddy Duck and the 'inland' Common Scoter were still in Tankerness, where there were also four Shelducks and three Pintails.
27th Nov.
A Jack Snipe, 250 Redshanks, three Gadwalls and a Slavonian Grebe were all found in Tankerness.
28th Nov.
15 Fieldfares in Holm were noteworthy since very few have been seen lately.
29th Nov.
55 Fieldfares were seen in Holm. A first-winter Glaucous Gull was seen in Deerness -
- along with 21 Sanderlings and two Black-tailed Godwits.
30th Nov.
A first-winter Iceland Gull was seen in Deerness.
The Shelduck count in Tankerness had increased to seven.
1st Dec.
A first-winter Iceland Gull was found in Holm feeding on a glut of pipefish.
2nd Dec.
197 Bar-tailed Godwits and 337 Knots were seen in Deerness. 510 Redshanks were with 10 Shelducks in Tankerness.
3rd Dec.
The Bar-tailed Godwit flock had increased to 231 in Deerness (about the normal level of wintering birds here).
4th Dec.
A juv. Black-tailed Godwit was seen with other waders, including a flock of 1749 Golden Plovers, in Toab.
Three juv. Black-tailed Godwits were keeping each other company in Deerness.
5th Dec.
The Glaucous Gull was still patrolling a beach in Deerness.
6th Dec.
Again nothing new seen, but the three Black-tailed Godwits were still together in Deerness.
7th Dec.
A Little Auk was showing quite well off the Holm shore (another observer reported seeing three in the same area a little earlier).
8th Dec.
239 Purple Sandpipers and 16 Sanderlings were seen in Deerness.
10th Dec.
14 Meadow Pipits were seen in Holm.
11th Dec.
Flocks of waders counted included 721 Lapwings in Toab; 249 Bar-tailed Godwits and 196 Redshanks in Deerness.
12th Dec.
64 Oystercatchers and two juv. Black-tailed Godwits were in Deerness.
13th Dec.
Five Little Grebes were found on a more usual freshwater habitat in Holm.
15th Dec.
A flock of 2540 Golden Plovers was seen in Deerness along with 324 Dunlins. A Black-tailed Godwit was in Toab.
16th Dec.
Knot were still to be seen in good numbers with 280 in Deerness.
17th Dec.
Relatively benign weather conditions (a rare event so far this month) allowed an opportunity for some sustained inshore sea-watching.
Off Holm, a good variety of birds included; 17 Black-throated Divers, 36 Great Northern Divers, a Red-necked Grebe, 14 Slavonian Grebes, eight Puffins and six Little Auks.
Off Tankerness, five Common Scoters were seen along with 10 Velvet Scoters and 11 Slavonian Grebes.
18th Dec.
77 Goldeneyes were counted in Tankerness.
19th Dec.
132 Bar-tailed Godwits were seen in Deerness. Well down on recent counts, although what was suspected of being a separate detached flock of c.100, was seen a short time later flying off high, and fast, to the south.
20th Dec.
Five Common Scoters were off Tankerness, while live Puffins were still in evidence with two birds off Holm.
22nd Dec.
68 Red-breasted Mergansers was a good count off Holm. A flock of 59 Snow Buntings was in the same area.
23rd Dec.
A first-winter Glaucous Gull was in Deerness. 19 Puffin corpses, most of them freshly-dead, along a 200 metre stretch of beach in Holm was part of a wider problem locally.
24th Dec.
A Jack Snipe and a Scaup were seen in Tankerness.
25th Dec.
A Red-necked Grebe and six Puffins were seen off Holm.
27th Dec.
49 Great Northern Divers and a male Surf Scoter (along with Common and Velvet Scoters) were seen off Tankerness.
28th Dec.
The three Scoter species were again present off Tankerness (Common having increased to six). 84 Oystercatchers were at a regularly monitored site in Deerness.
31st Dec.
A flock of 307 Dunlins was in Deerness. A Black-tailed Godwit was found in Toab. Nine Pintails and 11 Shelducks in Tankerness finished the year off nicely.