Peter Moore's Wildlife Blog: Shetland 2025: day 5. And 6. And 7. And 8...

Sunday, 26 October 2025

Shetland 2025: day 5. And 6. And 7. And 8...

Our prayers that days of westerlies might bring an American landbird to Shetland were answered when a Blackpoll Warbler was located late on the afternoon of 8th October on Unst. We had all seen this species elsewhere in the UK so we played it cool by not heading straight there on the 9th, but reports that the bird was feeding out in the open on the beach at Haroldswick persuaded us to book tickets for the ferries to Yell and then Unst on the morning of the 10th.

Glossy Ibis, Norwick, Unst, 10th October

The weather was much the same as the previous day - howling westerlies and rain showers - so we hoped the Warbler would repeat the beach bum performance of the day before. The Warbler was seen just behind the beach whilst we waited for the ferry but birders were milling around when we arrived - never a good sign - and despite a thorough search over the next few hours we could not locate it. We assumed it had died and, given the conditions, who could have blamed it - but it was resurrected four days later when we were on the way home, being rediscovered in a garden we had checked, but clearly not thoroughly enough.

Glossy Ibis (juvenile), Norwick, Unst, 10th October

Having made the effort to get to Unst we were determined to make the most of it and checked out a few other sites including Norwick where a trio of Glossy Ibis entertained us in a wet field by the beach car park, seemingly struggling to stay upright in the strong winds. We knew the feeling! I had seen a flock of Glossy Ibis at home on the south coast in Dorset before leaving home and here they were in about the most northerly part of the UK you could imagine, illustrating the truly national scale of the recent invasion.

Redwing, Burrafirth, Unst, 10th October

Red-breasted Flycatcher, Yell, 10th October

Herring Gull, Gutcher, Yell 10th October

Great Skua, Unst, 10th October

Elsewhere we had a close flyover from a Great Skua, flushed a Water Rail from a reedy stream and stumbled across a Short-toed Lark feeding in the road near Burrafirth. But it had been a long and tiring day and we returned to Muckle Roe, stopping only to twitch a Red-breasted Flycatcher in near darkness on Yell and to collect a takeaway from Frankies before heading home.

Wheatear on the beach where the Blackpoll Warbler should have been, 10th October

Short-toed Lark, Burrafirth, 10th October

Gonna' need a Bigga boat...to get from Yell to Unst

Little Bunting, Vidlin, 11th October

The next three days, whilst not without their highlights - seconds of the Sibe Thrush, another close Otter encounter, and a soggy Little Bunting among them - all merged into one somewhat with seemingly endless trudges around birdless plantations with only dwindling reserves of hope and the ubiquitous Yellow-browed Warblers to keep us going. We also added to our burgeoning dip list missing standard Shetland fayre like Rustic Buntings, Barred Warblers, Rosefinches and Bluethroats as well as a Blue-winged Teal and an Ortolan, though to be fair we caught up with the first two of these and the Teal eventually and ended up with a trip list which you would be delighted with in a week at home.

Merlin, Mainland, 11th October

Lesser Whitethroat, Mainland, 11th October

Goldcrest, Mainland, 11th October

Great Northern Diver, Melby, 12th October

Still, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, dining well on home cooked food and local ales, and there was a certain nobility in our stubborn efforts to search every bush, even if they were usually empty. And despite the lack of good birds it was still a wrench to pack up on our final night and say goodbye to the excellent accommodation sourced by Bradders Birding Tours.