Persistence Pays Off.

Getting up this morning I wasn't too optimistic about there being any birds around (westerly gales for most of the night), however, 2 Blackcaps and 2 Garden Warblers in the garden indicated that something had happened. At 9am set out down the Scatness road - 2 Bramblings in the secret spud crop and a Short-eared Owl over towards West Voe of Sumburgh, that was pretty much it, apart from the 2 Pink-footed Geese still and a fly over Merlin. After 3 hours started to head back home, stopping to do the thistles and docks near Moast beach again, on the second sweep through flushed a small locustella from a small patch of docks, them lost it in the thistles for 90 minutes before flushing it again, this time I was pretty sure it had to be a Lancy, but on flight views only that's a pretty bold claim !! After eventually getting in touch with 'Bentos' and 'Gumbol', managed to get some help in pinning the bird down. After another 2 hours or so, with 5 of us walking back and to through the thistles and docks (SM,RF,GB,MR,AM), the bird gave reasonable views and a few shots were taken and we were all quite happy that it was indeed a Lanceolated Warbler ! I've walked through those thistles nearly every day since the end of August and apart from a few Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and a Song Thrush, this is the only bird I've seen in there.
Another bird of note was a rather fine looking Lapland Bunting on Moast Beach.

Lanceolated Warbler (should be some better shots soon).

A better shot from Gary.

Blackcap.

Brambling.

Lapland Bunting.

Yellow-browed.

After yesterday's wind and rain, today was a much calmer day - bright sunshine and no wind at all at times.
Yellow-browed Warbler, Redwing, Wheatear and a Merlin at the Sumburgh Hotel, a Brambling, a flighty Short-toed Lark and a Bluethroat in the Grutness Crop and a Chiffchaff around the farm. Not a lot at Scatness - 1 Garden Warbler and 2 Pink-footed Geese (+15 Wigeon, 5 Tufted Ducks).

Yellow-browed Warbler.

Wheatear.

Scatness.

While the rest of Shetland was turning up Pechora Pipits and Arctic Redpolls, this was not the case at Scatness (no surprise there then !), all I managed in two visits was - a Garden Warbler, a Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Wheatear, 11 Sanderling, a Dunlin, a Snow Bunting, a Song thrush, 2 Pink-footed Geese and a good soaking.


Garden Warbler.

Pink-footed Goose.

Veery & Buff-bellied Pipit.

At last some birds, and mega ones at that ! Another early start to get the charter boat out of Scalloway to Foula, and by 9am was watching the Veery as it fed along the roadside at Ham, left alone, the bird was showing down to about 4 feet at times and was completely unconcerned by the gathered crowd of about 15 birders. A slight, but welcome, distraction whilst watching the Veery was a Pechora Pipit that flew over the road several times, between iris beds, calling. After this a quick walk to the other side of Ham and a Buff-bellied Pipit, again, showing to about 6 feet feeding in a wet field near to the road - a fantastic day out ! Other migrants seen on Foula were - 2 Redwing, 3 Robin, 2 Tree Pipits and a Barred Warbler, the day ended with a Pom Skua, with a full set of cutlery, from the boat near Scalloway.

Veery.

Buff-bellied Pipit.

Scant Reward.

The morning was spent checking various crops, gardens and ditches, the reward for all this effort - 7 Chaffinch at Grutness, 9 at Hillwell and a Snow Bunting on Mossy Hill ! Sod birding i'm off down the boozer...

Snow Bunting.

Taiga Flycatcher.

Up 'n' at 'em at 4am, to catch the early ferry across to Fetlar for the Taiga Flycatcher, the bird showed fairly well at Tresta, but with the strong wind and occasional rain shower it kept pretty much to the wooded garden - i.e. in the darkest, most sheltered bits. Having seen (and co-identified) the bird in 2003, means that I've seen two thirds of all British records ! May not sell my bins after all now things seem to be looking up.

The Long Walk.

In light of the Yanks that seem to be turning up elsewhere (Orkney in particular), did my now annual 'big walk' - from Fleck, through Quendale Dunes, up the Eel Burn, around Quendale Mill, up Quendale Burn, the lower slopes of Fitful Head and out to Garth's Ness - and for what...? 10 Swallows, 370 Pink-footed Geese and a Merlin !! To be fair I wasn't expecting to see much, but with all these westerlies I was hoping for better than that. If the autumn continues like this on Shetland there may well be a pair of Leicas and a camera going on ebay !!!

Pink-footed Geese.

Swallow.

Sandhill Crane, Orkney.

An out of county twitch to Orkney, I usually wouldn't bother leaving the islands in September, but being as the forecast keeps saying 'more westerlies' and the best bird at Scatness at the moment seems to be a Lesser Whitethroat, I decided to go for the Sandhill Crane on South Ronaldsay (plus there is a day-return flight to Kirkwall). Arriving in Kirkwall around 08:30, we (Myself, Jason & Dougie) picked up a car, lent to us by the Crane's finder, Paul Higson, and then headed south. On getting to the site, the bird was immediately on show, fairly distantly, a couple of fields away, feeding in a stubble field with Curlews, Lapwings, Gulls and a few farmyard Geese. After a couple of hours, and getting marginally better views, we headed off to Kirkwall for some fuel and a celebratory fry up ! Then a quick stop off at Deerness for the American Golden Plover, which, no matter where we parked, was always on the other side of the field. It was just after this that things started to go a bit wrong, as we set off for another go at the Crane, it was a struggle to get the car in first gear, but Jason persisted and we made it back to South Ron, then the car wouldn't go in any gear at all unless it was put in reverse to begin with and finally, whilst we were watching the Crane again, the car got stuck in first gear and finally died, it was left, abandoned, in a layby at the south end of South Ron. Not all was lost though, as Jon arrived in his hire car, with 3 spare seats. The day ended with some fairly descent views of the Crane roosting with Gulls in a field just inland from the beach and some rather dodgy chips from Kirkwall.

Sandhill Crane.

American Golden Plover.

When the Crane wasn't on show, visiting birders scanned through the herds of cattle, in the hope of finding a rare bullock.

More of the same.

More of the same nothingness - just a Lesser Whitethroat in the garden, probably the same one that's been in there since Tuesday !

Curlews at sunset last night.

Lesser Whitethroat.

Useless.

Out every day this week, and for what....? Stonechat in Lerwick on tuesday and Lesser Whitethroat at Scatness on wednesday - useless ! A Pearly Underwing in the Moth trap on wednesday was new for the garden.


Stonechat.

Pearly Underwing.