{"id":25438,"date":"2019-10-07T10:21:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T10:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/?p=25438"},"modified":"2024-08-07T16:45:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T16:45:46","slug":"shetland-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/shetland-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Shetland 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the 21st – 28th September 2019 I made my annual birding trip north to the Shetland Isles, staying on the remote island of Unst. Our party of three had a reasonable week searching for migrants and hoping for the odd rarity to turn up.<\/p>\n

We managed to see a total of 86 species on Unst which included highlights of 13 Barnacle Geese; 6 Whooper Swan; 1 Grey Plover; 1 American Golden<\/strong> Plover<\/strong>; 1 2ndw Iceland Gull; 1 Short-toed Lark<\/strong>; 9 Yellow-browed Warbler<\/strong>; 1 Blyth’s Reed Warbler<\/strong>; 6 Siberian Lesser Whitethroat<\/strong>; 2 Red-breasted Flycatcher<\/strong>; 7 Lapland Bunting; 2 Snow Bunting; 1 Little Bunting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We found a Rush Veneer (a migrant moth from southern Europe) at Skaw and had several Red Admiral butterflies were on the wing.<\/p>\n

On our way back to the ferry terminal at Lerwick on 28th September, we stopped off at Levenwick on mainland to see an Isabelline Shrike<\/strong> which looked good for the sub-species Turkestan Shrike<\/strong>, showing all the features that are described in numerous publications, including Birding Frontiers – Challenge Series – Autumn and The Helm Guide to Bird Identification. <\/p>\n

Currently this bird has been muted to be a Daurian Shrike based on a few  features shown in photographs. The two species can be notoriously difficult to identify as there seems to be lots of overlaps in their identification features. If I had to stick my neck out, I would go for Turkestan Shrike as it shows far more features than Daurian, according to what I have read so far.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see what happens with this bird when submitted to the British Birds Rarities Committee.<\/p>\n

As I left Lerwick on the ferry in the early evening of 28th I managed to see a small pod of 4 Orca, my first British Orca and a most fitting and exciting way to end the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
American Golden Plover – Uyeasound, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
American Golden Plover – Uyeasound, Unst<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Little Bunting – Baltasound, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Little Bunting – Baltasoiund, Unst <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Red-breasted Flycatcher – Doctors Garden, Baltasound, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Red-breasted Flycatcher – Doctors Garden, Baltasound, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Short-toed Lark – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Yellow-browed Warbler – Northdale, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Yellow-browed Warbler – Northdale, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Snow Bunting – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Snow Bunting – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Snow Bunting – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lapland Bunting – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Turnstone – Norwick, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Skylark – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sanderling – Skaw, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sanderling – Skaw, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sanderling – Skaw, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Redstart – Valyie, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pied Flycatcher – Clingera, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Baltasound, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Skaw, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Muness, Unst <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Gannets in the Storm – Skaw, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Gannet – Lamba Ness, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Common Seal – Haroldswick, Unst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the 21st – 28th September 2019 I made my annual birding trip north to the Shetland Isles, staying on the remote island of Unst. Our party of three had a reasonable week searching for migrants and hoping for the odd rarity to turn up. We managed to see a total of 86 species on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,654],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-birdsof2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}