Covers

Sometimes bands can go a bit too far with cover versions - this one is as mad as a box of frogs !

Aurora

A few pics from last night's Northern Lights -

Garden Mega

Not much on the patch today - just a Blackcap and a Kestrel, which makes me think it's a waste of time getting out and about until the wind changes ! As I got back home though, all the Starlings went nuts - the culprit ? - the oiled Pallid Harrier going over the house roof !

Crap photo I know, but it is a Pallid Harrier going over my house !

and then over the runway

and finally over 'The Fray's' house

Swainson's

A bit of a trip up to Dalsetter (all of 5 miles !) for the Swainson's Thrush, luckily the bird had been using my mate's garden, so I sat on his veranda with a cup of coffee and waited, Unluckily, Chris's garden is a bit of a forest (by south mainland standards) but after a couple of hours the bird flew in to the trees and then immediately flew out again to the north - flight views only ! A Blackcap and a Robin provided entertainment, as a few folk were chasing these as Swainson's Thrush !


The Dalsetter Forest




The Shetland Times Paparazzi



Seek and Destroy

Classic ! Before they went all 'poppie' ! Play it loud as fuck !!!!!!

Simon's Cat

For those that haven't seen it yet - hilarious !

Least Feast

On the charter boat this morning to Foula ("It's not the edge of the world, but you can see it from there") for the Least Sand, on arrival we all got into the 'Foula Taxi' (a battered transit van that has seen better days) for the 'fairground ride' to the south of the island. Checking all the rock pools south of the weather station, where the bird had been for the last 3 days - no sign !!!! Just as it was being generally accepted that the bird had bogged off, it turns up on a freshwater pool that we had all walked past about an hour before ! Stunning views eventually as it fed around the edge being dwarfed by Rock Pipits.

Tame

The Barred Warbler that has been in the garden all week is now so stupidly tame it's took to feeding on Craneflies around the windows. Took this video this morning - ignore the commentary in the background, that's just the Discovery Channel with a documentary claiming that the Welsh 'found' North America - is there anything that the Welsh don't claim to have found ?!!!

Thunder Kiss '65

A bit of easy listening for the weekend -

CR SG and other bits.

The Barred Warbler was still in the garden yesterday, but far more interesting was a colour ringed Starling, I presume that it's one of the Fair Isle birds, if so then it kinda prooves that Fair Isle Starlings migrate north in the autumn ! A quick look around one or two patches of trees on the patch revealed sod all, so decided to go to the town instead, waiting for the bus and MEGA patch tick - the unoiled Pallid Harrier flew over the road towards Toab - this is the year to get PH on the patch list, just waiting for it to fly by the house now for a garden tick.
Today the Barred is still in the garden along with a Willow Warbler, major south-easterlies at the weekend - fingers crossed !

Multiple Entries

Barred Warbler
A Barred Warbler in the garden was showing stupidly well this morning, it turned up yesterday and gave reasonable views, but today it was proper posing.

As it was in the rain yesterday




and today, posing away

Stalking the Owl

Out on the patch and I picked up a Short-eared Owl on a pile of rocks in the middle of a field, a bit too far away to get a descent shot, so I tried to stalk it across an open area along a fence, and amazingly it just dropped off the rocks onto the ground and fell asleep !



Distant, then sleeping, and then it heard the shutter going off

Elsewhere on the patch - 2 Swallows and 15 Pink-footed Geese (2 over the house and 13 over the loch.

The Weekend

A pretty quiet weekend, a bit of a break from the sport on the telly on Saturday to 'dirty, filthy twitch' a Pallid Harrier at Sumburgh Farm - seen twice in the pissing rain.
Back out birding on the patch today - 2 early Barnacle Geese, 9 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Gadwall and a Curlew Sand.

Bar-tailed Godwits

Barnacle Goose

Blind in Texas

Green Sunset

Sod all in the garden, sod all on the patch (apart from a few Sanderling) - the best was saved until early evening with a stunning 'green' sunset, photographed as well !

Two Days of Frustration

After emptying the Moth trap yesterday morning, there were 3 birds tazzing around the garden, one was a Willow Warbler that perched up nicely and posed, the second one was a bit more elusive and turned out to be a female Blackcap and the third bird was so elusive that it only flushed at the last second and then flew over the house to god knows where ! The bird then showed up a couple of hours later in the front garden, perched up in the roses for long enough to get my bins to it - Booted Warbler !!!! it then flew over the house into the plantation. I saw the bird on 2 more occasions before it went dark - but no photos.
This morning there were more birds in the garden - Lesser Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher and 2 Willow Warblers, but no sign of the Booted. So I sodded of to do the rest of the patch - no more passerines but, 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Little Stints, 28 Dunlin, 9 Sanderling and a Curlew Sandpiper. Back at the house, a quick thrash through the plantation, and the Booted was still there. This time flying into a thistle patch in the field, camera in hand I walked slowly through the thistles - no sign ! 2 hours later it was in the garden again for brief views through the kitchen window before heading back to the thistles - again it just seemed to disappear, so I walked all the thistles, weeds, long grass, stone walls and any other bit of cover within a few hundred yards of the house - all in vain. I did a final thrash in the plantation at 6pm, nothing but the Lesser Whitethroat !

Spotted Flycatcher

Sanderling

Little Stint

Bar-tailed Godwits