Shetland Day 5: Atonement

After ditching the rest of the team and twitching Unst (unsuccessfully) the previous day, it was time to serve penance on 6th October with some proper bird-finding, back under the wing of Bradders Birding Tours. We combed the Hoswick area after breakfast (an Otter in the bay was the highlight), checked out some farmland and wet meadows near Brake (best of which were 3 Jack Snipe and a Merlin) but baulked at the mighty iris beds of Quendale in favour of scoping the bay (Great Northern and Red-throated Diver were seen) and visiting the tiny shop at the Mill. Next stop was Geosetter where a Pied Fly was the best we could manage.

Wheatear near Brake

Pied Flycatcher, Geosetter

Some pleasant spots then but nothing spectacular, so the team agreed on a return to Kergord to look for a Rustic Bunting. It didn't take long to locate this fairly bright individual, though photography was another matter due to its habit of staying low in the grass. At one point it got up into a pine on the shady side of the hedge, so a couple of record shots were possible for the trip album.

Rustic Bunting, Kergord

The pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow is Gary T, who lent me a lens when mine broke. Another top photographer Chris Griffin is also in shot bathing in the reflected glory! Taken at Kergord waiting for the Rusting Bunting to appear.

I said in an earlier post that BBT rarely goes back for seconds but the rest of the team, aware of my eagerness to see a White-billed Diver in summer plumage, took pity on me and agreed to a return trip to the Nesting/Skellister area to relocate the bird they had seen the previous day - a generous gesture as it was I who had briefly 'quit the band' after all.

Whooper Swan (adult)

Whooper Swan (juv)

It didn't take long to do so, and we enjoyed good scope views as this parsnip-billed monster fished in the sunlight. With Great Northern, Black-throated and Red-throated Diver present, I think it was the fist time I had seen all four species in the same day, let alone in the same bay. Harbour Porpoises were also in the bay along with the usual Tysties gleaming from a distance.

Phone panorama with Howard overlooking the Bay of Scouseborough

Merlin, Skellister

Last stop was Lunna, scene of a bit of a Melodious/Icterine confusion moment on our last trip, where a Dusky Warbler had been reported earlier. We arrived to the depressing sight of birders wandering aimlessly in the rain but while all bar one of them eventually got bored and left, we stuck around and split up. I had neither found nor relocated anything better than a couple of Otter all week and was beginning to feel like a bit of a passenger in the team, who were some way from me when I heard the unmistakable call of a Dusky Warbler. 

Shetland sunset

It was so clear and close that I thought it might have been the remaining birder, who was just around the corner of a small plantation out of view, playing a tape - but when I reached the corner he was still a good way away. The Warbler then broke cover and flew to some dead dock plants where I could keep an eye on it as I radioed the others and they scurried up to my position. We all got views of the bird as it called again and flew back to the plantation, and I felt my re-discovery of the skulky bird had in a small way atoned for my infidelity of the day before. Dinner at Frankie's Fish & Chips capped another fine day in the field.  

Shetland day 4: D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Day 4, like day 3, dawned bright and not very breezy - a rare treat in these parts two days running - so we started with a thrash around our temporary home patch at Hoswick. A nice selection of common migrants were seen, and Jono took one for the team by putting up a Jack Snipe at the price of falling balls-deep into rancid mud. As he returned to the house to clean up, I managed to locate another Jack Snipe bobbing in the sunshine in the incongruous setting of a field full of Aylesbury type white ducks. As we watched it we chatted with Claire and Nick Oliver, who had just arrived on Shetland and were staying nearby, before re-grouping at the house and heading off in the car.

Black Guillemot, Toft

Black Guillemot, Toft

Before we got far reports started to come through of a Lanceolated Warbler on Unst. This was my nightmare scenario: a species notorious for being misidentified on Shetland, on an island two ferry rides away, which the other three in the team had already seen and would thus be less inclined to take a punt on. Any potential tension over this predicament soon dissipated however, when Claire and Nick offered a lift to Unst to anyone wanting to go for the Lancy. 

Spotted Flycatcher, Hoswick

Jack Snipe, Hoswick

I really didn't want to leave the team, but Lancy was high on my 'most wanted' list, and after two previous Shetland trips without success, I felt I had to go for it. So we arranged to meet the Olivers in a lay-by and initiated divorce proceedings. There was no bitterness or acrimony as the paperwork went through, in fact it was all very civilised. But I'm sure I saw a tear in one of the team's eyes as I popped my satchel into the leather back-seats of my adopted folks' Range Rover. Perhaps in hindsight it was just jealousy at the fancier ride I was hitching, but I like to think not.

A poor year for Yellow-browed Warblers on Shetland - and this shocker at Gutcher was the only photo I managed!

And speaking of shocking photos, this one of the Ring-necked Duck on Yell made the other members of the BBT team extremely jealous 

The report of the Lancy sounded pretty definitive, but I had learnt from previous bitter experience that such reports could quickly evaporate as a result of misidentification. Memories resurfaced of one particularly grim scenario in a rain-swept Quendale with birders chasing a 'Lancy' around which turned out to be a very wet Chiffchaff. As we boarded the first ferry from Mainland to Yell, news came through that the bird hadn't been seen since the original report - not great, but not terrible either as this ground-dwelling species could easily go missing for such a time. We were then approached by another birder, Phil, who couldn't get a space on the ferry from Yell to Unst, so joined our make-shift crew in the hope that the Lancy would reappear.

Bluethroat, Quoys

Bluethroat, Quoys

We had a few minutes to spare before catching the Yell-Unst ferry, enough to stop by a loch on the main drag to tick a distant Ring-necked Duck. But just as we were about to board the ferry, the worst case scenario unfolded: news reached us that the 'Lancy' had been reidentified as the much commoner Grasshopper Warbler. 

Bluethroat, Quoys

Bluethroat, Quoys

My eye started to twitch like Herbert Lom in the Pink Panther films at this point, but we quickly concluded that we had passed the point of no return and pressed on to Unst. We didn't even bother to seek out the Gropper site and headed straight for a quarry at Quoys where a Bluethroat had been reported. An hour's kicking around produced nothing and then Phil managed to deduce that the dropped pin we had made for based on the Birdguides app had been dropped in the wrong place, and we were looking in the wrong quarry!

Bluethroat, Quoys

Bluethroat, Quoys

Heading a mile back down the road we quickly found the correct spot and within minutes had located the Bluethroat. This normally shy species first appeared at the back of the quarry hopping around a rusty manger, but then to our surprise and delight it started to head in our direction, and kept coming until it was barely a few metres away. A characterful bird, it completely saved the day with such a performance, and significantly lifted our spirits for the rest of the trip to Unst. 

Little Bunting, Gutcher

Little Bunting, Gutcher

On the way over whilst waiting for the Yell-Unst ferry we had seen a Yellow-browed Warbler in the last garden before the slipway, but were unable to locate a Little Bunting being looked for by Yell resident Adrian Kettle. On the way back Adrian was still staking out the same garden and got us onto the Little Bunting with plenty of time to get the final ferry of the day back from Yell to Mainland. 

In the meantime I had, of course, missed a belter of a day with BBT. Bradders had found a Radde's Warbler at Kergord, and Jono had picked up an adult White-billed Diver at South Nesting, plugging the gap on his trip list as he was absent when we saw one on the Northumberland coast on the way north. The Olivers were keen to catch up with at least one of these before dusk so we headed for the Radde's and managed fleeting views as it skulked in the long grass.

We returned to Hoswick and I was reunited with the rest of the team just before the decree nisi was pronounced. We patched things up over dinner and agreed never to speak of my unfaithfulness again. As for the Lancy, well that goes into the 'good reasons to keep going back to Shetland in Autumn' category for another year... 

 

Shetland day 3: an audience with the Rev of Brae

Day 3 of our Shetland adventure began with a return to East Burra to meet up with Gary T for The Ceremonial Loaning Of The Spare Lens. Say what you like about the birding community, but there are some generous folk within it and Gary is one of them - not many people would lend a delicate £1500 piece of kit to a relative stranger without some kind of collateral! I handled the new lens with appropriate reverence, and was keen to try it out straight away. 

Red-breasted Flycatcher

The opportunity arose quicker than expected as we headed towards Loch of Tingwall to find news of a Red-breasted Flycatcher breaking literally around the corner. Cliff Smith, the Crocs-sporting finder, seemed quite alarmed when we rolled out of the Volvo as his finger was still hovering over the 'send' button on his message to the Shetland '21 Whatsapp Group. The RB Fly was a lovely show-off, being joined by an equally bold Spotted Flycatcher, and a more bashful Redstart along the same fence line.

A classic Shetland species in lovely dappled light

Some pleasant mooching around a few sites in balmy conditions followed, producing only common migrants and a Yellow-browed Warbler. Our intention was to bash previously unbashed bushes and find our own rarities, but news of a Red-eyed Vireo, more expected on Scilly than Shetland at this time of year, proved too tempting to resist. The bird was in the extensive community woodland at Brae, and on arrival we were greeted by a sight like an arboreal zombie movie, with what seemed like a couple of hundred ashen-faced birders wandering around aimlessly among the trees in search of the 'REV'.

Alas the Flycatcher would not look my way when perched on this mossy rock

We split up and after some considerable time chasing shadows, I found myself almost in the right place at the right time when the bird sat up in a sycamore. Howard nearby could see it but I couldn't from my position, and it disappeared deep into the trees. At times like this there is only one thing for it: stick to Bradders like glue! Sure enough, within 5 minutes of joining him sat quietly in a spot where the bird had been seen a few times previously, he picked up the Vireo, got me on to it and we enjoyed our first decent view. I lined up the lens, but the bird flew as impatient birders ignored pleas not to rush towards it so no photos were possible on this occasion.

Red-breasted Flycatcher

We headed off for what we hoped would be the quieter life in Wester Quarff, only to find ourselves walking into a minefield of Shetland village politics, with some residents welcoming the visiting army of olive-clad birders at this time of year, and some most definitely not welcoming them. To the extent that they had involved the police, the council and the highways department in an attempt to deprive birders of one of the best places to leave their vehicles before wandering down the road. 

Spotted Flycatcher

At one level, it was reassuring to be reminded that, while many things divide the Scots from the English, and indeed the Shetlanders from the Scots, there is still one thing which unites us across this great United Kingdom. Namely, the ability to generate a massively disproportionate sense of outrage at that worst of all possible sins: child abduction, hate crime, inconsiderate parking. But at another level it was a bit of unnecessary unpleasantness in a place where the overwhelming majority of locals seem to welcome visitors, be they birders or otherwise.

Redstart

Anyway, we sated ourselves with distant views of a Barred Warbler in the garden which shall no longer be viewed, and I even snaffled a sighting of another Red-backed Shrike in the garden where birders remain welcome having dallied whilst the rest of the team went in search of an elusive Bluethroat next to the former car park which is now officially a 'turning circle' and therefore off limits to visiting birders.

Spot the Barred Warbler in that garden, photographed from a respectful distance!

Amazingly, by this time another Red-eyed Vireo had been found a few miles from our digs by pals of BBT and was reportedly giving outrageous views, so we bade our farewells to the bitterly divided hamlet of Wester Quarff (pop: 2), and hot-footed it to the bright lights and big city of Sandwick (pop: 200). Unfortunately by the time we got there the lights had dimmed somewhat, and the bird had appeared to head off to roost just seconds before our arrival. Still, the first 'REV' of the day had been a tick for Jono, leaving us with absolutely no choice but to return home and join him for a celebratory drink.

Pied Flycatcher

Shetland Day 2: A Real Wild One

The forecast for Sunday 3rd October was foul. Like, proper wash-out, don't-bother-getting-out-of-bed foul. But we had waited a long time for this Shetland trip, and we weren't going to let a bit of rain stop us getting out. Or wind. Maybe hail and snow, but the forecast wasn't that bad. Bacon, on the other hand, could well delay the start of the birding day...

The result of 80mph gusts forecast on Shetland on 3rd October

News of the Semi-palmated Sandpiper (on which we dipped the previous evening) being relocated near Pool of Virkie broke pretty early and gave us the shot in the arm we needed to get moving. The wind was howling but reasonable scope views could still be obtained in the prone sniper position, even if anything but the most basic record shots were a challenge. It was hanging out with a flock of Dunlin and a bright Little Stint which provided a convenient comparison.

Poor shot of the Semi-palmated Sandpiper (right) with Dunlin, Pool of Virkie

An equally poor shot of Little Stint just for comparison

From there we trundled past the tumescent windsock on the Sumburgh airstrip around to Grutness, a spot I have always enjoyed visiting since a close encounter with an American Buff-bellied Pipit a few years ago. More lying down was required here to photograph a rather windswept Wheatear on the tarmac. Jono went for a stroll in a wet area nearby, if leaning into the wind at a 45 degree angle can be classed as a stroll, and put up a Jack Snipe. I joined him in trying to relocate it and we seemed to disturb a couple of chunky passerines which flew overhead calling. 

Windswept Wheatear at Grutness

Wheatear

Speculation over the crackling radios suggested possibly one of the scarcer Buntings, but within a few minutes, hidden from my view, they sat up on the rock armour in front of the rest of the team revealing themselves to be Shorelarks. A few pics were obtained by the others but they flew before I could point my lens at them. Although a small flock of this photogenic species showed well later in the week at Scatness, the ruthless tick-machine which is Bradders Birding Tours almost never goes back for seconds - hence stealing Howard's photo for this post! 

Shorelarks at Grutness (pic by Howard Vaughan)

Buffeted by the weather we headed back to Hoswick for a brew, then Sandwick where a couple of Purple Sandpipers were trying to be invisible on the shoreline, then Wester Quarff where we hoped that both we and a fistful of rarities might find shelter. The search for them was curtailed when news broke of a Bonelli's Warbler species a short way away, back on the main road, and we re-traced our steps to connect with it after a mercifully brief wait. Had it been an Eastern Bonelli's, it would have been a tick for two of us - but after a day of silent teasing it eventually called to reveal itself as Western - still a good bird, but no cigar.

Otter at Grutness

Purple Sandpiper at Sandwick

The twitch at the Bonelli's was the biggest we had seen all week, and freaked out by the crowd and the awful prospect of having to *socialise* we made our excuses and left to check out a few other sites, the best of which was Fladdibister, where Howard kicked up a Little Bunting which the rest of us missed. 

Western Bonelli's Warbler

Surely showing it facing the other way makes it an Eastern Bonelli's Warbler?

The hour was getting late, and the promise of Sunday roast - yours truly's main contribution to the culinary week - was calling. Fighting 50mph winds all day was by now taking its toll and when Bradders proposed one last stop at Orcaquoy in the near darkness for a Red-breasted Flycatcher, I confess to whining like a 6 year old who just wanted to get home before C-Beebies finished for the day. But I was persuaded to head once more unto the breach and, Bradders being Bradders, only went and booted up an Olive-backed Pipit on to a garden wall!

Loving those cotton white underparts

With our driver having scored another good find we were finally allowed home for some dinner and a well-deserved ale. Given that the day had been a potential write-off, the team had done pretty well. At a personal level there was some trauma, however, in discovering that what appeared to be an intermittent fault with my lens discovered whilst papping the pipit had now become permanent. Photographically, the trip was potentially over before it had barely begun and I sulked and burnt dinner until the offer of a loan of a spare by top bird photographer Gary Thoburn saved the day. We arranged to meet up the following morning so I could collect it, and I slept the sleep of the just. 

A wall-creeper, not a Wallcreeper: Olive-backed Pipit, Orcaquoy

OBP - another top find for BBT

Shetland Day 1: No Time To Dip

After a mercifully smooth overnight crossing to Lerwick, our first day on Shetland (Saturday 2nd October) started with the customary hearty breakfast, after which we were itching for some twitching of the excellent selection of rarities in relatively close proximity around the central portion of Mainland.

Red-backed Shrike, East Burra

Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

Breaking ourselves in gently with a distant King Eider scoped at Girlsta and a Great White Egret ticked almost without stopping at Sand Water, we made our way to Lower Voe. Here a Red-breasted Flycatcher dodged the raindrops as Goosanders, Mergansers, Razorbills and Tysties fished in the sea loch. Shetland planners appear to have been asleep at the wheel when approving many of its settlements but Lower Voe isn't one of them: an attractive village in a stunning location, with plenty of cover for birds to skulk in.

Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

Hopes of a two-Shrike day were then fulfilled with a Woodchat showing (eventually) at Aith, and a Red-backed Shrike performing (eventually) at East Burra. Whilst waiting for the latter, our team's top sniffer dogs Bradders and Howard came up trumps by relocating an Arctic Redpoll which had been seen only briefly earlier that day.

Red-backed Shrike

Red-breasted Flycatcher, Lower Voe

Razorbill, Lower Voe

Views and photos enabled an identification as Hornemann's, and I was fortunate enough to capture a definitive fluffy white butt-shot through a very narrow gap in which it was showing, but only by almost balancing my lens on another birder's head, such was the acuteness of the viewing angle.

Woodchat Shrike, Aith

Woodchat Shrike, Aith

Woodchat Shrike, Aith

Our penultimate stop of the day was at Noss, where an Eastern Yellow Wagtail showed immediately on arrival, and although mobile I was able to get some respectable photos after a bit of ungainly jogging up the road to catch up with it. This was all proving too easy, but a report of a Semi-palmated Sandpiper at Pool of Virkie brought us back down to earth by being absent not just from the beach where it was first found but from another small pool to which it had later relocated. 

Red-backed Shrike, East Burra

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll, East Burra

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll, East Burra

Further frustration was provided courtesy of an unfortunate birder who had driven into a ditch blocking our exit from the pool and creating my first even Shetland traffic jam. We did the decent thing and helped push him out, and although it was our first dip of the trip there were no complaints: it had been a cracking first day with a haul or rarities that only Shetland could produce.

Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Noss

The Eastern Yellow Wagtail gave a buzzy call and showed a long hind-claw

Oh go on then - one more of that lovely Shrike

(With thanks John Stobart for the idea for the blog post title, inspired by a Bond movie tweet last week.)