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September 2011
September is a time of change in the Highlands, many of the birds that came north for the summer to breed are starting to head south for the winter. Indeed following the run of particularly poor weather that we have experienced this past summer many species took their leave several weeks earlier than is usual. Winter visitors from northern latitudes are starting to return. Shorebirds are among the first to arrive back. Some stay for the winter whilst others are on passage through Scotland, only stopping off for a few days to refuel before migrating on south.
This past month many more vagrants from North America than usual have arrived in the UK. They were swept across the Atlantic on the remnants of tropical storm Katia which had caused such havoc to eastern seaboard of the United States. The storm arrived here as a deep depression on 12th September bringing with it a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. It is a bird that normally migrates from northern Canada and Alaska down through the centre of the american continent to winter in Central and South America.
