Scaup

2 Scaup in amongst the Tufties on the patch this morning, plus 40+ Great Northern, 1 Black-throated and 3 Red-throated Divers in Quendale Bay.

Scaup

Soul Sold

Being as I've now sold my soul and am working nights in Lerwick, days out birding are few and far between. Managed to get a shot of a Scaup on Loch of Clickimin at the end of November.

Surprise

Out on the patch today, with the usual fare still kicking about - 2 2w Iceland Gulls, a 2w Glauc and the 2 Scaup, a bit of a surprise was a Woodcock flushed off Moast Beach, which promptly flew out to sea.

Iceland Gull

Kittiwake

Scaup

Woodcock

The Right Choice

So the choice was to either go to the town and have look at a load of Iceland Gulls or to do the patch, seeing as the weather was quite calm and sunny, the patch won out. And what a good move it was - 2 Velvet Scoters, 6 Common Scoters, 2 Scaup and a Little Auk in West Voe (+ about 200 Long-tailed Ducks, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers and 40 Goldeneye), 2 Skylarks, 2 Snow Bunting and a Redwing flushed from the stubble field and 2 Iceland Gulls (2w, 3w) on the Loch. Miles better than the 'big smoke'.

Common Scoters

Velvet Scoters

Little Auk with Long-tailed Ducks

Scaup and Common Scoter

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.

The Weekend

Friday - A quick dash around the patch in the afternoon, and a year-tick - Pochard on the Loch ! Elsewhere around Scatness 4 Short-eared Owls, 4 Robin, a Grey Plover, a Woodcock, a Greenfinch and the ever present Great Tit.

Greenfinch

Pochard

Saturday - The Great Tit and Greenfinch remain in the garden, plus flyover Peregrine and Merlin

Today - Being as there seems to be Bean Geese everywhere, out on the patch on a goose chase, the only flock at Scatness was a party of 20 Greylags plus 4 White-fronts, a single Pink-footed in front of the house and another 4 flying north, but no Beans ! There was another year-tick on the go though, a Scaup has joined the Pochard on the Loch, a few migrants were notable - 3 Wood Pigeons, 5 Robins and 5 Snow Buntings. Still plenty of Blackbirds and Fieldfare knocking about.

Pink-footed Goose

Scaup (last 2 with Pochard)

Greylags plus 4 White-fronts

The Return.

Today on the patch saw the return (or new birds maybe) of Lapland Buntings, with a flock of 14. Also a flock of 10 Snow Buntings were out on the headland, 3 Common Scoter were in West Voe, 2 Goldeneye, 5 Tufted Duck and a Scaup were on the Loch and a Robin and a Song Thrush were also seen.

Snow Bunting.

Rock Pipit.

Scaup (with Tufties).

2G,2B.

Too Good - well done to the Horror Channel as they are now doing a full re-run of Twin Peaks weekday nights at 9pm, an amazingly weird series that makes Lost look like a Sunday sermon (which, indeed, it did turn out to be !).

Scenes from Twin Peaks.

Too Bad - The Discovery Channel - find some new subject matter, for Zod's sake. We get the picture - the Nazis were bad, elephants need a lot of water, sharks are threatened, buildings fall down in earthquakes etc etc - most people have 'discovered' these things several times on the telly, time to change the channel name I think, to something like 'The Re-Hash Channel' !

Thank Heavens...

....for Little Gulls. With storm force westerlies hitting the patch, attempted to go for a sea-watch, until I saw this happening at the end of the road -

Sea-watching - bad idea, bay-watching, good idea, especially with a rather tame Little Gull feeding in the surf -

Little Gull.

Elsewhere around the patch - 2 Waxwings in the garden, 40+ Fieldfare and 20+ Redwing kicking about, and now 4 Scaup on the Loch.

Waxwing.

Redwing.

Even Kittiwakes were taking shelter behind stone walls !

Scaup.

It's a Fine Day.

At last, a fine day on the patch, with very little wind and no rain ! Yesterday's Waxwing spent most of the day in the garden, obliterating the rose 'tomatoes', the Redpoll flock in the 'secret' crop has now increased to 10 birds (but still no Arctic !), a Velvet Scoter showed reasonably well in West Voe, 3 Scaup (well at least 2 anyway :) ) were on the Loch, a Jack Snipe was at the back of the Loch and, shock horror ! no sign of any Lapland Buntings - only a fly-over Snow Bunting.

Waxwing.

Common Redpolls.

Velvet Scoter.

Scaup.

Fitful Head y'day.