Ticking over

The days are gradually getting longer, but the patch is still pretty static - Pink-footed Goose still with the Greylags, still a Glauc knocking about and the 4 Barnacle Geese from last week reappeared with them flying east over the house at dusk.

Great Northern Diver

Pink-footed Goose

New Year

A few 'padders' around the patch on New Year's Day - 1w Glauc, 3 Skylark, a Meadow Pipit and a Shelduck as well as the usual winter stuff.
Merlin around the Garden on the 2nd and a Kittiwake, Mallard x Pintail hybrid and a Red-breasted Merg on the Loch on the 3rd.

Great Northern Diver

Long-tailed Ducks

Mallard x Pintail Hybrid

Supermoon on the 1st

The view on the 3rd

Here we go again

The 2017 Patchwork Challenge begins, a few bits and bobs around the patch - 1w Glauc and ad Iceland Gull on the Loch, 1 Skylark, 5 Meadow Pipits and 3 Redwings in the Neep field, Gannets and Kittiwakes in Quendale Bay, 2 'fly-through' Whooper Swans and 2 Sanderling, 30 Ringed Plover and 4 Red-breasted Mergansers in West Voe. 3 hours birding and 41 species.

Gannet

Glaucous Gull

Great Northern Divers

Iceland Gull

Kittiwake

Long-tailed Duck

Whooper Swans

Goldcrest

Goldcrest in the garden this morning, though the rest of the patch was pretty dire. A few of the Great Northern Divers in the bays are now in summer plumage.

Goldcrest

Great Northern Diver

Divers Galore

With the sea flat calm today, I checked out all the bays, coming up with a total of 38 Great Northern Divers and a Black-throated Diver (Quendale Bay), curiously I didn't see a single Red-throated and had on 2 Red-breasted Mergansers.5 Common Scoters are back in West Voe with the Velvet (there has been only 4 Common Scoters for the last few days). Did a bit of a sea watch from the headland where a total of 87 Guillemots in the hour I was there. And to end with there are now 6 Twite coming to the feeders in the garden.

Twite

Great Northern Diver

Red-breasted Mergansers

Scord Beack

Small Change

A little bit of change on the patch, namely Oystercatchers are now up to 40+ and Skylarks are now in double figures, still only 2-3 Meadow Pipits though. On the Loch today there was a 1w Glaucous Gull and a Whooper Swan which was joined by a second bird later in the day. In West Voe the Scoter flock is still there, Long-tailed Ducks have increased to around 250, also in the Voe were 36 Goldeneye, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers and 6 Great Northern Divers.

Glaucous Gull

Great Northern Diver

Red-breasted Merganser

 

Whooper Swan

Another bit of a show of the Aurora

A summery looking West Voe

And a moody looking Fitful - hard to believe that both pictures were taken just a few hours apart

Noticed this Points per Bird table on BirdGuides - not bad for a tiny patch in winter.

Also on BirdGuides was this epic error -

West Voe Overload

Just went and did West Voe today, and what a good move that was - the Velvet Scoter was still present among the 90 or so Long-tailed Ducks, 2 Guillemots and 9 Tysties also on the bay. Then it all went a bit hectic (for January anyway) - firstly picked up 4 dark looking ducks flying in, they landed among the Long-tails for about 20 minutes before flying back out to sea - 2 Scaup and 2 Common Scoter! Also in around the duck raft were 12 Goldeneye, 2 Red-breasted Merganser and a Little Auk, plus 4 Great Northern Divers.

Great Northern Diver

Sunset from the house

Home and Work

A few bits and bobs from at home and at work.
From home -

Blackcap

Lesser Whitethroat

Chiffchaff

and from work -

Great Northern Diver (with pale bill !)

Eider

Herring Gulls

Bonxie

Shag

One More

And today's exciting year-tick..... Wood Pigeon, yes, the patch really is that bad ! 2 hours around the patch for the Wood Pigeon, a Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Pintails, 4 Chaffinch and 2 Robins. A small bonus was that one of the Great Northern Divers is now in summer plumage and was quite close in.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Great Northern Diver

Two More

Two more year-ticks today - Siskin and Chiffchaff (both in the garden), elsewhere around the patch - 3 Robins, a Goldcrest, 2 Pintail and several Great Northern Divers (10+).

Great Northern Diver

Pintail

Siskin

Last Week

Sporadic visits to the patch over the last week, highlights include a Wood Sandpiper on the Loch on the 11th along with around 250 Arctic Terns and 40 Purple Sandpipers, a Lesser Whitethroat in the garden all week, 6 Willow Warbler on the 11th, 4 Carrion Crows and 13 Great Northern Divers on the 12th,  Tree Pipit in the garden on the 14th and 2 Garden Warblers and another Tree Pipit on the 17th.

Arctic Terns

Great Northern Diver

Purple Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper