July 17th-31st:
One or two Grey Herons were
reported regularly. Waders were represented by 1-2 Knot and
Sanderling throughout with Greenshank (22nd-23rd
& 26th) and Oystercatchers reached 164 (31st).
Two Sandwich Terns amongst the 400 Arctic Terns on 25th
were a year tick. A Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove were noted
(29th-31st) and a Cuckoo (21st-27th).
A female Blackbird was noted on 18th-19th and Black
Redstarts (19th-20th & 26th-28th)
whilst 2-8 Common Crossbills were counted almost daily, but for 30 on
19th. The two Tree Sparrows were seen daily, as was the
escaped Red-breasted Goose. Regular “Petrelling” produced a maximum
catch of 76 Storm Petrels (27th) plus
Leach’s Petrels on 18th, 19th,
27th & 31st.
Three Killer
Whales were seen on 30th & 31st.
July 15th-21st:
A scour of the hill for skua chicks on 15th produced just 5
Arctics and 7 Bonxies - evidence of another poor
breeding season! Failed Arctic Terns gathering at South
Light numbered 130 whilst some wader passage on 17th produced counts of 171
Oystercatcher, 18 Lapwing, 39
Curlew, 6 Whimbrel, 2 Golden Plover,
18 Redshank and 2 Knot. Another
tape-luring session on the night of 18th pulled in 35 Storm
and single Leach's Petrels when a female Blackbird
frequented the Observatory garden. the 19th was the best day of the week
with a Green Sandpiper on the brand new scrape at Utra -
hopefully the first of many waders on there this autumn - a Linnet
and a Redpoll sp overhead and a flock of 30 Common
Crossbills on the cliffs (including one with very striking
wing-bars). Petrel tape-luting that night produced 31 Stormies
and another Leach's but also a Black Redstart!!
Two Sanderling were the highlight of 20th.
What has been a very poor
year for moths has had some highlights with the increasing number of
Magpie moths in evidence in recent years reaching an all time high
this week with field counts of ten (15th) and 14 (17th) swelling the 14
caught in the mercury vapour lamp trap!! Pride of place however goes to the
beautiful Garden Tiger moth caught on 19th - the first
record for Fair Isle.
July 8th-14th:
The Black-tailed Godwit was still present on 8th,
when a Bar-tailed Godwit was also seen but bird of the day
was the Reed Warbler trapped in the Gully and a
Common Whitethroat in the Plantation. A Cuckoo was
present 'til 13th. Seven Storm Petrels were trapped on 9th,
13 on 11th (also including the first Leach's Petrel) and 24
on 12th (plus two Leach's - one trapped). Waders this week
included peak counts of 33 Redshank, 24 Lapwing,
125 Oystercatcher, 2 Knot and 12
Curlew. A Manx Shearwater was reward for a couple
of hours seawatch on 13th and a flock of 12 Common Crossbills
was spotted on 14th. A potential addition to the Fair Isle list was a fine
Red-breasted Goose, but it chose to associate with the
feral ducks on the Chalet Pond and came to bread - obviously an escape! Bird
of the week however was the pure white Puffin seen
by two of our visitors at Furse!
July 1st-7th:
Two Sandwich Terns on 1st were a nice year tick
(with four on 3rd), when 31 Curlews flew through heading
south once more. Other waders included 10 Whimbrel (2nd),
23 Lapwing (3rd) and a few Golden Plovers.
Grey Herons began to appear with three (2nd-5th). A
Red-breasted Merganser in North Haven (5th) was not as good as a
Leach's Petrel seen from The Good Shepherd but a
Song Thrush trapped the same day was unexpected and a
Cuckoo also arrived. A Common Crossbill on 6th was
the forerunner of a few more later whilst other sightings that day included
Common Sandpiper, Siskin and
Linnet. the 7th saw a Red-throated Diver fly over,
a Black-tailed Godwit at Pund and two Tree Sparrows
at Setter and the first Storm Petrel trapping session of
the year outside the Observatory resulted in three birds being caught. At
least four Chiffchaffs appear to be summering on the isle.
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