


Wednesday 13th April comments: Its fair to say that things have been slow on the bird migration front this spring as we welcomed the first chiffchaffs and wheatear in late March and then nothing. The winds switched to the north, dropping temperatures and anything migrating from the south had other ideas (let’s be honest, staying in the warmer south is a better idea when there is snow in the north!) So overall not much to talk about…until today.
The winds have been in the east and then to the south-west and today a small arrival of birds occurred. The first Willow Warblers of the season arrived with Chiffchaff and even an early Whitethroat. The first Swallows were discovered hawking around the buildings whilst a Ring Ouzel was found amongst the Thrushes. A Black Redstart quickened the pulse before the best of the lot; the reserve manager looked out on the bird table and found a Hawfinch! This monster finch is the first since 2021 and although the island boasts 15 records, nine of these have occurred since 2014, so certainly a pattern emerging.
So things are happening at long last and it’s great to see. We now need some warmer weather to encourage the various seabirds to nest and then we’ll be back in full action. Oh its good to be on an island 🙂