After spending six days on North Ronaldsay and enjoying amongst other things, a Two-barred Warbler both in the field and in the hand (the first ever to be trapped in Britain) we were away on the early plane back to Kirkwall on the morning of 8th October. The day dawned calm and sunny and after several days of westerly winds, we hoped a few migrants may arrive on Orkney Mainland in the slack conditions. With this in mind, we planned to head out to Deerness on East Mainland, where a number of good sites could be checked for rarities starting at Sandside and East Denwick. Both these sites though were very quiet – we saw a Yellow-browed Warbler, a couple of Redwing and a hunting Short-eared Owl but by and large there was not a lot in the bushes. Just back up the road, is a lovely little sheltered spot which we now know as ‘Lighthouse Quarry’ (perhaps someone can enlighten me as to why!) but which has a small manicured lawn surrounded on all sides by trees and bushes including sycamores and the ubiquitous rosa rugosa. This spot was more lively as there was a small pocket of warblers foraging in the canopy at the back of the garden – a male Blackcap, Willow Warbler, up to three Chiffchaffs and a Yellow-browed. I encouraged the group to stick at it as I felt there could easily be something else lurking and we chatted about the need to be patient in sites like this and let birds do their feeding circuit – you never know what else could be hiding in there but being elusive! With this in mind group member Fiona Wright and myself had drifted up the north end of the garden and were stood under the trees trying to get a view of birds in the canopy.
Initial views of the Scops Owl were quite obscured
Suddenly Fiona whispered to me ‘Ashley I’ve got an owl!’ in an excited voice. She added ‘I think it’s a Long-eared’ and I was thinking yes, that is what it will certainly be and what a great bird that will be for the group to see! I moved into the space next to Fiona and lifted my bins in the direction of her gaze. What greeted me in the gloom at the back of a tangle of branches and bracken was not a Long-eared Owl at all but without doubt the most surprising bird I have ever clapped eyes on for sheer shock-factor. I felt a wave of excitement as I could see immediately what it was – a bloody Scops Owl!! I immediately switched from utter amazement and shock to panic – the bird was very settled and didn’t look like it was going to move but what if it flushed before the rest of the group could see it?! I lifted my camera and took half a dozen shaky record shots then backed out of the bushes and frantically called everyone else over.
We soon found a better angle where we could view the bird face on
We needn’t have worried as the Scops just sat there looking back at us with bright yellow eyes, it’s ear tufts slightly raised as if to show its disgust that we had dared to locate it there in it’s hidden roost spot. The group were absolutely buzzing. I couldn’t stop laughing, both with elation at the find but also just at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation! I gave the group very strict instructions to make sure someone now had eyes on the bird at all times while I left the garden to put the news out. When I came back two minutes later, I heard the two words I did not want to hear – ‘it’s flown!’… A car pulled up and the first two birders arrived, and we’d lost the bird! I felt sure it must still be somewhere in the copse because the nearest other suitable habitat was over a mile away and I couldn’t see it moving in broad daylight. Two more people turned up and thankfully as we were showing them the spot where we had seen the owl, it flew back in to almost the same perch. It then dropped on the ground briefly before flying up and perching right in front of me in picture-perfect light. I had a window to get some shots and as I was taking them I wondered if there had ever been better views of a Scops Owl in Britain? I’m not sure but for those few moments the bird showed sensationally well and the realisation really sunk in at what a cool moment this was.
The bird then flew up into the sun – ooof!
For me, it actually topped the Needletail that we rediscovered almost a year ago at Bempton (surely not right?!) – that bird was incredibly exciting but we were looking for it, however unlikely re-finding it actually was. This was not as rare but it was certainly out of the box marked random – a Scops Owl in October in Orkney! The needletail gave Britain’s twitchers a bigger buzz of course, but as the finder’s I just felt this was more of a magic moment.
By the time we got back to the van I was still shaking – I needed a coffee and a sit down for ten minutes to recover! My over-riding feeling at this point was pride in the group. They hadn’t just sat around in that quarry waiting for me to point things out to them, they were actively having a go at looking for stuff and because of that attitude Fiona made her absolutely tremendous spot. It was only her second ever birdwatching trip so I don’t think the enormity of it really sank in for her until we explained how rare and unexpected this sighting was! We’ve been on a good run of form for finding rarities on trips over the last 12 months (we found a Red-flanked Bluetail on this tour as well), so with a few weeks of autumn 2026 still to go, we will be doing our best to do some more damage somewhere else around the UK!
The owl remained in its favoured garden for the next two days and despite going missing for long periods due to it being difficult to locate without the aid of a thermal, most people that went to see it came away happy.
You can read the full trip report of this tour by clicking HERE
Ashley Saunders, 12th October 2026
