Patch Stuff

A few shots from the patch today -

Greylag Geese

Oystercatcher

Starling

Wigeon

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

Little Oik !

No sign of yesterday's Yellowhammer at Old Scatness - just a single Redwing there, 2 Whooper Swans on the Loch, plus another 8 flying North, the Mallard x Pintail hybrid was on the marsh along with 3 Grey Herons. Moast Beach was pretty productive with a female type Common Scoter offshore along with a Little Auk, which eventually came very close in, showing down to 3 feet in Stinky Geo ! The Waxwing flock in the garden had increased to 16 birds by late afternoon and another Fair Isle colour ringed Starling was at Colonial Place.

It's pretty good when Little Auks show this well.

Cormorants

Colour ringed Starling

Common Scoter

Redwing

The Calm Before the Storm

South-easterlies forecast for the next few days and pretty strong ones at that, whether anything good will turn up though remains to be seen. Meanwhile out on the patch today and 4 Whooper Swans, 13 Pink-footed Geese (south), 2 Redwings and a male Blackcap, plus another Fair Isle colour ringed Starling - that makes 3 now since 29/9. Hopefully there should be a good show of the aurora tonight.

Whooper Swans

Colour ringed Starling

This evenings sunset

Shetland Tick

Just a single Yellow-browed Warbler and another Fair Isle colour ringed Starling around Scatness today, not surprising really given the strong south-westerly, so I decided to catch the bus to somewhere a bit more sheltered. Arriving in Sandwick, got dropped off at the top of the Swinister Burn and checked all the trees down to Hoswick, there were 5 Bramblings and a Yellow-browed Warbler in the thick stuff, as the trees petered out towards Hoswick, came across two areas where grass cuttings had been dumped earlier in the year, and feeding around one of them was the Siberian Stonechat giving pretty gripping views down to about 25 feet.

Siberian Stonechat

Colour ringed Starling

Sumburgh runway

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

Windows

Still stuck indoors, so the only birds that I'm able to look at is the stuff thats in front of the living room window - so far this week a couple of Merlins, Golden Plover, Red-throated and Great Northern Divers, a few Long-tailed Ducks, Redwing and Fieldfare.


Merlin.

Fieldfare.

Redwing.

'White-tailed' Starling.

Looking back.

This spring really is one of the worst on Shetland, and time seems to be running out for a late bird turning up, though looking back at the last few years June still turns the odd goodie up - Fat Toni's Warbler and Lesser Grey Shrike last year, Red-footed Falcon, Arctic Redpoll and Black-headed Bunting in 2008, Great Reed Warbler, Pec Sand (on the patch) and summering Killdeer in 2007 and Laughing Gull, Red-footed Falcon, Bee-eater and Paddyfield Warbler in 2006. But now that Shetland is back into the northerly winds for the foreseeable future,it doesn't look like that sort of thing will happen this year !
Looking back at previous June's on my old patch (Moore NR and Arpley Tip in Cheshire), June wasn't such a bad month for a local patch (or so weather dependent), with Marsh Harrier, Black-necked Grebe, 3 Little Gulls, Iceland Gull and Common Tern all seen in June 2001. (the following photos are all scanned from prints)


Black-necked Grebe - Pumphouse Pool, Moore NR, June 2001.

Common Tern - Halfway House, June 2001.

Iceland Gull - Arpley Tip, June 2001.

One of the 3 Little Gulls at Halfway House, June 2001.

Meanwhile back in the present, the only thing of note on the patch was a count of about 65 Black-headed Gulls, where as normally there are only a handful at best.

Black-headed and Common Gulls.

Things must be desperate when photos of cruise liners are being included ! This one was moving strongly north-west past the patch. Ironically, the name of the ship is 'Costa Magica' (Magic Coast) - not this year it isn't !

Juv Starling (and Meercats !) in the garden.

CRSG.

I presume this Starling in the garden this afternoon is another one of the colour ringed birds from Fair Isle, this is the third CRSG that's been in the garden since 2004 (all winter records - which must mean that at least some Fair Isle Starlings migrate north in the autumm).