Shetland Day 2

The day started at Eastern Quarff in light South West winds and had my first Fieldfare of the Autumn. Onwards to Hoswick where a Siberian Stonechat showed quite well :

Sibe Stonechat

With the winds in the wrong position birding was beginning to be a bit of a struggle with not a lot to look at increasingly I was resorting to 'landscape' photography :

Channerwick

Channerwick looking towards Hoswick

Channerwick looked a really promising place in the right conditions but today there were just a few Goldcrests and a possible Redstart.

Later on in the day I had 9 Barnacle Geese and a Great Northern Diver at Scatness.

Shetland Day 1

The wind is South Westerly and has been for a few days. Long gone are the Easterlies that prevailed last week and as such I am not expecting many new birds. However, the remnants of last week's 'fall' include an Olive Backed Pipit at Toab in South Mainland. I am well armed with 3 OS maps so even I can't get lost. My only concern is with the Ford Ka and will it make it up any hills I encounter.

I park up at Toab and immediately see a huddle of birders peering into the back garden of a house in St Ninians Avenue. Now I am not particularly comfortable about staring into someones back garden with a pair of binoculars but nonetheless I glimpse the OBP in the garden before it lifts off over the houses apparently back to the playground which is its favourite site.

The 'crowd' follow it round and eventually find it in someone elses's back garden where it shows for a prolonged period alowing a record shot:

Olive Backed Pipit

This is a good start. I have seen one before on Scilly but not nearly as well as this one. The white spot on the rear cheek emphasised by the adjacient black spot are very striking. After this the bird disappears and birders arriving in the afternoon dip it.

Following this I give up twitching and attempt to find my own birds:

This isn't nearly as much fun so I bugger off to Quendale Mill in the search of Rosefinch in some quarry. I can't even find the quarry and resort to photographing Twite that appear very common in Shetland:

A very mobile Isabelline Shrike has been relocated back at Toab so I head back there and dip it but have the compensation of seeing a Yellow Browed Warbler and a Hawfinch.

Curlews over Toab

By now the wind is increasing and I head over to the Pool of Virkie to see a selection of waders including a Black Tailed Godwit before calling it a day fairly early and heading for my B&B in Lerwick.

The Adventure of Travelling

My holdall is packed with everything I am going to need in Shetland and probably a lot more. As such it is extremely heavy but 'fortunately' it has wheels and a loop for pulling it along. Now normal people would take a taxi or get someone to drop them off. Not me though, I struggle with it half way across Glasgow to Queen Street station for the train to Aberdeen. Yes it is on wheels and is able to be pulled but from an almost crouching position placing strain on my lower back and resulting in muscular pain that was to inhibit my movement for a good part of the week.

Now modern trains are very comfortable and their design nowadays is quite akin to aircraft. They are perfect for the business traveller with small hand luggage but if you have a large holdall you can forget it. Even if you can manoeuvre it up the isles, there is no way it is going to fit on the overhead racks (even if you were a Russian weightlifter and could lift it). That leaves the rack at the end of the coach where you can't see it, and remember there's expensive optics in it. You can't relax for visions of it disappearing at Montrose or some such place.

Despite all this, I arrive unscathed in Aberdeen and find that the Northlink Ferry terminal is a short holdall drag away. I get checked in and am on the MV Hjaltland by 5pm and sinking my first pint of Carling by 5:15pm.

At 7pm the captain advises that the weather conditions are favourable and with the wind behind us it should not be rough. I enjoy my dinner and watch the USA seemingly go into an unasailable position against Europe in the golf before finding my 'recliner' for the night. This 'recliner' 'reclines' about 2 centimetres and to all intents and purposes is a chair. I sleep fitfully and arrive in Lerwick by 7:30am, pick up my Ford Ka and were ready to rock and roll.

Going to Shetland

After many years of attending the Scillies in Autumn, I am finally abandoning the place & going to Shetland. So bye bye cake shops, nice weather and pubs and hello to wind and rain and with regards to pubs, well........... I don't really know.

So it's train to Aberdeen on Friday, followed by an overnight crossing to Lerwick arriving at 07:30 on Saturday, hire car and B&B. There were of course other alternatives like flying from Glasgow to Sumburgh or taking my own car on the boat. Of course being an Accountant I had a very large spreadsheet with lots of lookups & pivot tables analysing all the options before deciding on the best course of action.

Then of course I had to put it all into practice. First job was sorting the B&B. Absolutely no problem at all. The lady did not even want a deposit. Next was Northlink Ferries and booking over the net. Again no problem & a fraction of the price of the Scillonian. Finally the car hire from Bolts in Lerwick. Again, easy & as with the B&B no deposit required.

So have I picked the best week? A look at the pager & the weather forecast tonight would perhaps suggest not. The potential for next week looks, well............ MEGA what with birds already there and the prospect of Easterlies for most of the week. By the time I go the wind looks like going back into the West and strengthening.

But whatever, I am going to pack lots of waterproofs and my wellies and gloves. I have even cut out the sleeve of an old waterproof to put over the camera in an emergency. I am wondering if I should bother with the scope? I don't want to lug around too much gear. On balance I think I will probably take it even if it sits in the boot most of the time.

Anyway, the forecast for today looked quite good for the East coast, so I was out the house for 6am and at Barns Ness for 7:30 am. Pretty dead however with only a calling Yellow Wag & a Pale Bellied Brent Goose & 6 Pink Feet of any note.

Next post is likely to be about Shetland unless I go for the Magnolia. Oh that's Shetland too.......duh !

More Filthy Twitching - Buff Breasted Sandpiper.

Not content with yesterdays twitch, I was at it again today.

September weekend, off work, wife and kids in Blackpool. Spells 'FREEDOM'. Better make the most of it and do some twitching birding. Reports of 2 Buff Breasted Sands at Tyninghame was enough to tempt me. Not particularly a Mega but always nice to see:

1 of 2 Buff Breasts

Digiscoped

The tide was very low and not conducive to finding the SemiP that has also been present. I nonetheless tried unsuccessfully. 2 Greenshanks were notable. I abandoned it in favour of the nearby Coffee Shop and then to Barns Ness for some sea watching. The sea watching was a complete non event with only 3 Puffin being worthy of a mention.

At high tide I returned to Tyninghame but in truth there were few small waders and certainly no SemiP. A marauding Peregrine was a year tick and there were several Whimbrel.

Birding 1 - 8 Motorway. A Tale of a Filthy Twitching Massacre !

I don't normally twitch 400 miles ! The prospect of looking at a motorway for 16 hours (there and back) compared to 40 mins birding doesn't sit very well with me. It also costs a lot (even when you're sharing costs) and then there's the depreciation on the car to say nothing of the environmental impact.

However, I haven't had a new bird this year and when somebody else offers to drive and take their car I cave in and go. So I abandon my job, my wife, my kids and head off into the night and arrive in London at 5:30 in the morning. It is dark, Rainham Marshes is shut. I'm cold, I'm tired, I'm hungry. 'Fortunately' we find a greasy spoon and I devour a sub standard breakfast, drink the worst cup of coffee I've ever tasted and have my ears accosted by some burly builders.

By 7:30 the gates at Rainham Marshes have miraculously opened and we gain entry to the reserve. I'm pretty confident about seeing the bird, although I'm prepared for a wait. In reality locating "Butts hide" actually takes far longer than waiting to see the bird because from the minute we arrived 'The Crake' is in view almost constantly. Never coming close enough for the DSLR, and it was a bit into the sun, but anyway here goes:

Baillion's Crake

So by 9am it's time to go home ! Another 8 hours in front of us. No make that 11 because we detour to Hoylake on the Wirral in the hope of connecting with a Western Sand. No sign of the Western Sand although I manage to pick out 2 juvenile Curlew Sands amongst the many Dunlin & Sanderling.

So another wee tick goes into the book. I think that's 406 now. Will I twitch that distance in a day again ? Definitely not....................... well at least not until the next time.

Baillion's Crake

My first lifer in 2012. Showing very well whilst we were there. More later.

Baillion's Crake

Hound Point

I was at a bit of a loss today for what to do birding wise. I had done most of my ironing chores yesterday but could only really afford the morning for birding. Having left the pager on overnight I noticed that Hound Point had some Poms & Black Terns yesterday so seeing that it is only about an hour away I plumped for that.

Did the touristy bit first

In truth the touristy bit was about as good as it got. In an hour and a half I saw one Skua (about a million miles away).

Otherwise there were a few Sandwich & Common Terns, a big passage of Gannets, 1 Kittiewake and 2 Fulmar. A Nuthatch was calling in the adjoining woodland.

With regard to the woodland, a couple of ladies enquired of me what the 50 or so birds they had seen flying into the trees might have been. They thought they might have been "Sand Martins". For Sand Martins read Goldfinches.

Of course looking at the pager this evening I am seeing reports of "... 7 Poms & 32 Arctics between 2pm & 5pm". Bugger !!!!!!1

Troon

Spent the morning down at Troon doing some sea watching. It was however pretty poor with only Manxies going past.

I soon got bored and went for a look for the Glaucous Gull in the harbour, which I quickly found:

2nd Winter bird - asleep most of the time

From there I headed round to Barassie and spent about 45mins scanning the beach. Small numbers of Dunlin and a Bar Tailed Godwit was about the best.