Early mornings can be Ruff!

An early check of my patch produced a pair of Ruff in a newly cut silage field at 0630hrs. Unfortunately the sun was behind them, which made conditions for photography pretty tricky.

but thankfully they were still about later in the day for another attempt;
Else where in Burravoe, large numbers of Twite are gathering, and seem to have had a good breeding season locally.

and at least a few Arctic terns seem to have fledged this year, and are providing 'sport' for the local Skuas!

LBJ's rule ok...

Back onto Fetlar again this morning with Jase, only to find a complete lack of the Phalaropes again! This is getting to be quite repetitive, with only my first visit a few weeks back being successful... Still, a very active Marsh Warbler at Everland made up for it, but refused to pose for pics.

The rest of today's birds were made up of; 3 Chiffchaffs (singing), 2 Spotted Flycatchers, 1 Chaffinch (singing), 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap and a Whitethroat (also singing).

Bloody Migrants...

Tree Pipit was the best migrant bird in Burravoe today... Who am I kidding.... It was the ONLY BLOODY MIGRANT! (and even that was a quick view).

The wind is slowly changing to a more favorable direction though, so I'll be hoping for better things shortly! (I'm also hatching a cunning plan for a good days birding tomorrow, time will tell!!!)

On the plus side, the Arctic Terns are now on eggs, and the adults seem to be finding plenty of fish.... Fingers crossed for a decent breeding season!


'Scarecrow' watch update; There is now a record count of 51 Rock Doves in that field (that's about 20 more than the last record count!)...