Reed Warbler

An extremely pale Reed Warbler in the garden caused a bit of a headache, but it is just a Reed albeit a very pale one. Also on the patch today were 2 Spotted Flycatchers and a Chiffchaff. The Velvet Scoter in West Voe was showing a bit closer.

Reed Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher

Velvet Scoter

V Scot

A male Velvet Scoter was in West Voe this evening, managed to get a record shot before the fog rolled in, it's about time West Voe produced something as throughout the winter it was pretty well birdless.

Ducks and Stuff

Shockingly the wind speed was only 3mph on Shetland today! Even though this made for easy birding, I still couldn't find a year tick on the patch. Apart from 23 Great Northern Divers, a Skylark and a Merlin, the patch seemed to be full of Ducks - 150 Long-tailed Duck, 5 Common Scoter, 1 Velvet Scoter, 10 Red-breasted Merganser and 29 Goldeneye were in West Voe, and 2 Shelduck, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 45 Teal, 7 Tufted Ducks and 4 Goldeneye were on Loch of Gards.

Velvet Scoter

Goldeneye

Long-tailed Duck

Red-breasted Mergansers

Shelduck

Loch of Gards and Fitful Head

Sumburgh Head from Scatness

January Sum-up

Highlights around the patch in January were -

2 Little Gulls in West Voe on 1/1
2 Barnacle Geese in front of the house on and off 4/1 to 11/1
Jack Snipe on 11/1
Black-throated Diver in Quendale Bay 11/1 - 13/1
2 Scaup in West Voe on 14/1
Velvet Scoter in West Voe all month
Kumlien's Gull at Moast Beach on 28/1

PWC - Species: 62, Points: 90

Barnacle Geese

Velvet Scoter with Common Scoters

Kumlien's Gull

Little Gulls



January's PWC Islands League

Gulls

Back out on the patch today, and there are now 3 Common Scoters with the Velvet Scoter in West Voe, plus a fly-by Merlin there. On the Scatness peninsula there was just 6 Golden Plover and a Meadow Pipit. Moast Beach was heaving with Gulls (by Scatness standards anyway) with about 300 Gulls feeding among the waves, in which were 4 Black-headed Gulls (including a pink hued bird), a rather heavily shawled Herring Gull and a rather interesting long winged, dark Herring Gull. Both Red-throated and Great Northern Divers were in Quendale Bay.

Merlin

Pink hued Black-headed Gull

Common Scoters with Velvet Scoter

Golden Plovers

Hooded Crow (taken with trail cam)

Heavily shawled Herring Gull

Long winged, dark Herring Gull

Red-throated Diver

The coastguard on a bird scaring exercise in West Voe

Velvet Scoter

The first calmish day for a while, and the Velvet Scoter in West Voe finally came into camera range. Also in West Voe were 70 Long-tailed Duck, 9 Goldeneye and 2 Tysties. On the rest of the patch there were 85 Wigeon, 2 Tufted Duck and 40 Teal on the Loch, 1 Oystercatcher, 1 Purple Sandpiper and a Jack Snipe out on the headland, plus a fly over flock of 100+ Lapwing with a single Golden Plover in amongst them. The goose flock in front of the house had a reappearance of the 2 Barnacle Geese.

Velvet Scoter

Barnacle Geese

Eiders

Oystercatcher

Purple Sandpiper

Looking south from the headland

Simburgh Head from Scatness

Mammatus clouds - the first time I've seen these on Shetland

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