Late Autumn Garden

Shetland - Day 8

The final day was again good weathe wise although produced nothing new initially.

Had a Velvet Scoter & Sanderling at Grutness & jammed in on a good view of an Olive Backed Pipit at Toab before I had to head for Lerwick & the overnight boat to Aberdeen.

Shetland - Day 7

Another pleasant day weather wise with a light southerly wind.

Geosetter - C10 Goldcrest, Blackcap & Reed Bunting.

Sumburgh - Richard's Pipit, 4 Jack Snipe, 1 Blackcap, 4 Wheatear, C50 Skylark.

Scatness - 44 Barnacle Geese, 1 Blackcap, 3 Wheatear.

Pool of Virkie - ~Goldeneye, RB Merganser & Bar Tailed Godwit & other common waders on a falling tide:

Shetland - Day 6

Altogether a much better day weatherwise with high hopes of seeing some good birds after the last 2 days rain & SE winds.

Geosetter had at least 20 Goldcrests and still lots of Redwing going through & I spent some time trying to get some shots of the former:

Small fast moving birds aint easy !

The variety of birds at Quendale was much better. I also 'found' the famous quarry for the first time & it was full of Goldcrests & Blackcaps & Chiffchaffs & 1 Willow Warbler. I reckoned these were a good shout for Sibe Chiff:

Very Grey

At Quendale I also saw Jack Snipe, Hen Harrier & Peregrine.

In the afternoon I had a single Brambling at Scalloway.

Scalloway

Shetland - Day 5

A second day of rain & strong SE winds, but somehow didn't seem so bad today.

As usual I started at Geosetter and tried to use the sycamores and other bushes as shelter as I tried to find yesterdays reported Firecrest. There  was no sign but there were at least 10 Goldcrests present. Otherwise just 1 Blackcap & I flushed a Sparrowhawk half way up the gorge.

2 Arctic Skuas gave good views off Sumburgh Hotel and I finally saw Slavonian Grebe for the year. A Short Eared Owl was also seen. Despite only being out the car for less than 20 minutes I got soaked. I sat in the car at Grutness harbour for an hour or so watching 15 Long Tailed Ducks.

In the afternoon I moved round to Quendale and had Great Grey Shrike albeit a bit distant. This was my first for many years. A Lesser White Fronted Goose, certainly a new bird for me, was reported in fields below the watermill. I could see maybe 15 birders looking at it & hurried round expecting it to be a dot in some far field. Not a bit of it, it was within 50 yards:

Lesser White Fronted Goose (with bling)

From the rings it was presumably of captive origins. Right leg green over grey & left leg blue number 33.It turns out it originated from the Swedish re introduction programme and had been released into the wild this year. This was its first sighting since release.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the layby just past the lights at the end of Sumburgh airport overlooking the sea. I had good views of an Otter fishing amongst the rocks as well as Harbour Porpoise offshore. I also saw what I presumed to be a small whale probably a Minke. 

Shetland - Day 4

This was the first of two back to back days of strong south easterly winds & driving rain. As such very little was seen today.

I spent two hours at Spiggie sheltering in the car seeing very little.

Loch Spiggie on a wet morning

I ventured out at Grutness & got soaked seeing Wheatear, Goldcrest, Redwing & 2 Knot.

I also got soaked at Channerwick seeing a Blackcap.

Shetland - Day 3

The wind direction was now South East and the forecast was for it to strengthen with the promise that we were in for some rough weather over the next 2-3 days.

At Geosetter first thing it was obvious that birds were on the move with a noticeable fall of Redwings. There was also Goldcrest & Brambling present.

Quendale was similar with more Goldcrests & Brambling & 2 Yellow Browed.

In the Sumburgh Farm/Grutness area I saw Spotted Flycatcher, 20 Barnacle Geese & Twite.

Twite in Sumburgh Quarry

I got a brief view of a probable Olive Backed Pipit at Scatness.

Shetland - Day 2

I was staying in Bigton in the South Mainland and after breakfast I 'did the village'. Weather was dry with light SW winds. 2 Yellow Browed Warblers were in sycamores on the 'main street' and I had a look at a newly arrived Redwing in one of the gardens. Otherwise a fly over Skylark was about it.

The famous Geosetter burn was 5 minutes along the road but was birdless apart from a Shetland Wren and a Goldcrest.

At Spiggie I got a good view of a Barred Warbler & I might even have got a photo had it not been for the local cat who was hunting the garden the Warbler was in.

I'm after that Barred Warbler too

At Loch Spiggie I had 5 Whooper Swans.

I had a look for the reported Blyth's Reed Warbler at Toab but given that there was little else to see, the site was overrun with birders and the bird had become very elusive. I reckon I briefly saw an acrocephalus Warbler of some kind but that was all.

There was however, a much more obliging Lapland Bunting at Sumburgh Head:

Lapland Bunting

At nearby Grutness there were at least 2 Yellow Browed in the walled garden:

Shetland - Day 1

The overnight boat from Aberdeen was very quiet which meant that I got some sleep and as a result I felt fairly refreshed by the time it docked in Lerwick at 7:30am. I picked up my hire care & after finding Norby (with difficulty) on the map set off west to twitch the Pechora Pipit which had apparently been performing admirably there the day before.

I stopped briefly at Weisdale Voe to have a look at the Gulls & managed to pick out a Little Gull:

Onwards to Norby however, despite searching there was no sign of the Pechora Pipit. I instead amused my self with 5 Scaup on the loch, 2 Great Northern Divers & Black Guillemots in the Sound and a couple of Goldcrests in the village.

Heading back east again I stopped at Kergord which was virtually birdless and again at Quarff where I had the briefest glimpse of  a Barred Warbler in one of the gardens.