House of Rock

So, what do dead rock stars get up to in the afterlife ? Watch and find out - *caution, contains much hilarity*

Gerald

Forgot all about this one until I was reminded about it today, albeit in a bit of a roundabout way.

Little Oiks

A quick seawatch from the living room window into Quendale Bay revealed 1 Little Auk in among the Eiders, after doing the patch, did the same again and 10 Little Auks in the bay - inc a flock of 5 and one of 3. Pretty quiet on the patch with a 2w Iceland Gull and 2 Scaup.

Little Auks - It's amazing what you can film from the living room with an old mobile and a 'scope

Thar be Little Oiks out there - the view from the living room

Iceland Gull

Lights

A fine show of the Northern Lights last night -

Prime Mover

One from the dim and distant past -

The Right Choice

So the choice was to either go to the town and have look at a load of Iceland Gulls or to do the patch, seeing as the weather was quite calm and sunny, the patch won out. And what a good move it was - 2 Velvet Scoters, 6 Common Scoters, 2 Scaup and a Little Auk in West Voe (+ about 200 Long-tailed Ducks, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers and 40 Goldeneye), 2 Skylarks, 2 Snow Bunting and a Redwing flushed from the stubble field and 2 Iceland Gulls (2w, 3w) on the Loch. Miles better than the 'big smoke'.

Common Scoters

Velvet Scoters

Little Auk with Long-tailed Ducks

Scaup and Common Scoter

New Birds

As if yesterday's Dunnock wasn't odd enough, on the patch today - 2 male Gadwall and a Song Thrush, two species I don't normally see until March/April time. Other year-ticks today were Grey Heron, Pintail (with the hybrid) and Tufted Duck (with the Scaup). Aside from that bit of excitement, there were 6 Common Scoters in West Voe and no Iceland Gulls (apart from the remains of a dead one).

Gadwall

Mallard x Pintail hybrid

Pintail

Song Thrush

Winter Accentor

No Iceland Gulls seen from the house today, and I couldn't be arsed going out to look either - it never really got light at all today. A bit of a surprise was a Dunnock in the garden, I don't think there are many January records in Shetland.

More

Iceland/Kumlien's/Swarm Gulls on the patch again today - 2 2nd winters and a 3rd winter, well, while they are turning up all over the place, I'm gonna enjoy them while I can - they do brighten up a Shetland winters day.

Kashmir

Being as it's been lashing down all day, I've not bothered going out on the patch - didn't need to, I had 2 Iceland Gulls past the window today. So spent most of the day sorting out a Kashmir Flycatcher twitch for next month.

From the Swarm

Not surprisingly there were more Iceland Gulls on the patch today, or were there ? 2 1st winters and 2 2nd winters were on Moast beach, were different birds from yesterday's, why ? Well all four birds showed varying degrees of 'Kumlien's' Gull or to be more specific - they all showed signs of coming from the hybrid swarm, with faded 'arrowheads' in the primaries and a hint of a tailband. I would only call them Kumlien's if they looked like the one on Whalsay recently - see here (scroll down to Dec 5th).

Iceland Gulls

A nice surprise on the patch today - 5 Iceland Gulls around Moast Beach (2 2nd winters, a 3rd winter, an Adult and a 1st winter), pretty amazing really as there were only 27 Gulls in total around the beach !
Went a bit overboard with the camera -

Year Ticks

Out on the patch to get a few year-ticks, even though it was blowing a gale ! A few new birds added, the best being a 1st winter Glaucous Gull, a Shelduck and 2 Fieldfare. The female Scaup was on the Loch and the 7 Common Scoter were still in West Voe.

Common Scoters

Glaucous Gull

West Voe

Out for a little while this afternoon, just to get a few sea-duck on the year-list. So about 45 minutes scanning West Voe, not too bad - 7 Common Scoter, a Great Northern Diver, a Scaup, 20+ Goldeneye and about 200 Long-tailed Duck.

Goldeneye

Long-tailed Ducks

2012 Scatness Year-list

1/1/12
1. Herring Gull
2. Eider
3. Shag
4. Hooded Crow
5. Common Gull
6. Great Black-backed Gull
7. Rock Dove
8. Raven
9. Starling
10. House Sparrow
11. Curlew
2/1/12
12. Black Guillemot
13. Wigeon
14. Scaup
15. Goldeneye
16. Lapwing
17. Oystercatcher
18. Long-tailed Duck
19. Common Scoter
20. Turnstone
21. Great Northern Diver
22. Gannet
23. Blackbird
24. Red-throated Diver
3/1/12
25. Redshank
26. Teal
27. Greylag Goose
28. Twite
4/1/12
29. Robin
30. Iceland Gull
6/1/12
31. Cormorant
32. Merlin
33. Fulmar
34. Mallard
7/1/12
35. Purple Sandpiper
36. Black-headed Gull
37. Rock Pipit
38. Wren
39. Fieldfare
40. Glaucous Gull
41. Shelduck
42. Snipe
8/1/12
43. Dunlin
44. Moorhen
13/1/12
45. Dunnock
14/1/12
46. Grey Heron
47. Tufted Duck
48. Pintail
49. Gadwall
50. Song Thrush
20/1/12
51. Skylark
52. Snow Bunting
53. Velvet Scoter
54. Redwing
55. Red-breasted Merganser
56. Guillemot
57. Little Auk
22/1/12
58. Long-eared Owl
23/1/12
59. Peregrine
25/1/12
60. Kittiwake
28/1/12
61. Ringed Plover
62. Golden Plover
5/2/12
63. Woodcock
8/2/12
64. Little Gull
28/3/12
65. Razorbill
66. Great Skua
3/4/12
67. Goldcrest
16/4/12
68. Sparrowhawk
17/4/12
69. Chiffchaff
19/4/12
70. Blackcap
71. Whimbrel
72. Wheatear
20/4/12
73. Black Redstart
74. Great Grey Shrike
75. Short-eared Owl
21/4/12
76. Reed Bunting
77. Shoveler
78. Ring Ouzel
79. Pied Wagtail
80. Wood Pigeon
26/4/12
81. Brambling
29/4/12
82. White-tailed Eagle
30/4/12
83. Black-throated Diver
84. Carrion Crow
85. Sedge Warbler
1/5/12
86. Lesser Black-backed Gull
5/5/12
87. Common Tern
88. Arctic Skua
7/5/12
89. Whooper Swan
90. Swallow
8/5/12
91. House Martin
92. Pied Flycatcher
93. Whitethroat
94. Redstart
95. Willow Warbler
96. Lapland Bunting
97. Wryneck
98. Tree Pipit
10/5/12
99. Arctic Tern
100. Siskin
16/5/12
101. Knot
17/5/12
102. Redpoll
103. Kestrel
104. Linnet
20/5/12
105. Crossbill
106. Common Rosefinch
21/5/12
107. Garden Warbler
22/5/12
108. Lesser Whitethroat
109. Spotted Flycatcher
23/5/12
110. Red-backed Shrike
111. Icterine Warbler
112. Sanderling
113. Avocet
25/5/12
114. Common Sandpiper
30/5/12
115. Little Egret
7/6/12
116. Sand Martin
8/6/12.
117. Chaffinch
19/6/12
118. Canada Goose
29/6/12
119. Hobby
16/7/12
120. Collared Dove
18/7/12
121. Bar-tailed Godwit
26/7/12
122. Swift
5/8/12
123. Greenshank
124. Ruff
6/8/12
125. Puffin
126. Meadow Pipit (forgotten from earlier !)
13/8/12
127. Reed Warbler
15/8/12
128. Green Sandpiper
16/8/12
129. Black-tailed Godwit
17/8/12
130. Barred Warbler
27/8/12
131. Cuckoo
29/8/12
132. Wood Sandpiper
133. Grey Plover
134. Spotted Redshank
8/9/12
135. Pink-footed Goose
16/9/12
136. Pectoral Sandpiper
137. Little Stint
20/9/12
138. Wood Warbler
21/9/12
139. Jack Snipe
22/9/12
140. Yellow-browed Warbler
23/9/12
141. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
26/9/12
142. Barnacle Goose
7/10/12
143. Brent Goose
12/10/12
144. Greenfinch
145. Little Bunting
14/10/12
146. Olive-backed Pipit
19/10/12
147. Richard's Pipit
25/10/12
148. Rook
28/10/12
149. Waxwing
29/10/12
150. Yellowhammer
8/11/12
151. Goosander