Shetland - 3rd October

Its been a long time since I posted on this blog and a recent excellent trip to Shetland has inspired me to attempt to revive it. All of my records have been going into eBird and adding photos etc takes some time particularly as I have been entering four recent foreign trips, see bar to right. But anyway, here is a revival.

I was up at 03:00 and after a clear drive to Heathrow Terminal flight I had time to relax in the lounge. My flight with British Airways left on time at 07:25 and landed in an overcast and gloomy Glasgow airport at 08:50. My 10:45 flight eventually departed at around 11:00 and landed at around 12:15. Collecting my car from Bolt Car Rentals I was heading northwards at around 12:30. My first stop was at Scord where I scanned the bay here picking up my first Black Guillemot of the year. I then doubled back a little to West Voe Beach where a Velvet Scoter had been present for a couple of days but the bird was rather distant over on the Sumburgh side of the bay. I then headed north towards Lerwick where a stop at the Burn of Sound for 'Hornemann's' Arctic Redpoll produced only distant flight fews of a small flock of Common Redpoll. I then headed north through the remote and wild Shetland landscape to Hillswick in the far north of mainland. Here a Great Grey Shrike possibly of the subspecies 'homeyeri' had been present for a few days. I spent some time looking for the Shrike with no success but a couple of birders I had been chatting to while looking for the Shrike (Jake Gearty and Drew Lyness) wandering through the marsh around the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery flushed a Pechora Pipit which they managed to see briefly on the ground and managed to get a couple of flight shots. We wandered around a bit and I flushed the bird from my feet and it flew a short distance before dropping into a Yellow Iris bed. The news went out and after a small group arrived we organised a flush and saw the bird a couple more times. We then waited for the masses to arrive before several more flushes were organised and reasonable flight views were obtained. Leaving the bird after around 1.5 hours I went back to look for the Shrike once more but with no luck. At around 17:45 I headed back south to Lerwick to check into my hotel, the Lerwick Hotel.

Pechora Pipit, Hillswick - Flight views only were obtained but, as in these 

images, most of the key features were visible

eBird Checklists from the Day

Scord

West Voe Beach

Hillswick

Shetland Mainland and Unst - 6th October

The forecast was for a relatively calm and sunny day so enthusiasm levels were high and I planned to spent the day birding along the west coast from Lerwick down to Sumburgh, going to wherever my whims took me. I was at Fladderbista by 07:30 with high hopes, wandering around the village and the ruins, I saw a pair of North-western (rostrata) type Common Redpoll, a single Icelandic Redwing but virtually nothing else, it was deadly quiet. I then headed to Leebitten and birded the fields, crofts and gardens, still with optimism but after an hour I had seen no migrants and the only birds of any note being a flock of 120 Golden Plover. So, although my mind was switched on to finding something decent I doubted the day could deliver and so I had decided to head to Lerwick where two Yellow-browed Warbler had been showing alongside Loch of Clickimin, grab some supplies and then head back to Lunna where the Melodius Warbler that I had dipped a couple of days ago and a Barred warbler were present and then to bird in the northern area of the island.

Fladderbista, Mainland Shetland

Rock Dove - Fladderbista, Mainland Shetland

Rock Dove - Fladderbista, Mainland Shetland

Shetland Pony - Fladderbista, Mainland Shetland

Rock Pipit - Leebitten, Mainland Shetland

I arrived at Westerloch Drive on the west shore of  Loch of Clickimin and wandered along the road to the path around the loch edge scanning the birches where the Yellow-browed Warbler had been recorded. It was not long before I heard the distinctive, high pitched 'swee-wee' of a Yellow-browed Warbler and soon got onto the bird which was showing well feeding in birch trees. As I watched it other Yellow-browed's could be heard and there were at least two other birds from separate areas of the path calling. These are such amazing little birds and whenever I see one I marvel at the distances they must have travelled to get to the United Kingdom particularly this year when the winds have been dominated by westerlies. Having had decent views I decided to head to Tesco and get some supplies for the afternoon birding in the north but when I got back to the car news had broken of a Pechora Pipit on Unst. This bird had first been seen on 3rd October for around an hour before flying south-west not to be seen again until now. And so, I decided to head north and make my decision of Lunna or Unst at the Lunna turning. By the time I got to the Lunna turning the news was that the bird was showing and the decision was made, toe down and head north to the ferry.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Loch of Clickimin, Mainland Shetland

Yellow-browed Warbler - Loch of Clickimin, Mainland Shetland

Yellow-browed Warbler - Loch of Clickimin, Mainland Shetland

I arrived at the ferry terminal at Toft at around 12:15 to see that the next ferry was at 13:55, I contemplated whether this was a good idea, should I be birding or sitting waiting for a ferry? I chatted to other birders queued for the ferry and eventually news came through that the pipit was showing on and off and faithful to a small area. I couldn't resist, I have seen two Pechora Pipit before and both were fly-over migrating birds during at Nanhui, China this spring. The ferry arrived and the 20 minute crossing to Ulsta on Yell passed by slowly. On Yell, at high speed we drove the 17 miles across the island to Gutcher, we arrived at the ferry and waited for 10 minutes before boarding the 10 minute crossing to Belmont on Unst. Another high speed drive of 20 minutes or so we arrived at Haroldswick and quickly saw around 15 birders clearly watching or looking for the pipit. Now, I don't run for birds in the UK as most of them I have seen many times before, but for this I struck up a jog. It wasn't long before I saw the Pechora Pipit in flight, the rich dark tones, wing bars and pale mantle tramlines being evident. Over the next couple of hours I had numerous flight views and eventually got fairly fleeting views as the bird disappeared into dense cover. It was amazing how the bird frequented the densest tussocks of grass within its chosen field and largely it would land and perch briefly after flying only to disappear into the densest of grass tussocks not to be seen again. Towards 17:00 it tended to perch in the open more, seemingly coming into the open to catch the last rays of sun of the day and at one point, after it landed in deep grassland in a garden, it flew and perched on a barbed wire fence momentarily when all its plumage intricacies could be seen. I was happy with my views but would like a photo so I decided I would give it until 17:15 before calling it a day, in the last 10 minutes or so it perched atop a wall for around 10 seconds and I fired off half a dozen shots, I had obtained a slightly fuzzy shot that would remind me of the bird and the event.

Ferry to Unst from Yell

This is the site at Haroldswick, Unst that the Pechora Pipit favoured

Pechora Pipit - Haroldswick, Unst

I raced back across the island with the guys that I had met arriving at the Unst ferry at 17:25 to find that the next ferry of the island was at 17:55. Then a dash across Yell to the 18:30 ferry to mainland. I was back in the Lerwick Hotel by 19:30 pleased with the day and the decision to head to Unst.