Outta Here

That's it, I've had enough of dark days, rain and wind, I'm off ! to find out where, stay tuned. In the meantime here's a bit of Primus

The Angels of Lerwick

Spent all day at the Shetland Catch with the Iceland Gulls, about 35 using the area with another 4 in Lerwick town centre. Most of the ones at the catch were showing some influence of coming from the hybrid swarm, albeit very subtle at times.

Surprise

Out on the patch today, with the usual fare still kicking about - 2 2w Iceland Gulls, a 2w Glauc and the 2 Scaup, a bit of a surprise was a Woodcock flushed off Moast Beach, which promptly flew out to sea.

Iceland Gull

Kittiwake

Scaup

Woodcock

House of Rock

So, what do dead rock stars get up to in the afterlife ? Watch and find out - *caution, contains much hilarity*

Gerald

Forgot all about this one until I was reminded about it today, albeit in a bit of a roundabout way.

Little Oiks

A quick seawatch from the living room window into Quendale Bay revealed 1 Little Auk in among the Eiders, after doing the patch, did the same again and 10 Little Auks in the bay - inc a flock of 5 and one of 3. Pretty quiet on the patch with a 2w Iceland Gull and 2 Scaup.

Little Auks - It's amazing what you can film from the living room with an old mobile and a 'scope

Thar be Little Oiks out there - the view from the living room

Iceland Gull

Lights

A fine show of the Northern Lights last night -

Prime Mover

One from the dim and distant past -

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

New Birds

As if yesterday's Dunnock wasn't odd enough, on the patch today - 2 male Gadwall and a Song Thrush, two species I don't normally see until March/April time. Other year-ticks today were Grey Heron, Pintail (with the hybrid) and Tufted Duck (with the Scaup). Aside from that bit of excitement, there were 6 Common Scoters in West Voe and no Iceland Gulls (apart from the remains of a dead one).

Gadwall

Mallard x Pintail hybrid

Pintail

Song Thrush

Winter Accentor

No Iceland Gulls seen from the house today, and I couldn't be arsed going out to look either - it never really got light at all today. A bit of a surprise was a Dunnock in the garden, I don't think there are many January records in Shetland.