Winter's here

Definitely a wintry feel in the air now, most things have cleared out of the patch, the only migrants today were 2 Redwing, a Blackcap and a Robin. More in the vein of winter was a Little Auk in West Voe along with 80 Long-tailed Ducks and 10 Red-breasted Mergansers. 4 Tufted Duck, 45 Wigeon and a Goldeneye were on the Loch.

Blackbird - in the garden most mornings

Long-tailed Duck

Redwing

Pegger

Not a great deal on the patch - 3 Blackbirds and a Lesser Whitethroat in the garden, juv Peregrine hunting around the Loch and 70 Pink-footed Geese over.

Peregrine

Pink-footed Geese

Blackbird

Lesser Whitethroat

Out in the Snow

A few pics from the patch today -

Blackbird

Greylags and Curlew

Greylags and Wigeon

Merlin

Skylark

Snipe

Hell 'n' Dale 'n' That

Now that it's light enough in the morning to go birding after work, I've been checking Helendale, Clickimin and Seafield before the 9 O'clock bus home. This week was a bit like being back south, with 2 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, a Sparrowhawk, 2 Wood Pigeons and 3 Chaffinches in Helendale. Seafield a bit disappointing with just a few Redwings and Blackbirds.

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Blackbird

Sparrowhawk

Similar

Similar birds on the patch today, but lower numbers in most cases - 8 Goldcrest, 2 Siskin, 1 Brambling, 4 Fieldfare, 4 Song Thrush, 25 Blackbirds (including a rather scaly looking 1st winter male in the garden), 2 Wheatear, 1 Merlin, 1 Blackcap and 31 Redwing. On a bit of a serious note, I've had to put the watermarks back on my photos, this is due to me finding a whole album of my photos on the web yesterday in someone else's name !

'Scaly' Blackbird

Goldcrest

Wheatear

Inside.

Stuck inside all day, due to the snow, 7 Blackbirds, a Chaffinch, 2 Redwing, a Fieldfare, a Snipe and tons of Sparrows and Starlings having a right good feed in the garden.


Blackbird.

Chaffinch.

Redwing.

Snipe.

During one of the few times today that the sky was clear.

Storm.

Storm force south easterlies hitting Shetland at the moment, tried doing the patch when it was just force 8 ! Struggled like hell to check the sheltered cliffs, but it was worth it with male Ring Ouzel and a Black Redstart both year ticks, around the other sheltered bits there were - 4 Goldcrests, 4 Lapland Buntings, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, a Robin, 14 Song Thrushes, a Whinchat, a Redwing, 2 Blackcaps, a Wheatear, and a Chiffchaff.
With the winds getting up to force 10 late in the afternoon, it seemed only right to spend the rest of the day in the pub !


Blackbird.

Blackcap.

Whinchat.

Happy New Year List.

A new year and a new year list, not the garden this time but the patch, so up bright and early (in fact it was still dark). Managed to get 23 species from the living room window before doing Scatness, these included - 3 Redwing, 9 Great Northern Divers, 60 Wigeon, 40 Snow Bunting, a Robin and a Turnstone (feeding on apples in the garden with the Starlings and Blackbirds).
Around Scatness the Pink-footed Goose was still in with the Greylags, 10 Goldeneye were in West Voe, the Meadow Pipit was still around Colonial Place and a single Grey Heron was at Moast, Peregrine and Merlin also around, bringing a total of 37 species for the day.


Blackbird.

Redwing.

Goldeneye.

Turstone.

Up a bit too early !

Too Good, Too Bad.

Too Good - Jim Jeffries on Youtube - Adults only, not for those easily offended, children, those of a nervous disposition or the religious - you have been warned !!!

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0fTQTfB0HM&feature=related

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnKwq5Mjbw4&feature=related

Too Bad - The idiots that are now saying 'twenty ten', the year is two thousand and ten, it was two thousand and nine last year, therefore, two thousand and ten this year ! Twenty ten is ten past eight on a 24 hour clock ! Tossers.

Bullfinch.

Now that the weather has calmed down (now a light northerly), birds were emerging from where ever they'd been sheltering all week. In Toab there were 9 Robins, a male Black Redstart, a Jack Snipe, a Chiffchaff and 4 Song Thrushes. At Scatness - 6 Robins, a single Snow Bunting and a fantastic count of 8 Jack Snipe (flushed from the tiniest boggy bit of the thistle field).
A Blackcap and 2 Robins were in the garden along with a female Bullfinch (the first record for the garden since the big Bullfinch invasion of 2004, and the 122nd species on the 2009 garden list). Thrushes were everywhere today e.g. 176 Blackbirds at Scatness and 300+ Fieldfares around Toab.
An Otter showed well hunting off the end of the runway.
On a slightly stranger note - how weird is this ? -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NltmFRYN9os


Bullfinch.

Blackbird.

Jack Snipe.

The 'wet bit', where 8 Jack Snipe were flushed.

Otter.

Recycling.

Still not a lot about - a Golden Plover over the House and 2 Chiffchaffs in the Garden this afternoon, making good use of the old Christmas Tree.


The Tree at Christmas....

....and now....

....as recommended by Migrant Chiffchaffs !

Gannet over Garth's Ness.

Blackbird.

Blackbird.