SHETLAND 2013

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 on the evening ferry to Lerwick on 20th September. A smooth crossing, arriving in Lerwick around 0700hrs 21st September. After breakfast at the Co-op, great value at £4.00 and shopping at Tesco, we set off for Unst. After two inter-island Ferry crossings, we arrived at our croft around mid-day. Car emptied and birding our local patch shortly after – home from home.. Weather promising for the week, what would be in store ?

Welcome to "The Island Above All Others" – Unst.

We found a single Yellow-browed Warbler, Willow Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat in a single bush at the Gutcher Ferry Terminal and little did we know at the time but this Yellow-browed Warbler was to be the start of witnessing a major arrival of these tiny little Siberian warblers. Other highlights were an Otter at Toft Ferry Terminal and on Unst another 2 Yellow-browed Warbler, Common Rosefinch and a Long-eared Owl at Valyie, (pronounced Veeley) rounded off the first day.

Yellow-browed Warbler – Valyie, Unst. – Tony Davison©

22nd September 2013 – Unst – Highlight of the day was finding a juvenile Two-barred Crossbill at Valyie. Quiet a stunning little bird. Richard first heard a distinctive soft trumpet like call from the bushes at Valyie and very shortly afterwards we found the bird sat in a large Hawthorn bush. The bird quickly departed with two Twite but fortunately reappeared on wires and then dropped into the Tattie Field at Valyie, giving excellent views. Other highlights – 5 Yellow-browed Warbler; 1 Barred Warbler; 2 Common (Mealy) Redpoll; the discovery at Skaw of an absolute breath taking single flock of between 500-700 Snow Bunting; Common Crane (long staying injured bird); Common Rosefinch; 9 Willow Warbler; 2 Garden Warbler and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. 

Above two – Juvenile Two-barred Crossbill – Valyie 22nd September 2013 – Tony Davison©

Part of the incredible flock of Snow Buntings that gathered in fields at Skaw and swelled to around 2000 birds by the 24th September – Tony Davison©

Above two images – Twite – Skaw, Unst – Tony Davison©

23rd September 2013 – Unst – Bird of the day for me was relocating a Blyth's Reed Warbler at Norwick. A notoriously difficult bird to ID in the field, as they are usually so skulking as this individual proved to be. The Two-barred Crossbill was re-located at Skaw and proved to be a popular bird. Around late morning all hell broke loose, as the North American Baltimore Oriole was re-located at the Halligarth Plantation. This bird had gone missing for nearly four days. After a three hour stint, we managed to see numerous but brief flight views of this attractive bird but most of the time it was skulking in the deep cover of rose bushes much to the frustration of many visiting birers. Thank goodness it wasn't a lifer…  Other highlights of the day –  we had 3 more Yellow-browed Warbler; 2 Common Rosefinch; 15 Common Redpoll; Whinchat; Spotted Flycatcher; Long-eared Owl (same bird at Valyie); numerous Twite; 4 Willow Warbler; Lesser Whitethroat; Common Whitethroat and a Turtle Dove.

Above 5 Images – Blyth's Reed Warbler – Norwick, 23rd September 2013 – Tony Davison©

All the key ID features can be seen on this bird – Uniform brown wings; short primary projection; slightly paler edges to flight feathers are obviously brown; Uniform tertials, with at most faint dark centres are the same colour as the rest of the wing; the supercillium appears to be concentrated in between the base of the bill and in front of the eye and extends only marginally behind the eye; underparts are whitish with a greyish-brown wash to the flanks; a long slender bill with a fine tip and lower mandible shows a faint dark tip; leg colour appeared greyish-brown

Common Rosefinch – Norwick 23rd September 2013 – Tony Davison©

Skaw, Unst – Tony Davison©

Above two – Juvenile Two-barred Crossbill – Skaw, Unst – 23rd September 2013 – Tony Davison©

Common Redpoll – probably an Icelandic race – this bird shows a large white streaky rump and heavy streaking on the flanks, eliminating Arctic Redpoll – Tony Davison©

Above three images – Yellow-browed Warbler – Norwick, Unst – Tony Davison©

Spotted Flycatcher – Norwick, Unst – 23rd September 2013 – Tony Davison©

24th September 2013 – Unst – The day of the Snow Bunting – At Skaw the Snow Bunting flock had increased to an incredible flock of between 1500 – 2000 birds – one of the most spectacular birding sights I have ever seen. Also at Skaw around 30+ Raven and several large flocks of Grey Lag Geese. At Lund a Red-breasted Flycatcher was small compensation for missing an Arctic Warbler, present the previous day and 2 Slavonian Grebes on the sea with a Red-breasted Merganser. Two superb Otters at Uyeasound and a single Whooper Swan. Three more Yellow-browed Warbler; 2 Blackcap and the first Redwing.

Skaw, Unst – Tony Davison©

Above 5 Images – Snow Bunting Fest – Skaw – 24th September 2013 – Tony Davison©

Above three images – Otter – Uyeasound, Unst – Tony Davison©

Lund, Unst – Tony Davison©

25th September 2013 – Unst – The Yellow-browed invasion begins – Our day total without really trying was 12 with around 80 odd birds on the island during the day. We had the Two-barred Crossbill very briefly in the morning at Skaw but it was never seen again thereafter.A superb Icterine Warbler at Norwick along with several Garden Warbler a Lesser Whitethroat and a Yellow-browed Warbler all in the same view!  6 Common Redpoll at Clingera, Baltersound and still a few Swallow about.

Above two images – Icterine Warbler – Norwick, Unst 25th & 26th September 2013 – Tony Davison©

Common Redpoll – North Western form – Clingera, Unst – 25th September 2013 – Tony Davison©

Above two Images – Haroldswick, Unst – Tony Davison©

Above 5 images – Yellow-browed Warbler – various locations on Unst – Tony Davison©

26th September 2013 – Unst – Final day on Unst and my discovery of a stunning Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll basically made the trip for me. What a little beauty. Our day total of Yellow-browed Warbler reached 25 !! 

Above two images – Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll – Norwick area 26th September 2013 14:00hrs – Tony Davison©

Above three images – Haroldswick, Unst – Tony Davison©

Amazing what you can do when the birding goes quiet !!  Skaw, Unst – Tony Davison©

Norwick Beach, Unst – Tony Davison©

Norwick Beach, Unst – Tony Davison©

Norwick Beach, Unst – Tony Davison©

Raven – Norwick Beach, Unst – Tony Davison©

Hooded Crow – Very difficult to photograph, as they won't let you get close. This was taken from the car  – Baltersound, Unst – Tony Davison©

Dunlin – Norwick Beach, Unst – Tony Davison©

27th September 2013 – Unst – The journey home – Leaving our croft at Northdale early morning,  an Acrocephalus warbler flew across our path and in front of us into one of the small pines. After 15-20 minutes it eventually flew back across the road into the larger pine and we then began to get some brief views. The bird appeared to be a "Reed Warbler" type on the views we were getting and after a further 20-30 minutes we left the bird feeling sure it was just a Reed Warbler based on the brown tones of the rump and what appeared to be long primary projection on the brief views we managed. The bird was later trapped and ringed by two of the local Unst birders and turned out to be a Blyth's Reed Warbler. :-(( .  As I made the comment earlier, a notoriously difficult bird to nail in the field. I only wished we had spent more time with this bird before leaving Unst for Lerwick.

On leaving Unst we stopped off at Mid-Yell for a Subalpine Warbler that had been present for a number of days and was seen by many visiting birders. Over the weekend of 27-28th September it was identified as an Eastern race Subalpine Warbler based on call and tail pattern.

Unst to Yell Ferry – Tony Davison©

Mid-Yell, Yell – Tony Davison©

Above two images – Subalpine Warbler  – Tony Davison©

Yellow-browed Warbler – Mid-Yell, Yell – Tony Davison© (Our 60th Yellow-browed sighting of the week!!)

Above three images – Voe, North Mainland Shetland – Tony Davison©

Kittiwake – Toft Ferry Terminal – Tony Davison©

Lerwick from the evening Ferry to Aberdeen 26th September 2013 – Tony Davison© –  Can't wait till next year………………………………