Little Stint

A fine summer plumaged Little Stint on the Loch this afternoon, elsewhere just 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Swallows, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Goldeneye and a Brent Goose.

Little Stint

Barred

On the patch today - 2 Willow Warblers, 1 Whinchat, 1 Shoveler, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Grey Heron, 1 Golden Plover, 2 Pink-footed Geese, 1 Lapland Bunting, 1 Little Stint and a Barred Warbler.

Barred Warbler

Bar-tailed Godwit with Curlews

Grey Heron

Little Stint

 

Still Arriving

More migrants on the patch today - 1 Pied Flycatcher (still in the garden), 3 Common Redpoll, 1 Kestrel, 6 Ruff, 1 Grey Heron, 23 Knot, 1 Little Stint, 30 Sanderling, 20 Dunlin, 1 Garden Warbler and 2 Willow Warblers.

Kestrel

Knot

Little Stint

Ruff

Little Stints Galore

A most pleasant day with very light westerly winds and sunshine, so I reckoned it would be a good call to check all the gardens around Scatness and find some drift migrants, 90 minutes later and a grand total of 1 Whinchat ! Over the last few weeks there has been a small flock of waders out on the headland, so I then went to check these out and today the small flock was a very small flock - a flock just 3 birds ! But that was OK as it consisted of 1 Dunlin and 2 Little Stints, with this in mind I the checked all the beaches and found a further 5 Little Stints - 3 on Moast Beach, 1 on Sanblister Beach and 1 on Scord Beach (along with 32 Sanderling) - so not too bad of a day especially without any south-easterly winds.

Sanderlings

Little Stints

Whinchat

Stocker

Back on the patch again today, after rain overnight, migrants everywhere - 100+ Whinchat, 1 Little Stint (on a carpark puddle !), 40 Little Gulls, 5 Wrynecks, the Black-headed Bunting still, 3 Lesser Grey Shrikes, 34 Red-backed Shrikes, a Savi's Warbler, 2 Olivaceous Warblers, 1 Sedege Warbler, 26 Reed Warblers, 4 Ortolans, 8 Great Reed Warblers, 6 Barred Warblers, a Stock Dove, 2 Spotted Flycatcher and 9 Isabelline Wheatear.

Black-headed Bunting

Great Reed Warbler

Little Gull

Little Stint

Stock Dove

Wrynecks

Back to normality

With the wind now firmly in the west, it's not that surprising that the patch has quietened down somewhat, although I have still got a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Goldcrest in the garden along with a colour ringed Starling, presumably from Fair Isle. A walk around all the sheltered bits on the patch added 2 Wheatears and 3 Song Thrush, and on the beaches were 2 each of Little Stint, Black-tailed Godwit and Sanderling.

Black-tailed Godwits

Little Stints

Colour Ringed Starling

The Magic Pool

Out today for about 10 minutes until it lashed it down, and I gave up - I did find a Wood Warbler though, albeit a dead one. So due to a lack of birds, birding or both, here's a bit about the Magic Pool. The Magic Pool of Scatness (twinned with the secret 'Magic Ditch of Virkie) is located to the south of Loch of Gards and is pretty much dried up most summers, only getting water in it from the end of August onwards, and is about 30 feet long by about 12 feet wide - tiny ! So far this year it has hosted Avocet, Little Egret (just about annual now in Shetland), Pectoral Sandpiper, 2 Little Stints and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper - so it really does now warrant the name Magic Pool.

The Magic Pool viewed from the end of the Scatness road

How small is that ?!!!

Little Egret on the 30th May.

Avocet on the 23rd May

Buff-breasted Sandpiper on 23rd September.

One of the 2 Little Stints present this month

Pectoral Sandpiper present this month

Cliffs and walls

With a strong north-easterly blowing, the best places on the patch were the west cliff and sheltered walls, Whilst not spectacular there was plenty going on. 11 Song Thrush, a Dunnock and a Blackcap were along the cliffs and 5 Wheatear were sheltering around the stone walls. A single Little Stint was at the back of the Loch, this was a new bird, sporting a shiny new leg iron, a Jack Snipe was also there. The only other productive are was my garden with a Yellow-browed Warbler, male Blackap and a Pied Flycatcher.

Blackcap

Dunnock

Little Stint

Pied Flycatcher

Song Thrush

Here they come...

Some migrants at last and no westerly wind (no wind at all in fact !), The first bird of the day was a Yellow-browed Warbler in the garden, quickly joined by a second bird and a Lesser Whitethroat, a Reed Warbler and another Lesser Whitethroat were in the private plantation along with a flyover Lapland Bunting, out around the Loch the Little Stint and Black-tailed Godwit remain.

Yellow-browed Warblers

Reed Warbler

Little Stint and Sanderling

Black-tailed Godwit

Stint

Just the short walk around the patch today, the Pec Sand was still present along with a Knot, 6 Wheatears were knocking about around the walls, sort of became a bit distracted by a tamish Little Stint, what with the sun being out an' all.

Little Stint