Ducks and Stuff

Shockingly the wind speed was only 3mph on Shetland today! Even though this made for easy birding, I still couldn't find a year tick on the patch. Apart from 23 Great Northern Divers, a Skylark and a Merlin, the patch seemed to be full of Ducks - 150 Long-tailed Duck, 5 Common Scoter, 1 Velvet Scoter, 10 Red-breasted Merganser and 29 Goldeneye were in West Voe, and 2 Shelduck, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 45 Teal, 7 Tufted Ducks and 4 Goldeneye were on Loch of Gards.

Velvet Scoter

Goldeneye

Long-tailed Duck

Red-breasted Mergansers

Shelduck

Loch of Gards and Fitful Head

Sumburgh Head from Scatness

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

November

A few highlights from November -

Buzzard - over the patch on the 27/11, not only a year tick, but a patch tick !

The Great Tit remained in the garden until the 20/11.

Scaup, Gadwall, Pochard and Goldeneye - a nice selection for such a small Loch.

Short-eared Owl - 1-3 birds around the patch until the 19/11.



White-fronted Geese - 4 birds on the marshy bit behind the loch on 13/11 and 19/11.


















A few other highlights were - Green-winged Teal on the 19/11 and a flyby Lapland Bunting on the13/11.

Some Crap

Some crap from the last few weeks -

A Chaffinch in the garden, so far the rarest bird on the patch this month (yes, it really is that bad !!!)

Whooper Swans.

Male Goldeneye.

Long-tailed Ducks.

The tropical looking West Voe.

And yet another storm on its way.

Common Scrotum

A bit of a surprise this morning was 3 Common Scoters in front of the house (a male and 2 females) with a couple of male Goldeneye, the rest of the patch was dead though (not too surprising for mid Feb !)

The First Migrant

The first migrant indeed, ok so it's only a Shelduck, but a migrant none the less ! Also around the patch was a first year Glaucous Gull and about 40 Goldeneye. Other than that nothing, apart from 2 old Christmas trees, which are now residing in my shed until spring, when they'll be added to the artificial plantation.

Glaucous Gull.

Shelduck.

Goldeneye.

Dark Days.

Now into the dark days of winter, with little or no enthusiasm for thrashing the patch, the few times that I have been out since the weekend it's just been the usual winter fare, and looks like staying that way until at least March !


Snipe.

Goldeneye.

Greylag Geese.

Merlin.

Red-breasted Mergansers.

Red-throated Diver.

Twite.

Goldeneyes.

Stuck in Lerwick all morning, so took some shots of some Goldeneye on Loch of Clickimin to kill some time. Didn't bother looking for the Egyptian Goose again at Sound, as it turns out, it ended up at Virkie in the afternoon anyway and was viewable from the garden (it's looking more like a genuine Cat C vagrant the closer to my patch it gets !). 2 Common Scoters in Quendale Bay and a Shelduck at Scatness boosted the patch year-list a little bit more.


Heading for the box....

....he shoots....

....he scores !!!!

Job's a gud 'un.

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.

Baltic !

Out on the patch again, and it was bloody freezing in the northerly wind - 'proper Baltic'. A few birds of note - a Barnacle Goose in with the Greylags, 2 Whooper Swan, 5 Goldeneye and 6 Tufted Duck on the Loch, a Red-throated Diver in Quendale Bay and 30 + Snipe scattered about the place. The better birds, however, were seen from the living room window in the afternoon - 72 Fieldfare going north and a flock of 59 Snow Buntings over the house. Still a couple of Robins at Scatness along with a few Skylarks and a couple of Meadow Pipits.

Barnacle Goose.

Goldeneye.

Snipe.

Whooper Swan.