Trapped

I've had the camera trap out in a quiet corner of the patch for the last week, nothing unexpected, some results below.

Greylag Goose

Snipe

Teal

Out in the Snow

A few pics from the patch today -

Blackbird

Greylags and Curlew

Greylags and Wigeon

Merlin

Skylark

Snipe

Click, Click

Glorious sunshine again after work, just a quick walk around Clickimin and Helendale, not a lot about, apart from 2 Wood Pigeons in Helendale.

Wood Pigeon

Snipe

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.

Frozen.

With the patch now completely frozen, a 2 hour walk produced pretty slim pickings. The good thing is that Scatness has a couple of freshwater springs, that remain flowing, even in pretty harsh weather, a walk along them today produced a Water Rail and a Jack Snipe in one and a Moorhen in the other. Around the rest of the patch and everything seemed to be on the seaweed covered beaches - a total of 157 Snipe (most of them on Moast Beach), 2 Golden Plovers and 30 Wigeon. The Robin and Chaffinch remain in the garden and a Turnstone has now joined the Starlings in the garden.


Turnstone (on the garden fence).

Wigeon.

Golden Plover.

Snipe.

The Patch, with Fair Isle in the distance.

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.

Theyr'e Red Hot.

More of the same on the patch with 4 Blackcaps, 12 Goldcrests, 11 Robins, 20 Song Thrushes, 1 Chiffchaff, 4 Wheatear, 14 Lapland Buntings, 2 Siskin, 30 Redwing and a Merlin.
New arrivals were a Dunnock, a Common Redpoll and a fair number of Snipe, with about 60 seen during the day, the last bird of the day was a Short-toed Lark (presumably the same bird from the thistle field and from Exnaboe) flushed from the Bristow hill, which then decided to land in the airport between the 2 runways !


Common Redpoll.

Blackcap.

Robin.

Snipe.

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.

Yellow Browed.

After another night of light north-easterlies, got out early and did a Basil Fawlty on Scatness and gave it 'a damn good thrashing', after more than 2 hours of bush kicking and thistle stomping - the reward - 3 Snipe and a Green Sandpiper !! Went back out mid-afternoon and did the same circuit again, this time things got a little better with 10 Swallows, a Whimbrel and a Lesser Whitethroat, a text from 'The Bell' stating that there was a Yellow-browed Warbler and an Icterine Warbler at Geosetter didn't help matters, so I gave up and went home. On opening the garden gate at home, justice was done - a Yellow-browed Warbler in the garden, along with a Willow Warbler (the garden was totally birdless all morning). The Yellow-browed took the garden year-list up to 119 - and the return of the 10 bird gap over the competition.

Yellow-browed Warbler.

Lesser Whitethroat.

Snipe.

A Few More Waders.

Still very few Waders at Scatness - 8 Knot, 28 Dunlin, 5 Sanderling and 40+ Turnstone.

Dunlin.

Rock Pipit.

Sanderling.

Snipe.

Turnstone.