Rewards

On part of my patch there is a secret crop field known only to a few, I've been keeping it a bit secret this autumn mainly because access to the crop is only available by cutting through somebody's garden, and although I have permission, I didn't want others to inadvertently cause any problems. That said, I've been checking the crop on every easterly since August and have seen sod all ! That is until today, the first bird to come out of it was a Short-eared Owl which then flew around putting everything up, then out popped 3 Bramblings and finally, right at the very end of the crop, about a dozen Meadow Pipits got up calling and amongst them, calling like mad, an Olive-backed Pipit, luckily it landed briefly on the airport fence for a decent view through the bins, before flying over the runway towards Toab.
The rest of the patch was pretty productive too, with another Short-eared Owl, 6 Goldcrests, 5 Song Thrush, 49 Redwing, 3 Fieldfare, 2 Snow Buntings, 2 Wheatear, a Woodcock, 2 Whooper Swans and a Barnacle Goose.
A Blackcap and another Brambling were in the garden.

Short-eared Owl

Blackcap

Whooper Swans

Similar

Similar birds on the patch today, but lower numbers in most cases - 8 Goldcrest, 2 Siskin, 1 Brambling, 4 Fieldfare, 4 Song Thrush, 25 Blackbirds (including a rather scaly looking 1st winter male in the garden), 2 Wheatear, 1 Merlin, 1 Blackcap and 31 Redwing. On a bit of a serious note, I've had to put the watermarks back on my photos, this is due to me finding a whole album of my photos on the web yesterday in someone else's name !

'Scaly' Blackbird

Goldcrest

Wheatear

Better

Things improved on the patch overnight, but the lack of rain meant that there wasn't the deluge of birds that there could have been. The totals for the day were - 1 Brent Goose, 11 Barnacle Geese (including 3 hybrid young - more on that lower down the page), 1 Bonxie, 1 Greenfinch, 99 Rewing, 5 Wheatear, 6 Goldcrest, 6 Song Thrush, 45 Blackbirds and finally a patch tick - a Little Bunting around Ness Engineering.

Brent Goose

 The Hybrid Geese - Although superficially resembling Barnacle Geese, the three young birds initially stood out from the flock due to their smaller size, on closer inspection I noted that they lacked the white forehead of Barnacles and had rather Canada Goose looking head patterning, they also had a very faint brown wash to the flanks. A little research online when I got home and it seems that they were most likely Small Canada Goose x Barnacle Goose hybrids back-crossed with Barnacle Goose, a few photos that seem pretty close to these birds can be found here.

Barnacle Geese, adult and hybrids

A trickle

With a south-easterly in full force, I was out on the patch from about lunchtime, it may have been a little early though as all I got was 2 Bonxies and a Wheatear. After 4pm though birds started to arrive, at first it was just a few Blackbirds, and then in the last hour of light 2 Bramblings and a Lesser Whitethroat arrived in the garden  - a bit of optimism for tomorrow then.

Brambling

The Calm Before the Storm

South-easterlies forecast for the next few days and pretty strong ones at that, whether anything good will turn up though remains to be seen. Meanwhile out on the patch today and 4 Whooper Swans, 13 Pink-footed Geese (south), 2 Redwings and a male Blackcap, plus another Fair Isle colour ringed Starling - that makes 3 now since 29/9. Hopefully there should be a good show of the aurora tonight.

Whooper Swans

Colour ringed Starling

This evenings sunset

Brent

Bloody hard work on the patch in a westerly gale, managed to year-tick Brent Goose though. A few hours later and all I had to show for the effort was a Goldcrest, 2 Whooper Swan, 6 Tufted Duck and a Merlin.

Brent Goose with Greylags

Goldcrest

Merlin

Whoopers

As it was lashing down, just a brief look on the patch today, a quick scan around the gardens brought 4 Goldcrest, a male Blackcap and a Chaffinch. Elsewhere 16 Whooper Swans came into the Loch and a Wheatear and a Song Thrush were around the walls.

Whooper Swans

Shetland Tick

Just a single Yellow-browed Warbler and another Fair Isle colour ringed Starling around Scatness today, not surprising really given the strong south-westerly, so I decided to catch the bus to somewhere a bit more sheltered. Arriving in Sandwick, got dropped off at the top of the Swinister Burn and checked all the trees down to Hoswick, there were 5 Bramblings and a Yellow-browed Warbler in the thick stuff, as the trees petered out towards Hoswick, came across two areas where grass cuttings had been dumped earlier in the year, and feeding around one of them was the Siberian Stonechat giving pretty gripping views down to about 25 feet.

Siberian Stonechat

Colour ringed Starling

Sumburgh runway

Back to normality

With the wind now firmly in the west, it's not that surprising that the patch has quietened down somewhat, although I have still got a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Goldcrest in the garden along with a colour ringed Starling, presumably from Fair Isle. A walk around all the sheltered bits on the patch added 2 Wheatears and 3 Song Thrush, and on the beaches were 2 each of Little Stint, Black-tailed Godwit and Sanderling.

Black-tailed Godwits

Little Stints

Colour Ringed Starling

The Magic Pool

Out today for about 10 minutes until it lashed it down, and I gave up - I did find a Wood Warbler though, albeit a dead one. So due to a lack of birds, birding or both, here's a bit about the Magic Pool. The Magic Pool of Scatness (twinned with the secret 'Magic Ditch of Virkie) is located to the south of Loch of Gards and is pretty much dried up most summers, only getting water in it from the end of August onwards, and is about 30 feet long by about 12 feet wide - tiny ! So far this year it has hosted Avocet, Little Egret (just about annual now in Shetland), Pectoral Sandpiper, 2 Little Stints and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper - so it really does now warrant the name Magic Pool.

The Magic Pool viewed from the end of the Scatness road

How small is that ?!!!

Little Egret on the 30th May.

Avocet on the 23rd May

Buff-breasted Sandpiper on 23rd September.

One of the 2 Little Stints present this month

Pectoral Sandpiper present this month

The Big Twitch

Did most of the patch from 10 am until 12:30, fairly quiet, but still a few bits 'n' bobs - 1 Robin, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Blackcap, 5 Wheatear, 20 Song Thrush, 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, 3 Sanderlings and a Whimbrel. And then curiosity got the better of me, so it was a major twitch of 1.5 miles to Hestingott for Olive-backed Pipit and Isabelline Shrike, when I got there, there was no sign of either ! Fed up with hanging around a children's playpark, waiting, I buggered off and checked the garden's of St Ninian's Drive - bingo ! the fourth garden I checked and Olive-backed Pipit on the lawn (until it was flushed by tripod rattling goons). I gave up on the Shrike and headed to Toab to check the gardens there - good move, the Shrike showed itself on a fence leading down to the main road. Also around Toab and Hestingott were 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Short-eared Owl, a Kestrel, a Blackcap and 2 Yellow-browed Warblers.

Olive-backed Pipit

Isabelline Shrike

Yellow-browed Warbler