The pomarine skua continues to linger offshore, but on the 7th it was upstaged by a chiffchaff (not often I'll say that...) at the sewage works. I'm pretty certain that the bird was new in to the sewage works, having specifically looked for overwintering chiffs in the new year and not seeing any. However, it's more difficult to say whether the bird was a genuine migrant or not - it could well have been flitting undetected on Tullos hill for the winter, and March 7th is a very early date for a 'new in' chiffer up here.
The 8th was also productive with plenty of pinkfeet on the move, 4 whooper swans, and perhaps best of all from a patch point of view, a northbound shelduck. Having noted that whoopers were being noted moving north over the previous few days I'd gone out specifically with this species in mind. It's good when a plan comes together. Which doesn't happen often...
The decent run continued on to the 9th, when 2 stock doves were noted flying north past the battery - still a really good bird patch wise, with possibly only 5 or 6 previous records and the vast majority of them coming from Nigg bay.
As the weather deteriorated through the week, so did the quality of the birding - early morning seawatches have failed to deliver, and a lunchtime seawatch on the 11th was only notable due to the close up views of a couple of rain covered ringed plover taking shelter behind a rock. You can see the rain on the birds feathers on the second photo.
Roll on the proper migrants...
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