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.

It was a nice day .... felt compelled to go somewhere

Unlike the grey & cloud of yesterday, today dawned bright & sunny & it seemed a shame to stay indoors. I spent about half an hour down at West Ferry on the Clyde estuary. I had spent some time down there last week at low tide and had seen little more than Curlew & Oystercatcher. Today I had some Lapwing & a Guillemot!

Demolition Job

Over the years I have been at Musselburgh Lagoons many times. I remember my first trip there with the YOC when I was about 14. It was a combined visit with Aberlady Bay. My friend & I got separated from the main group at Aberlady, got lost and caused the bus to be 2 hours late back into Glasgow. Suffice to say we were not popular.

Anyway, on that particular spring day I reckon I saw over 20 new birds and many of them were seen at Musselburgh. The site itself has changed much over the years, and not always for the better, For years Cockenzie pumped tons of ash into the lagoons, not particularly environmentally friendly I'm sure but the birds didn't seem to mind too much. Cockenzie has been closed for many years now and today its chimneys were demolished. I for one will miss their indomitable presence on the horizon :

Going

Going

Gone

I hadn't gone through there to see the demolition, indeed I had no idea it was happening. However, the hides overlooking the scrapes provided a good vantage point. The explosion coincided with high tide and had a significant effect on the roosting birds:

Mayhem

The birds circled around for several minutes

Beginning to settle again

Back to normal

The bang caused disturbance, but this fellow was an even greater threat:

Peregrine off with a Godwit

One of the features of today was the arrival of skeins of Pink Footed Geese. Most flew high over but a few choose to rest on the scrapes:

Harbingers of winter

Unfortunately, the light was poor today and despite some of the waders coming quite close colours were a bit drab:

Black Tailed Godwit

Curlew

Redshank

After lunch I walked out to the sea wall. There had been a lot of boats in the Forth to see the earlier demolition & so this probably affected bird numbers. Nonetheless there were at least 8 Red Necked Grebes and c25 Great Crested Grebes present. Both Common & Velvet Scoter were also seen together with a single Goldeneye and 12 Wigeon.