My annual birding week to the Isles of Scilly this October, was to be my 28th year in succession. Unfortunately it turned out to be one of the worst weeks I can remember for seeing and finding rare birds. It didn't help that very few birders were on the islands on what has been traditionally recognised as THE week and very few semi-rare birds to look at, let alone any major vagrants. A mixed bag of weather with wind directions mainly from the south, made little difference. Best vagrant bird of the week was a North American Sora Rail on the Great Pool on Tresco and […]

FAR REALLY ISN'T FAR  – Shetland, one of the greatest places in the UK for discovering rare birds. This year and the same crew, we continued with our previous format – A week on Unst, generally looking for our own birds, mixed with a little twitching here and there. Aberdeen Harbour – Friday evening 20th September 2013. After some birding at Blackdog, Aberdeen, in the late afternoon sunshine, I managed to find a drake Surf Scoter and we also had several Velvet Scoter amongst the large raft of Common Scoter. Numerous Red-throated Diver and Eider and a single Arctic Skua. Not a bad start. We left Aberdeen […]