Peter Moore's Wildlife Blog: Shetland 2025: back down to earth

After the high of seeing the Siberian Thrush on our first day on Shetland, it was a case of coming back down to earth on Tuesday 7th October and setting about the serious business of finding our own birds. Bradders had his eye on a 'secret' plantation on Muckle Roe but it wasn't so secret that someone hadn't discovered it the day before, locating a Lesser Whitethroat and a Yellow-browed Warbler. We approached with high hopes and found both birds but could only add Meadow Pipit to the site list.

Red-breasted Flycatcher, Hamnavoe, 7th October

It was drier than the previous day but the howling westerlies continued so whilst 'out west', it made sense to check out Eshaness, anticipating that American land-birds would be hitting the cliffs there like bugs on a windscreen. It turns out that they weren't but we enjoyed our first bit of sunshine of the trip and close views of Golden Plover and Jack Snipe.

Raven, Eshaness, 7th October

Lesser Whitethroat, Muckle Roe, 7th October

Jack Snipe, Tangwick, 7th October

Golden Plover, Eshaness, 7th October

Moving on to Hamnavoe James spotted a distant bird on a fence which turned out to be our best find of the trip: a Red-breasted Flycatcher which entertained us in a small patch of vegetation at the back of the beach. Returning via Hillswick we enjoyed reasonably close views of a couple of Otter in the bay before heading back to Brae for award-winning Fish & Chips at Frankies.

Shetland Wren, 7th October

Otter. Hillswick, 7th October

Otter, Hillswick, October 7th

Otter, Hillswick, 7th October

Spotted Flycatcher, 8th October

The high winds continued the following day but Bradders had a special treat in store for us in the form of a twitch....for a Great Tit at Gluss, a rare bird on Shetland. We located it without difficulty and returned to looking for our own birds. The pattern of the previous day - a Blackcap in every patch of vegetation and a Yellow-browed Warbler in every other patch - seemed to be confirmed, though a bit of variety was added with the odd Redpoll and Spotted Flycatcher.

Mealy Redpoll, Bardister, 8th October

Great Tit, Gluss, 8th October

Blackcap, 8th October

By the end of day three we had thrashed Muckle Roe and surrounds pretty thoroughly so a change of scene was called for and we headed for south Mainland on day four. The high winds continued to hamper our enjoyment and despite hoofing around quarries, cliffs and headlands we could turn up no more than a few 'interesting' Redpolls.

Yellow-browed Warbler, Trondavoe, 8th October

Scaup, Loch of Spiggie, 9th October

Goldeneye, Loch of Spiggie, 9th October

Pied Wagtail, Scouseborough Sands, 9th October

I say interesting because the boys would agonise for hours in the evenings over the racial identity of various individuals, checking the finer points of plumage and structure. Fortunately for me, being a bit of an ignoramus, I didn't have to worry my pretty little head with such weighty matters and could just enjoy the close views as they clung on to branches in front of our faces in the continuing strong winds.