Something moved.

At least some sort of migration movement is going on, albeit in quite low numbers - a few migrant moths in the trap over the last few nights - a few Silver Ys and a Dark Sword Grass, but the moth counts in the garden trap still seem to be well down on previous years.


Dark Sword Grass.

Silver Y.

Map-winged Swift.

Small Square Spot.

It's all over now, baby blue.

It looks like it's all over for this spring, a couple of hours on the patch and nothing ! Looks like it's going to be a couple of months relying on the moth trap to produce something good, and as the garden has already had 2 first for Shetland (Reed Dagger and Dark Spectacle) and several seconds and thirds, it may just keep some kind of interest going until the autumn (which is only about 10 weeks away !). Until then I think I'll just enjoy the good weather, as long as it lasts, and get a few shots of common stuff at Scatness.


Lapwing.

Redshank.

Wren.

Aura Borealis

After bemoaning the crapness of Scatness this spring (well sort of), with 4 Common Cranes flying over at 9am, not sure from which direction they came in on - picked them up flying north-west out to sea over Lady's Holm, they eventually turned back and started heading north past the cliffs of Fitful Head, finally lost them behind a hill near Quendale. The rest of Scatness was, as usual, quite devoid of anything, with just a few Sanderling and a Whimbrel. Another highlight (if you can call it that !) was at least one, probably two, possibly three 'borealis' Eiders in West Voe - one bird showed the rounded lobes, orangey bill and noticeable sails, another bird showed the rounded lobes, a not quite so orange bill (but definitely not green) and smaller sails, and the third bird showed slightly rounded lobes (though more rounded than the 'mollisimas' next to it), a faded orangey bill and no sails.

'borealis' Eiders

Common Cranes

Waste of Time

The weekend was a complete waste of time at Scatness - 4 visits around the patch, the highlight being a Garden Warbler on Saturday (and that was in my own garden !)


Probably the best thing to do until the autumn !

Deja vu

A crack at the patch, after a night of south-easterlies, and just a Lesser Whitethroat and a Chiffchaff ! The wind direction did have some effect though, as just around lunch-time, it was a bit of deja vu, with another trip to Unst, this time for a Shetland first - Iberian Chiffchaff. The bird showed reasonably well in the Sycamores at Halligarth, singing and calling (like a Siskin) under the canopy and generally being really active and flitty. Golden Oriole also heard calling in the trees there.

Iberian Chiffchaff.

Rock Pipit.

Fulmar.

Chiffchaff.

Wheatear.

Arctic Skua.

The 'perfect' number plate fot twitching Unst twice in two days ?!

Christmas has come very early (or very late) on Unst this year !

It's Grim Up North.

Owing to the fact there was sod all at Scatness (just a female Chaffinch and a pair of Linnets), a trip up north to Unst for the Black Stork was in order. The bird was initially in the burn at Burrafirth and then decided to fly all over the place getting mobbed by Bonxies and Oycs. Better views than the 2008 Ronas Hill bird, with a couple of fairly close fly-bys.
A brief stop on the way home for a quick look at the Hybrid thing at Sandwater, to see what the fuss was about - and well, it is a very odd looking thing that seems to be a Pochard x Pintail !

Black Stork.

Hybrid Duck.

Chaffinch.

Linnet.

Mute.

The only slightly interesting thing today was 5 Mute Swans on the Loch, this would have been a pretty good patch year-tick (quite scarce at Scatness) had there not already been 3 in West Voe on January 5th.

Something for the weekend.

At last, Scatness has actually produced something over the weekend, with an Osprey drifting south this morning (cheers for the phone call Rob), other than that it was just the usual fare, with a few Swallows, a House Martin, a couple of fly-over Red-throated Divers (on Saturday) and 37 Sanderlings. 2 Golden Plover on the headland were unexpected and the pair of Shelducks now have 8 ducklings (a.k.a. - Bonxie snacks).
Angle Shades trapped on Saturday night.


Eider.

Swallows.

Shelduck.

Golden Plovers.

Red-throated Divers.

Angle Shades.

It's no secret.

Now that the secret is out, here's some shots of the adult Long-tailed Skua that appears to be holding territory at ******. So despite Friday the 28th being crap at Scatness, it wasn't such a bad day after all.