Stormy Monday.

A proper stormy Monday, with a raging south-easterly gusting 60 mph ! No sign of anything in West Voe, not surprising as the sea was being whipped up to a white froth, elsewhere around the patch - 2 Lapland Buntings, a Snow Bunting, 20+ Fieldfare, 15 Redwing and a Robin.

Fieldfare.

King Nothing.

Having already had suspicions of there being a King Eider in West Voe on the 1st Nov (an issue that was discussed with members of the 'patches commission'), it was time to take the 'scope out for the day to West Voe (I was also going to do this on Thursday, but the flock was a good way out, too far for some subtleties anyway), luckily this time all the ducks were fairly close in to the Scatness side, the bird was immediately visible, preening, about 100 yards offshore and did indeed seem to be a female King Eider ! There were however some features that didn't seem to fit - the flanks seemed to show a mix of King and Common features, the scaps and some mantle feathering looked better for Common Eider rather than King and the breast feathering looked to be barred (although only when the bird was preening). After about a half hour of deliberation I phoned the 'encyclopedia harvica', who then came down for a good look and we both agreed that some of these features were a bit odd, after more deliberation we came to the conclusion that the bird is in 1st winter plumage and has retained some juvenile feathers (particularly the scaps). After watching the bird for over an hour, the sun finally came out, and the features of King became glaringly obvious. I'm pretty sure that this bird would have been nailed earlier if (A) it had not been blowing a gale all week and pissing down, (B) the flock was as close in earlier in the week as it was today and (C) if I could have been arsed to take the 'scope out one day (today is only the second time that the 'scope has left the house since returning from Gujarat in March !).
Today should have been quite celebratory with this find, however, it was somewhat marred by views expressed (not to me, I may add !) by the usual tosser, suggesting suppression or incompetence - "bizarre, bizarre, blah, blah, yaki dah, etc, etc".
Other 'stuff' seen today - 1 Common Scoter, 1 Velvet Scoter, 2 Waxwings plus a Little Auk in Quendale Bay.

King Eider (the last 2 shots 'digiscoped' and as you can see by the quality, I've clearly forgotten how to do this !).

Waxwing.

A regular occurrence in the Spiggie Hotel ?

Gimme Shelter.

West Voe seemed to be 'the' place today, with a good few sea ducks that presumably took shelter there after yesterday's storm. Among the Eiders and Long-tailed ducks were, 1 Velvet Scoter, 1 Common Scoter, a Slav Grebe, several Red-throated Divers and a couple of Great Northern Divers, as well as 2 Otters and a pod of Harbour Porpoise. Around the rest of the patch - 2 Waxwing and a Siskin in the garden, 13 Whooper Swans, 4 Scaup and 3 Tufted Ducks on the Loch and 2 Snow Buntings on Sanblister Beach.

Whooper Swans.

Snow Buntings.

Common Scoter.

Eiders ?

Red-throated Diver.

Slavonian Grebe.

Velvet Scoter.

There hasn't been one for a while, so here goes -

2G,2B - Too Good - Proof of the lack of common sense in today's 'yoof' world - ouch, how did that happen ? Er...

Too Bad - Shetland in the 'top 10 places to visit in the world' - one place above the Great Barrier Reef ! - Oh No, not more tourists ! It could be good for the local economy I suppose, now if only there was a wildlife tour company up here, that could charge them the earth for a week's worth of bollocks ......hmmm, if only !

Thank Heavens...

....for Little Gulls. With storm force westerlies hitting the patch, attempted to go for a sea-watch, until I saw this happening at the end of the road -

Sea-watching - bad idea, bay-watching, good idea, especially with a rather tame Little Gull feeding in the surf -

Little Gull.

Elsewhere around the patch - 2 Waxwings in the garden, 40+ Fieldfare and 20+ Redwing kicking about, and now 4 Scaup on the Loch.

Waxwing.

Redwing.

Even Kittiwakes were taking shelter behind stone walls !

Scaup.

It's a Fine Day.

At last, a fine day on the patch, with very little wind and no rain ! Yesterday's Waxwing spent most of the day in the garden, obliterating the rose 'tomatoes', the Redpoll flock in the 'secret' crop has now increased to 10 birds (but still no Arctic !), a Velvet Scoter showed reasonably well in West Voe, 3 Scaup (well at least 2 anyway :) ) were on the Loch, a Jack Snipe was at the back of the Loch and, shock horror ! no sign of any Lapland Buntings - only a fly-over Snow Bunting.

Waxwing.

Common Redpolls.

Velvet Scoter.

Scaup.

Fitful Head y'day.