More Migrants

Quite a few more migrants on the patch today, though there was no sign of yesterday's Subalp. Totals for the day - 7 Whimbrel, 16 Knot, 5 Sanderling, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Brent Goose, 2 Gadwall, 1 Grey Heron, 19 Arctic Tern, 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Whinchat, 1 Robin and 1 Reed Bunting.

Bar-tailed Godwit (with Oycs)

Brent Goose

Knot

Whinchat

Swallow

Boost

   Birds started arriving yesterday afternoon starting with a Little Bunting at the top of one of the Geos before flying off towards the cow fields in a south-easterly gale, needless to say I couldn't relocate it, Whinchat, Barred Warbler and Jack Snipe were in among the docks.
    Today was most pleasant with virtually no wind and birds started showing themselves a bit better, in the garden there was 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, a Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest, 28 Pink-footed Geese flew south over the house with a Pale-bellied Brent in amongst them. In the docks there was a Lesser Whitethroat, another Yellow-browed and 2 Blackcaps with 2 flyover Grey Plovers. Around the Loch there were 5 Grey Herons, 3 Swallows and a Lapland Bunting. A Whinchat was by West Voe car park.

Yellow-browed Warblers

Brent Goose and Pink-footed Geese

Lapland Bunting

Whinchat

The Docks

Tonight's Sunset

Still Happening

Still quite a few migrants about the patch - 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 7 Swallows, 1 Sand Martin, 2 Whinchat, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Ruff, 1 Whimbrel and 2 Knot.

Pied Flycatcher

Whinchats

A fine afternoon at Scatness

New Birds

A few new birds on the patch today - 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Whinchat and a Reed Warbler. 2 Pied Flycatchers and a Restart remained in the garden and 6 Willow Warblers were also around the patch. A bit of a surprise was a Polecat at the bottom end of Spring Field.

Lesser Whitethroat

Whinchat

Willow Warbler

Polecat

October

That's it ! work, work, work and no time for birding. As is shown by the accompanying photos, I managed to do the patch on very few occasions.

Common Stonechat

Blackcap

Brambling

Barnacle Geese

Reed Bunting

Wheatear

Whinchat

Little Stints Galore

A most pleasant day with very light westerly winds and sunshine, so I reckoned it would be a good call to check all the gardens around Scatness and find some drift migrants, 90 minutes later and a grand total of 1 Whinchat ! Over the last few weeks there has been a small flock of waders out on the headland, so I then went to check these out and today the small flock was a very small flock - a flock just 3 birds ! But that was OK as it consisted of 1 Dunlin and 2 Little Stints, with this in mind I the checked all the beaches and found a further 5 Little Stints - 3 on Moast Beach, 1 on Sanblister Beach and 1 on Scord Beach (along with 32 Sanderling) - so not too bad of a day especially without any south-easterly winds.

Sanderlings

Little Stints

Whinchat

Bits

A few birds from around the patch from the last few days -

Arctic Terns

Spotted Flycatcher

Whinchat

Batumi, the day it rained Shrikes

Day one in Batumi, waited in all day for the rain to stop, by early afternoon it still hadn't stopped but I went out anyway. Headed for the site of the old casino, an area of rough ground about the size of a footie pitch - Jeezie Creezie - migrants everywhere !!!
Totals for about 2 hours - 15 Barred Warblers, 40 Whinchat, 60+ Isabelline Wheatear, 100+ Willow Warblers, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 40 Yellow Wagtail, 15 Tawny Pipits, 3 Citrine Wagtail, 8 Ortolan Bunting, 40 Swallow, 1 Hoopoe and, best of all, 72 Red-backed Shrikes !

Barred Warbler

Isabelline Wheatear

Red-backed Shrike

Whinchat

Yellow Wagtail

New and improved ?

With Blogger doing a new and improved version of things, it meant that for several days I couldn't do any updates, plus a couple of posts have gone missing into the ether, and finally, when everything was supposedly OK I couldn't log in !!!

So here's a summary from the last few weeks -



Common Redpoll - one in the garden for a few days, and a year-tick.




female Pintail on the Loch on 25/5




Barnacle Goose on the Loch for a few days towards the end of May




Garden Warbler in the Hotel Garden on 26/5




Icterine Warbler at Sumburgh Head on 26/5




Sedge Warbler in the garden on 26/5 - garden tick !!!




Whinchat - another year-tick on 26/5





Mutes Swans - up to 8 have been on the Loch during May




Wood Pigeon - the only migrant on 4/6