Two years ago I teamed up with David Bradnum, James Lowen and Phil Saunders for a week long birding trip to Shetland. The 2023 ensemble was unable to go in 2024 but planned to reunite this year and, with accommodation and ferries booked some months ago, anticipation was high. As in previous years, the journey north was broken over two days with an overnight stop at a hostel in Wooler, Northumberland. The star bird of our 2023 trip was a Veery which we saw soon after disembarking the ferry at Lerwick. As we prepared to head for Shetland again in the first week of October this year, we hoped that we could repeat the feat of starting the trip with a long-staying mega, as a Siberian Thrush had already spent several days eating elderberries by a small loch on the Mainland.
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| Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 4th October |
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| Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 4th October |
A few days prior to leaving home on Saturday the 4th October, our plans were a bit fluid but a long-staying Red-tailed Shrike in Suffolk provided a focal point for them to solidify around. We had all seen this species previously, though one of us had only seen an individual for which official acceptance of the record was still pending, and none of us was opposed to seeing another, especially as this was a super-smart male. So we agreed to would meet on the cliffs at Dunwich as early as possible before finding somewhere safe to ditch cars before onward travel to Wooler. Phil was driving the first leg and kindly picked me up from Wareham, and, after a trouble free journey, we parked at Minsmere around 0830 before the short walk up to Dunwich to meet the others who, being based in East Anglia, had arrived earlier. The Shrike showed immediately and we enjoyed excellent views in the early morning sun.
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| Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 4th October |
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| Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 4th October |
The bird eventually went to ground, presumably to digest whatever prey it was stashing in its larder, providing our cue to leave. With a suitably quiet backstreet in which to leave a car located in suburban Cambridgeshire, luggage was crammed into the boot of the official vehicle of what we affectionately know as 'Bradders Birding Tours', a capacious Volvo known with equal affection as Agnetha, and we were on our way. There was not much to stop for en route to Wooler but plenty to look forward to in southern Scotland so we had an early night and prepared for an early start.
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| Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 4th October |
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| Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 4th October |
After breakfast on the road we were crossing the border in no time and heading for Musselburgh Lagoons east of Edinburgh where the main target was another long-stayer, a Marsh Sandpiper. We relocated it without difficulty on the wader scrapes before a breezy seawatch added Velvet Scoter, Little Gull and Arctic Skua to the trip list. We pressed onwards over the Firth of Forth to the Eden Estuary, where another good wader, a White-rumped Sandpiper, was seen distantly in the company of several Curlew Sandpipers just before the incoming tide pushed it to an even more distant location.
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| Marsh Sandpiper, Musselburgh, 5th October |
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| Marsh Sandpiper, Musselburgh, 5th October |
Our final stop before heading for the ferry in Aberdeen was the golden sands of Lunan Bay, where thousands of seabirds - Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck and Red-throated Diver among them - really deserved more time. We usually sail on a Friday night which is a non-stopping service but Sunday's crossing would call at Orkney, requiring an earlier departure and enabling a few hours seawatching from the deck before dusk.
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| Sooty Shearwater from the ferry, 5th October |
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| Arctic Skua from the ferry, 5th October |
Many birders had been inconvenienced by cancelled sailings due to named storm Amy on the Thursday and Friday before our sailing, and we were lucky not to be among them, but the legacy of Amy's strong winds remained. As such, the prospects for the seawatch were pretty good and while I couldn't match the success of others in picking out a Leach's Petrel, several Storm Petrel were seen along with numerous Sooty Shearwater, a couple of Arctic Skua and a Great Skua. The day was rounded off with Northlink's finest steak pie and a bottle of Corncrake ale, and we turned in early, sleeping fitfully between dreams of rare thrushes...
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| Sooty Shearwater from the ferry, 5th October |
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| Sooty Shearwater from the ferry, 5th October |
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