Shetland Misfit: January 2016

Saturday, 30 January 2016

Second winter Common Gull with partial tail band

Bumped into this fella today at Moast Beach, I have seen 2w Common Gulls with partial tail bands before, but not very often. It seems to be a plumage that is not very common at all among Common Gulls.

Common Gull

Sumburgh runway

Friday, 29 January 2016

Dirty Gertie

With Storm 'Gertrude' raging all day (winds at Scatness peaked at 111mph !), it was just too mad to even consider going out birding, so here's a few photos of Quendale Bay at the height of the storm.

Thursday, 28 January 2016

Kumlien's

As the weather was a bit shite, I had resigned myself to just checking fly-bys from the living room window. There were a fair few gulls heading south in a constant stream, so I mainly just scanned through these, and then I picked up a white-winger out over the sea and heading towards Moast Beach. As there were plenty of Gulls feeding there yesterday, I decided to brave the elements and head down there - and bingo! a 3w Kumlien's Gull feeding in the surf.

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Gulls

Back out on the patch today, and there are now 3 Common Scoters with the Velvet Scoter in West Voe, plus a fly-by Merlin there. On the Scatness peninsula there was just 6 Golden Plover and a Meadow Pipit. Moast Beach was heaving with Gulls (by Scatness standards anyway) with about 300 Gulls feeding among the waves, in which were 4 Black-headed Gulls (including a pink hued bird), a rather heavily shawled Herring Gull and a rather interesting long winged, dark Herring Gull. Both Red-throated and Great Northern Divers were in Quendale Bay.

Merlin

Pink hued Black-headed Gull

Common Scoters with Velvet Scoter

Golden Plovers

Hooded Crow (taken with trail cam)

Heavily shawled Herring Gull

Long winged, dark Herring Gull

Red-throated Diver

The coastguard on a bird scaring exercise in West Voe

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

18th - 26th January Update

18/1 - 4 Fieldfare and 18 Golden Plover in front of the house.

19/1 - 2 Common Scoter and the Velvet Scoter in West Voe, Peregrine over the house.

21/1 - 2 Common Scoter, 1 Velvet Scoter, 26 Goldeneye, 3 Great Northern Diver in West Voe. 1 Song Thrush, 2 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing and a Meadow Pipit at Scatness.

26/1 - 1w Glaucous Gull past the house.

Fieldfares

Full Moon (almost!)

West Voe in the snow

A frozen Loch of Gards

Another sunset from the house

Sunday, 17 January 2016

Whoopers

On the patch today - 2 Common Scoter have now joined the Velvet Scoter in West Voe along with 19 Goldeneye.With most of the freshwater lochs frozen over, it wasn't too surprising to find a bit of stuff moving about, 2 Whooper Swans were flying back and for around Scatness for most of the day, in the afternoon 122 Golden Plover headed south and a single Fieldfare appeared in the garden.

Whooper Swans

Common Scoters

Quendale Bay

About Me

Sometimes I try to do things but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to, and I get real frustrated and then like I try hard to do it, and I like, take my time but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to. It's like, I concentrate on it real hard, but it just doesn't work out. And everything I do and everything I try, it never turns out. It's like, I need time to figure these things out, but there's always someone there going “hey Steve, you know we've been noticing you've been having a lot of problems lately, you know? You need to maybe get away. And like, maybe you should talk about it, you'll feel a lot better.” And I'm all like “oh, nah, it's ok, you know. I'll figure it out. Just leave me alone, I'll figure it out, you know? I'm just working on it by myself.” And they go “well, you know, if you wanna talk about it, I'll be here, you know? And you'll probably feel a lot better if you talk about it. So why don't you talk about it?” I go “no, I don't want to! I'm ok. I'll figure it out myself!” But they just keep bugging me, they just keep bugging me, and it builds up inside.I was in my house and I was just like staring at the walls thinking about everything, but then again I was thinking about nothing. And then my wife came in, and I didn't even know she was there. She called my name and I didn't hear her and then she started screaming “Steve, Steve !” And I go “what ? What's the matter ?” She goes “what's the matter with you?” I go “there's nothing wrong” She’s all “don't tell me that ! You're on drugs !” I go “FFS, I'm not on drugs. I'm ok, I'm just thinking, you know? Why don't you get me a Pepsi?” She goes “No! You're on drugs!” I go “I'm ok. I'm just thinking.” She goes “No! You're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't be acting that way!” I go “just get me a Pepsi ! Please, all I want is a Pepsi !” And she wouldn't give it to me! All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me! Just a Pepsi !I'm sitting in my house, when a couple of my mates came in. they pulled up a chair and they sat down. They go “Steve, we need to talk to you.” And I go “ok, what's the matter?” They go “we've noticed that lately you've been having a lot of problems, and you've been going off on one for no reason, and we're afraid you're going to hurt somebody, and we're afraid you're going to hurt yourself. So we decided that it would be in your best interest if we put you somewhere where you could get the help that you need.” And I go “wait, what are you talking about, WE decided ? MY best interests ? How do you know what MY best interest is ? How can you say what MY best interest is ? What are you trying to say? I'm crazy ? They say they're gonna fix my brain. Alleviate my suffering and my pain. But by the time they fix my head, Mentally I'll be dead. They stuck me in an institution, said it was the only solution, to give me the needed professional help, to protect me from the enemy, myself !
Doesn't matter, I'll probably get hit by a car anyways !!!!