Rare Migrants at Girdleness
26 - 29 August 2026
On Tuesday evening, after returning home from school, I was delighted to open my new tripod, the RSPB Buzzard. Naturally, I had to give it a go as soon as possible, and with Cory's, Great and Sooty Shearwaters left, right and centre along the Aberdeenshire coast, I 6am seawatch before school was the perfect idea.
The next day, we were down at the 'ness and seawatching by 6:00. It started slow, maily with Kittiwakes, a few Gannets, which my aunt from France greatly enjoyed seeing.
Eventually I noticed a dark silhouette, probably a kilometre out. From how it was chasing Kittiwakes, I was able to identify it as a dark morph Arctic Skua. Not much longer, I noticed a large diver flying S, despite the terrible light, I realised this was a Great Northern Diver, a fairly scarce bird round these parts, especially in August, but then again, this is the Great North after all!
I bit later, I saw a stocky, dark bird flying, fairly close in, a Great Skua, a year tick. A few minutes later, Ian Broadbent arrived. In the last 20mins, we were treated to another Great Skua, again very close in, 3 Common Scoters, and a close Manx Shearwater.
On Friday, Raymond offered to bring me to Girdleness to search for some migrants, since there had been quite a few good birds along the coast, at Collieston, Longhaven, Rattray, and St Combs/Inverallochy/Cairnbulg.
When we arrived, I went to check the South Pier for Shags. I counted 22, and a few more Cormorants. We looked in a few bushes for migrant passerines, but couldn't find anything. We decided then to look at the Swallows nesting in Torry Battery. We didn't find any to ring, though we did find a group of hibernating Small Tortoiseshells (16 in total) and a single Peacock.
We then saw a few birds, including a Whitethroat, and what we thought was a Yellow Wagtail.
Deciding to go to the foghorn for a seawatch, we noticed a Whimbrel, in Greyhope Bay, as well as a Curlew that it following. During our seawatch, we saw a single Red-throated Diver, and ridiculously distant Manx Shearwater. We also saw a couple Dunlins. With the cold getting the better of us, we eventually went to the cafe, seeing a juvenile Whitethroat on the way.
Later, only soon after arriving home, we got news of a Barred Warbler and a Wryneck, at Girdlness. Reluctantly, my dad, my two sisters, and I went back to look for these rare migrants. We found a big group of people and joined them. Before long, I got some breif glimpses of the Wryneck, though it didn't take very long for it to perch up on a fence and show wonderfully.
Great views of a Wryneck
Then, we got a split-second view of the Barred Warbler, which darted across the bank. We waited for it to show, but were kept well entertained by the Wryneck and a Pied Flycatcher, both hanging around the fence.
Digiscoped Wryneck on the rocks
After some waiting the Barred warbler flew into a nearby bush, but only breifly before flying back across to the original row of willows it was skulking in. Fortunately, I managed to get some flight shots that I'm very happy with considering I basically just tried shooting randomly at the bird as it flew quickly.
Barred Warbler in flight
Barred Warbler in flight
Just before we left, we were treated by a final appearance from the Wryneck, giving some people their first view yet.
Wryneck perched on a rock
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