Snob

Quite a few migrants around the patch today - 1 Fieldfare, 4 Gadwall, 9 Pintail, 3 Chiffchaffs, 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Common Tern, a 1s Iceland Gull and a rather smart Snow Bunting.

Snow Bunting

Nearly the End

It looks like the end is nigh on the patch - 2 hours today and all I got was a Chiffchaff, a Jack Snipe, 3 Snow Buntings and a Song Thrush.

Snow Buntings

Blizzard

The usual dross on the patch today - a couple of Redwing, a Chiffchaff and a Blackcap, plus a Common Scoter in West Voe, but best of all, the 2 Snow Bunting flocks from yesterday have increased to 125 and 150 at least - a proper blizzard.

Snow Buntings

Redwing

Debris

A few shots from South Mainland over the last week.

Pied Flycatcher - Hoswick

Snow Buntings - Scatness

Spotted Flycatcher - Swinister

Posh Snobs

Back on the patch after nearly a week, tho' I did get a cracking bird from the bus on my way to work last Sunday - Osprey between Mossy Hill and Clumlie, also 8 Carrion Crows at Channerwick on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, back to today, 5 Barnacle Geese on the Loch were patch year-ticks as were 8 Knot on the headland. The most stunning birds of today must go to a pair of summer plumaged Snow Buntings near one of the pools on the headland - corkers. Around the rest of the patch were 1 Wood Pigeon, 1 Swallow and 6 Sanderlings. 6 Common Scoters flew south past Lady's Holm. An interesting record from today was of one of the colour-ringed Starlings, that has been wintering at Scatness, has bred and is now feeding chicks.

Barnacle Geese

Colour-ringed Starling

Knot

Snow Buntings

Wood Pigeon

More Yellow-broweds

More Yellow-browed Warblers in on the patch, the one in my garden was still present all day with other singles opposite Colonial Place and in Brian's Garden at the end of the road. Elsewhere on the patch a total of 25 Song Thrushes, 10 Wheatear, 1 Robin, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Redwing, 3 Swallows, 2 Blackcap, 1 Snow Bunting, 2 Golden Plover, 2 Pintail and 35 Barnacle Geese (heading south).

Yellow-browed Warbler

Barnacle Geese

Snow Bunting

Belated Update

Now that the broadband seems to be moving a bit quicker, time for a quick update from the last few weeks.
A day out dipping the Alpine Swift at Laxo on the 29/9, was salvaged a bit with Lesser Grey Shrike nearby,
A Brambling and a Jack Snipe were patch year-ticks on the 30/9 and so was Greenfinch on 2/10, a day when there were Olive-backed Pipits all over the place, apart from Scatness that is, where I managed to find a Tree Pipit instead !!!
A quick dash up to Cunningsburgh on the 1/10 and Alpine Swift gripped back - putting me on 349 for Shetland !
The big 350 fell soon after with an adult Sabine's Gull in front of the house - county tick, patch tick and house tick !
Bits and pieces around the patch included 4 Grey Plovers and 7 Snow Buntings on 10/10, and another patch tick, Little Grebe on the 14/10 and 2 Short-eared Owls on the 16/10.
A few interesting Moths at the end of September, the best being Red Sword Grass and Dark Sword Grass.

Alpine Swift at Cunningsburgh and Lesser Grey Shrike at Laxo (Phots - Jim Nicolson)

Grey Heron

Greenfinch

Grey Plover

Redwing

Whooper Swans

Little Grebe

Short-eared Owl

Snow Bunting

Red Sword Grass

Dark Sword Grass

A March In The Melting Snow.

A good stomp around the patch today, as all the snow seemed to be melting and the wind had dropped - 250 Greylags and a Pink Foot were in one of the fields, 4 Snow Buntings on the beach in front of the house, 2 Jack Snipe and a Woodcock flushed from the 'wet bit' (+ loads of Snipe), and 8 Golden Plover and 7 Skylarks were in the fields bordering West Voe.

Snow Buntings.

Lapwing.

Pink-footed Goose, in with the Greylags.

Turnstone.

Empty.

Just a quick check around the patch today ('cause it's bloody freezing !), firstly the Redpoll crop was completely empty, not even a House Sparrow in it ! Around the rest of the patch - a Moorhen, 50 Greylags, 25 Lapwing, a Song Thrush, 10 Redwings, 12 Tufted Ducks, 2 Whooper Swans, a Robin and a single Snow Bunting
.

Snow Bunting.

Whooper Swan.

Turnstone.

Lapwing.

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' !