Lets twitch again - Shetland Day 3

With a day of hard-core, dirty twitching planned we were up and out at the crack of 8 AM. First big decision was whether to pop back to the beaches at Rerwick and check if the Buff-bellied Pipit had stayed or head straight North for Spotted Sand and Surf Scoter. Steve was driving and decided that we should make the effort for the Pipit.

Steve searching the beach

After checking the southern beach, only to find a few Rock Pipits, Si and Steve decided to stop and take the short, but steep, route to the northern beach. Being a lazy git, I decided to stay with the car and 'check the roadside'...10 minutes later and after some mild communication issues, I was running down the steep hill with Steve's scope and digiscoping gear - Steve had relocated the Buff-bellied Pipit on the beach. The Pipit was suitably grilled and digiscoped and we were off again feeling very smug.

Buffy

After a lung bursting climb back up to the car and about a mile down the road, we stopped to check a large flock of House Sparrows and Twite. A few moments of pishing from the car produced a Siskin from the roadside ditch by the car. Steve also got the opportunity to engage in his fetish for ringed birds, with a couple of neck-ringed Greylag Geese here. Despite mine and Si's best flushing techniques, we couldn't muster up anything better than Mipits and Skylarks in the surrounding fields.

Collard Geese

A drive-by Merlin provided some entertainment on the drive North to Voe and the promise of more birds from the US of A. Things started off badly with no sign of the Spotted Sandpiper and we then completely failed to find any Eider for the Surf Scoter to hide in. Despite this, we pressed on down a random road and stumbled upon the Eider flock...exactly where it has been for the past few days - we are just crap at following directions. Some intense searching of the 200+ Eider eventually paid off when Si found the Scoter. And an Otter swam past - which was nice.

The excitement was just too much

We then decided that we fancied seeing Blyth's Reed Warbler, so headed off to Collafirth. Well, actually we headed to the wrong Collafirth, pished at the wrong garden and only found a Robin. And a Wheatear. News of the Pechora Pipit showing on Unst had us moving North again for the ferry to Yell. A quick look at the garden near the ferry produced the expected Barred Warbler, sunning itself in the...err...sun.

A dash across Yell left us missing the next ferry by moments, so with 30 minutes to kill we looked for more migrants and found none. The Bonxies were nice though. After the short crossing we were off up Unst. A Peregrine was a nice surprise before we arrived at Norwick.

We joined a small crowd of birders and photographers around the most obliging Arctic Redpoll I have ever seen. It was so close that it took me a few minutes to think to actually use my bins! Despite this, it was clearly too far away, with the wrong light etc. so I completely failed to get any images...then it flew to sit in a dead tree with a 'Greenland' Redpoll. Nice. After it flew again, I headed back to where we first saw it and Steve and I had the Hornmann's Redpoll to ourselves...a stunning bird showing stunningly well...and even I managed a couple of nice images.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Who's the bald git?

Phone-scoping masterclass by Steve

Steve then found a Wood Warbler which showed well to a few inches, mainly because it was dead.

Resting, stunned or pining for the fjords?

With another Blyth's Reed Warbler available to dip, we were off again, mainly in the wrong direction. Luckily we realised before we fell off the end of the UK at Hermaness. A couple of u-turns later we stumbled upon the plantation we were looking for.

Let the warbler-fest begin.

Steve quickly located the YB Warbler with a Willow Warbler in support. I joined him and we added a male Blackcap and an unidentified warbler that looked as if a cat had been sucking it's head. I then picked up another warbler moving along the back edge - brown, long tailed with a Reed Warbler head. I didn't see the all-important primaries...and Steve didn't see it at all.

After about an hour of 'careful and quiet observation from the marked paths', we had managed to see the following:

- 2 Goldcrest
- 1Yellow-browed Warbler
- 2 Blackcap (male and female)
- 2 Willow Warbler
- 1 Chiffchaff
- 1 Whitethroat
- 1 Warbler sp (with ragged head)
- 1 Blyth's Reed Warbler (Mark - head and tail, Si - call, primaries and tail, Steve - primaries and tail).

Which totals up to more warblers than the rest of the 3 days put together!

Of course, this time spent piecing together the Blyth's meant that we arrived at the ferry just as it left...leaving us with a 30 minute wait for the next ferry that goes via Fetlar - i.e. a 1 hour journey instead of 5 minutes. We then made good time to get the 20:40 from Yell to mainland and finished off the day with fish and chips showing well in Lerwick.

Maybe we'll actually go out to find our own birds tomorrow...

Fishy end to the day

Stealth birding techniques