What's going on ?

Not sure what's going on now, after a few days of north-westerly winds and no birds, woke up this morning to find Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaff in the garden ! The rest of the patch remained true to form though with about 40 Dunlin and 12 Sanderling on Moast Beach and a Silver Y by the Loch being the best I could manage.

Dunlins and Sanderling.

House Sparrow chicklets.

Silver Y.

2G, 2B

A wry look at some events over the weekend.

Too Good One -

Apparently, Shetland has had a good spring after all ! A discussion on Birdforum suggests that lots of rare birds have turned up, but we've kept them all quiet ! Here's a few 'well informed' quotes -
“After a number of incidents last year involving mis-identification of Ring Ouzel as rare thrush sp and the ignominy of having a Lancy found and identified using an Iphone and an Internet forum by some rich twitchers there was a meeting up there and they decided on a news management strategy.So now only a small percentage of the birds on Shetland get released so all the masses start to think it isn’t worth the flight cost.Not only that they created a great smokescreen by getting the Shetland council to apply for loads of grants to promote nature tourism. Instead of spending this on advertising (have you seen any buses near you carrying Shetland Ads?) they've pushed out a few press releases and spent the rest on new camera equipment.So when you're sat late at night wondering why the Shetland Wildlife site is the last one to be updated with the days news its because they're all in the pub deciding what to put out and laughing themselves silly at the quality images they're getting of all the rare from their new 7D's.I bet you thought I'd just made a mistake didn't you?”

“one still wonders if more iberian stuff might have been found if people had put more graft in. Amazing that those two have found 2 Ibe Chiffs this spring.... whose was the Great Reed? Does anyone go birding on Unst when they're not there?”
The full discussion can be seen here

You can't suppress what's not there !

Too Good Two -
Congrats to all the guys who went over to Lundy for the Little Shearwater - an awesome sight indeed in British waters !

Little Shearwater showing well (I know this wasn't the view a few people got, and I am open to bribes to keep that quiet or to reveal the whole story - whichever bid is highest !)

Too Bad One -

That goal - English goalies - stop cleaning your gloves with butter !

Too Bad Two -
Obama rattling on about the oil leak in the gulf of Mexico and how a British company has "polluted all our beaches", agreed it needs sorting out as soon as possible and it is indeed a mega disaster, but maybe America should start cleaning some of it's own mess up as well (see here), before it starts criticizing other nations - stones and glass houses and all that.

Looking back.

This spring really is one of the worst on Shetland, and time seems to be running out for a late bird turning up, though looking back at the last few years June still turns the odd goodie up - Fat Toni's Warbler and Lesser Grey Shrike last year, Red-footed Falcon, Arctic Redpoll and Black-headed Bunting in 2008, Great Reed Warbler, Pec Sand (on the patch) and summering Killdeer in 2007 and Laughing Gull, Red-footed Falcon, Bee-eater and Paddyfield Warbler in 2006. But now that Shetland is back into the northerly winds for the foreseeable future,it doesn't look like that sort of thing will happen this year !
Looking back at previous June's on my old patch (Moore NR and Arpley Tip in Cheshire), June wasn't such a bad month for a local patch (or so weather dependent), with Marsh Harrier, Black-necked Grebe, 3 Little Gulls, Iceland Gull and Common Tern all seen in June 2001. (the following photos are all scanned from prints)


Black-necked Grebe - Pumphouse Pool, Moore NR, June 2001.

Common Tern - Halfway House, June 2001.

Iceland Gull - Arpley Tip, June 2001.

One of the 3 Little Gulls at Halfway House, June 2001.

Meanwhile back in the present, the only thing of note on the patch was a count of about 65 Black-headed Gulls, where as normally there are only a handful at best.

Black-headed and Common Gulls.

Things must be desperate when photos of cruise liners are being included ! This one was moving strongly north-west past the patch. Ironically, the name of the ship is 'Costa Magica' (Magic Coast) - not this year it isn't !

Juv Starling (and Meercats !) in the garden.

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.