Monday, 17 January 2011

And The Winner Is...

The results of the 2010 Patch Year-list are now in and the top three places are as follows -
1. Gary Bell (Sumburgh, south of the runway and east of 'Bristows') - 156
2. Paul Harvey (Quendale, Hillwell and Garth's Ness + some other bits) - 153
3. Rob Fray (Toab and Virkie area, north of the runway and south of 'Harvey Ridge') - 151
The Prizes -
First prize is the ingenious valley/hill detector - to detect a valley, simply hold the picture up to suspected feature, and if the lines on the detector match the shape of the geographic feature, then it is indeed a valley.....

.......if, however a hill is suspected, then simply turn the detector upside down and repeat the same process (note - does not work in fog).

Second Prize is a candlelit dinner for two with the county recorder, in a well ventilated restaurant, somewhere on Shetland (maybe an open air one).

Third Prize is a book token only valid for 'Trisha's Book Club', suggested reading below -

Friday, 14 January 2011

Something I can Never Have

This week's top tune - Nine Inch Nails - Something I can never have.

A very sweet song until you listen to the lyrics, and maybe bit disturbing, if you've seen the the last scenes of the film 'Natural Born Killers'

Monday, 10 January 2011

Half Ton.

Finally managed to get out and walk along the road to the loch (though progress was slower than an American learning international geography !) and added a few more year-ticks, namely, Whooper Swan, Moorhen, Wren and Red-breasted Merganser. A Grey Plover in front of the house was also a year-tick. Over the last few days there have been 2 Merlins in front of the house on most days, 2 Snow Buntings on Sanblister Beach and a Common Scoter off Scord on the 7th taking the patch year-list up to 50.


Moorhen.

Red-breasted Merganser.

Whooper Swans.

Merlin.

Thursday, 6 January 2011

The Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything....

...or 42 - that's what the patch year-list has now crept up to. With Toab, Quendale, Garth's Ness and Fitful all getting snow today, Scatness remained pretty much snow free until after dark. This worked out quite well for the year-list, with the field in front of the house being pretty busy all day, with 27 Fieldfare, 4 Golden Plover, 20 Lapwing, a Dunlin, 10 Teal, a Merlin and a Black-tailed Godwit (with one and a half legs!)


Redshank.

Fitful Head and Garth's Ness - snowed in....

....Scatness - clear.

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

The First Few Days

So far the 2011 patch year-list has consisted mainly of scanning out of the house windows, though I did manage to hobble to West Voe on the 2nd and got the 2 King Eiders (+ a load of other stuff - Twite, Goldeneye, Fieldfare etc). From the living room window there has been Hen Harrier, Merlin, Common Scoter and a fly by Tufted Duck (+ the odd Gannet)getting me up to the dizzying heights of 38 !


Curlew.

Purple Sandpiper.

Rock Pipit (with pink legs !).

Merlin.

The Patch Map.

Saturday, 1 January 2011

2011 Scatness Year-list

1/1/11
1. Hooded Crow
2. Red-throated Diver
3. Common Gull
4. Herring Gull
5. Great Black-backed Gull
6. Starling
7. House Sparrow
8. Robin
9. Shag
2/1/11
10. Rock Dove
11. Turnstone
12. Eider
13. Great Northern Diver
14. Greylag Goose
15. Curlew
16. Redshank
17. Hen Harrier
18. Blackbird
19. Skylark
20. Fieldfare
21. Long-tailed Duck
22. Oystercatcher
23. Lapwing
24. Twite
25. King Eider
26. Goldeneye
27. Black Guillemot
28. Mallard
29. Wigeon
30. Raven
3/1/11
31. Gannet
32. Fulmar
33. Merlin
4/1/11
34. Purple Sandpiper
35. Rock Pipit
36. Tufted Duck
5/1/11
37. Common Scoter
38. Black-headed Gull
6/1/11
39. Teal
40. Dunlin
41. Golden Plover
42. Black-tailed Godwit
7/1/11
43. Snow Bunting
44. Redwing
9/1/11
45. Cormorant
10/1/11
46. Grey Plover
47. Moorhen
48. Wren
49. Red-breasted Merganser
50. Whooper Swan
17/1/11
51. Peregrine
23/1/11
52. Glaucous Gull
53. Shelduck
1/1/11
54. Iceland Gull
5/2/11
55. Kestrel
15/2/11
56. Ringed Plover
57. Kittiwake
17/2/11
58. Short-eared Owl
27/2/11
59. Grey Heron
28/2/11
60. Razorbill
12/3/11
61. Snipe
16/3/11
62. Chaffinch
23/3/11
63. Pied Wagtail
26/3/11
64 Meadow Pipit
1/4/11
65 Lesser Black-backed Gull
66. Gadwall
4/4/11
67. Great Skua
7/4/11
68. Dunnock
10/4/11
69. Wheatear
70. Woodcock
71. Blackcap
14/4/11
72. Rook
15/4/11
73. Swallow
16/4/11
74. Chiffchaff
19/4/11
75. Guillemot
76. Sand Martin
21/4/11
77. Wood Pigeon
22/4/11
78. Pintail
79. Whitethroat
80. Common Tern
81. Willow Warbler
23/4/11
82. Lesser Whitethroat
24/4/11
83. Common Crane
25/4/11
84. Carrion Crow
26/4/11
85. Sandwich Tern
27/4/11
86. Song Thrush
28/4/11
87. Whimbrel
30/4/11
88. Mute Swan
89. House Martin
90. Reed Bunting
1/5/11
91. Spotted Redshank
92. Arctic Skua
3/5/11
93. Linnet
4/4/11
94 Arctic Tern
5/5/11
95. Tree Pipit
8/5/11
96. Garganey
97. Knot
98. Reed Warbler
10/5/11
99. Collared Dove
11/5/11
100. Siskin
101. Sanderling
102. Common Redpoll
22/5/11
103. Barnacle Goose
104. Grasshopper Warbler
26/5/11
105. Sedge Warbler
106. Whinchat
6/6/11
107. Common Rosefinch
11/6/11
108. Swift
15/6/11
109. Crossbill
17/6/11
110. Puffin
8/7/11
111. Common Sandpiper
1/8/11
112. Ruff
3/8/11
113. Greenshank
114. Bar-tailed Godwit
115. Wood Sandpiper
14/8/11
116. Hobby
24/8/11
117. Pied Flycatcher
25/8/11
118. Little Stint
119. Yellow Wagtail
120. Garden Warbler
26/8/11
121. Barred Warbler
122. Redstart
29/8/11
123. Curlew Sandpiper
31/8/11
124. Little Gull
2/9/11
125. Booted Warbler
3/9/11
126. Spotted Flycatcher
13/9/11
127. Pink-footed Goose
14/9/11
128. Pallid Harrier
30/9/11
129. Brambling
130. Jack Snipe
2/10/11
131. Greenfinch
4/10/11
132. Sabine's Gull
133. Sparrowhawk
8/10/11
134. Goldcrest
12/10/11
135. Ring Ouzel
25/10/11
136. Great Tit
27/10/11
137. Long-eared Owl
138. Little  Auk
30/10/11
139. Shoveler
5/11/11
140. Mistle Thrush
6/11/11
141. Pomarine Skua
11/11/11
142. Pochard
13/11/11
143. Scaup
144. White-fronted Goose
145. Lapland Bunting
19/11/11
146. Green-winged Teal
27/11/11
147. Common Buzzard

Thursday, 30 December 2010

Rough-buggered Lizard.

Still stuck indoors (and getting really fed up of watching repeats of 'top gear' on Dave), lying on the couch and aimlessly staring out of the window - boring as hell, but my foot is looking a lot better. Boring, that is, until this morning when I picked up a soaring bird high over the house, my first thought was 'if I struggle to my feet to have a better look, it'll just be another Greater Black again'. As curiosity eventually got the better of me, managed to get to my Bins on the windowsill, and, standing on one leg, got a face full of a soaring Rough-legged Buzzard ! Then legged it into the garden (not really legging it on crutches !), armed with Camera and Bins - no sign ! Struggled to the front of the house and started scanning, then all the Geese, Ducks and Gulls freaked out at the end of Scatness, so presumably the bird sodded off that way.


Rough-legged Buzzard (sort of) - this bird was photographed in a different place, a different time, a different country, a different year, a different time zone and in a different moult (there, that should stop Mr 'Gallo Combibo' starting any shit stirring !)


'Cracking sunset, Gromit'

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

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.

Saturday, 25 December 2010

Humbug.


Not wishing to spoil anybodies day or anything - but Santa is just a made up thing .....just like God and Jesus !

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Garden Tick.

The doom and gloom of not being able to get out onto the patch continues, and my ankle has now turned a rather fetching shade of purple. Being stuck indoors does have some advantages though, as was proved yesterday as a 'ringtail' Hen Harrier flew past the living room window - that's species number 179 for the house list.


Not such a bad view from the window !

Ouch !!!

Sunday, 19 December 2010

Touch Me, I'm Sick.

This week's top tune - Mudhoney - Touch Me, I'm Sick.

It's good for a grunge band not to take themselves too seriously !