Shetland Mainland - 8th October

What a difference in a day after yesterdays almost un-birdable conditions, the wind had dropped there were just occasional showers and all in-all it was pleasant to be out. I started by heading to Lunna to try and see the Melodius Warbler that I had dipped few days ago, I thought that, if the bird was still around it wouldn't take too long to see. Arriving at 08:30, four hours later I had achieved a fairly brief view in the Sycamore hedgerow west of Lunna Kirk and a distant view in the hedgerow to the north of Lunna House. I headed back to the car for a snack determined to get a decent view before I left, in the car park I bumped into some people, not birders, who asked 'do you know anything about birds? we just saw this bright yellow little bird hoping around on the ground in the Kirk and then it went into the tree over there'! Oh dear, I was about five minutes late. I had a snack at the car and cursed my luck. Just then a lady birdwatcher who had been watching the garden of Lunna House began waving from the skyline and I legged it up a very steep hill to eventually get decent views of the bird as it fed in Willows, Sycamore and Fuchias. Good views in the bins but a little distant for the camera, still record shots and good memories.

Melodius Warbler - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

Melodius Warbler - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

Ominous storm approaching - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

Rock Dove with a dodgy bird watering down the genes of the 

pure birds - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

I had spent some time birding Lunna and had seen little, 15 Wigeon, five Snipe, a fly-over Red-throated Diver, two Wheatear and lots of Rock Dove including a worrying number of impure birds. As I headed off I birded a few of the gardens and Voes that line the road to Lunna but saw little. But, this is a beautiful part of Shetland and I enjoyed the simple fact of being there. I pulled into a lay-by over looking Laxo Voe, across the Voe there were a handful of Wigeon, Redshank and Ringed Plover. Hooded Crows were calling aggravated behind me and I turned to see them mobbing a large white, Buzzard sized falcon - a white phase Gyr Falcon. Bloody hell! Grab camera from car take some shots. I then watched the bird as it flew north-east. My mind then had flash backs, some birders I had met the other day had seen a Gyr with jesses and zooming into my images this was clearly the same bird - bells and all, an escaped falconers bird. A quick search on the internet indicated that such a bird may sell for in the region of £10,000, someone must be very unhappy that they had lost their bird.

Escaped Gyr Falcon - Laxo, Mainland Shetland

I then headed to Lerwick, grabbed a coffee and decided to bird the Seafield area of Lerwick. The foreshore produced a Purple Sandpiper and lots of Starling, Rock Pipit, Turnstone, Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull but the bushes produced nothing. I headed to Fladdabista for the last hour or so birding, it was deadly quite, two Redwing were the only birds worthy of note and a Minke Whale passing south fairly close to shore added some interest. At 17:30 the light was fading and the birding provided diminishing returns so I headed back to my hotel.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

1st winter Herring Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

2nd winter Herring Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

3rd winter Herring Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

Purple Sandpiper - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

Rock Pipit - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

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.

Pennington Marsh - 5th and 9th March

I visited Pennington Marsh on 5th and 9th March and on both days saw much the same. Its a pretty static time of year with winter birds steadily but barely noticeably declining and very few migrants appearing. The Lapwing are now in regular display and are busy making nesting scrapes on the marsh while Black-tailed Godwit are coming into plumage and are at varying stages of turning rusty. Up to eight Ruff were present on the marshes off Lower Pennington Lane and there remain good numbers of Wigeon, Pintail, Teal and Brent Goose as well as the usual waders. There were around 400 Golden Plover on Pennington Marsh on both days, an increase in previous numbers perhaps as a result of the recent cold weather movement. On 5th I counted 34 Bar-tailed Godwit off Butts Lagoon, a higher number than usual, all were still in winter plumage. On 5th a single Spoonbill flew high to the east.

Black-tailed Godwit with summer plumage beginning to appear on head, neck and scapulars - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit with summer plumage beginning to appear on head, neck, wing coverts, tertials and scapulars - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit with summer plumage beginning to appear on tertials - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit with summer plumage beginning to appear on head, neck and scapulars - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit with very little sign of moult to summer plumage - Pennington Marsh

Ruff - Pennington Marsh

Golden Plover - Pennington Marsh

Rock Pipit - Pennington Marsh

The Mute Swan were very feisty at the marsh today with marsh territorial aggression - Pennington Marsh

I added a number of sound recordings to this post linked to uploads at the Internet Bird Collection (IBC). With the subsequent transfer of data from IBC to the Macaulay Library the links to these became broken. I have therefore subsequently uploaded these sound files to eBird and the recordings can be viewed here and here.

Cornwall - 12th-16th January

Sarah, Tobias and I had a long weekend in Cornwall at our cottage at Trowan a couple of miles west of St. Ives. The cottage is located on a spectacular stretch of coastline which is designated an AONB, it is wild, rugged and unspoilt. We were primarily down to meet builders as the cottage needs to be redecorated but at the same time we are going to reconfigure walls to change room dimensions. We also wanted to relax in front of the fire and do little after a very frantic time at Christmas and period at work. However, on Saturday 14th I met up with my good friend Nigel Wheatley and we spent the morning looking for some of the long staying Cornish rare's. I picked Nigel up from St. Just at 07:45 and we headed straight for Mousehole. The target here was an 'Eastern' Black Redstart that has been present since 18th December 2016 and is the phoenicuroides race of Black Redstart that I have not seen in the UK previously. I have however seen this race elsewhere most recently in India on 11th February 2016, see here. We arrived at the car park in half light but Nigel almost immediately picked up the bird on the path running alongside the beach. Over the next hour or so we enjoyed great views of this stunning little bird as it fed amongst the rocks on the beach. Also here were Grey Wagtail, Mediterranean Gull and despite scanning through the gull flock we failed to find the recently reported Kumlien's Gull.

There are around half a dozen accepted British records of 'Eastern' Black Redstart up to 2015. However, in 2016 there were an amazing nine records (approximately), this influx no doubt as a result of the near constant flow of easterlies during the autumn period. There are currently two wintering Eastern Black Redstart in the UK, the Mousehole bird and another at Skinningrove, Cleveland. This latter bird having been present since 27th October 2016. While there are some that advocate Eastern Black Redstart as a full species the recently published Volume 2 of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (Lynx Editions) treat this as a race of Black Redstart and although typical males are distinctive integrates between the various races occur. Maintaining one species with five races would seem the most sensible approach - unless one simply wants to bump up ones list!

1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall 

1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall 

1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall 

1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall 

Distribution of Black Redstart races,  phoenicuroides is the dull red area in central Asia (breeding range) and bright red (winter range) - From Steijn (2005), see here

Rock Pipit - Mousehole, Cornwall 

Grey Wagtail - Mousehole, Cornwall 

We then went on to Jubilee Pool to look for the Pacific Diver. We spent almost two hours scanning out to sea seeing four Velvet Scoter, 15 Common Scoter, seven Great Northern Diver and 11 Purple Sandpiper. A brief view of a Black-throated Diver was almost certainly the Pacific Diver but unfortunately the bird was lost after it dived and despite there being five birders present we could not relocate this bird. However, from the view I had there was no flank patch so it would appear to have been a good candidate for the Pacific Diver - one that got away unfortunately.

Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance

Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance

Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance

Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance

Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance

We then went onto Perranuthnoe for the Hudsonian Whimbrel. After parking at the car park we walked the coast path westwards and on arrival at Boat Cove we found the bird fairly quickly feeding among the rocks. We repositioned ourself to the west side of the cove as the light was better but unfortunately the bird flew and disappeared into the distance - still, my fifth visit and I had at last seen the bird fairly well.  Also here were five Black-throated Diver offshore, three giving cracking views, a single Great Northern Diver and a Mediterranean Gull. The Hudsonian Whimbrel was first found on 15th October 2015 on Tresco, Isles of Scilly before it moved to Marazion on 30th October, it has been present here now since then. There are 12 records of this race in Great Britain since 1975 with the Cornish bird being by far the longest staying bird although there is a general tendency for long staying birds, the next longest staying bird being the Pagham Harbour bird which was present from 9th June to 27th July 2015 2015, a total of 49 days. Again, Volume 1 of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (Lynx Editions) treat this as a subspecies of Whimbrel but identify it as a potential split, American Whimbrel.

Hudsonian Whimbrel - Perranuthnoe, Cornwall

Hudsonian Whimbrel - Perranuthnoe, Cornwall

Hudsonian Whimbrel - Perranuthnoe, Cornwall

All too soon, our morning was over and it was time to say goodbye to Nigel and head home. In the afternoon Sarah, Tobias and I walked the beach at Marazion and I spent some time scanning again for the Pacific Diver but with no luck but the light was poor. The highlights were two Velvet Scoter and a Common Eider.

On the morning of the 15th I managed a short visit to the Hayle Estuary where a Green-winged Teal has been present since 10th November hanging out with the Eurasian Teal from the B3301 causeway. On arrival I located the bird fairly quickly but during my 45 minutes there it slept for much of the time. t was not until I returned home that I noticed the bird was ringed, unfortunately, the bird was too distant to read the combination but it includes the numbers 08 and an address. Again, Volume 1 of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (Lynx Editions) treat this as a subspecies of Eurasian Teal but identify it as a potential split. Also here was a Spoonbill, four Mediterranean Gull, 12 Bar-tailed Godwit 45 Wigeon, large numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gull and a possible 1st winter Caspian Gull which  looked pretty good but  took my eye off the bird to check some characters on my Collins app and the bird had flown by the time I looked back.

Green-winged Teal - Hayle Estuary

Green-winged Teal (lower right) amongst Eurasian Teal- Hayle Estuary

Ring on the Green-winged Teal - Hayle Estuary

Eurasian Teal- Hayle Estuary

Bar-tailed Godwit - Hayle Estuary

Bar-tailed Godwit - Hayle Estuary

Oystercatcher - Hayle Estuary

Finally, on the 16th I managed to persuade Sarah to drop into Marazion for a short while to scan for the Pacific Diver. It was calm and the bird had been reported off the beach for the last couple of days. I picked up eight Great-northern Diver, five Velvet Scoter and finally, very distantly, was the Pacific Diver - even at this great distance the lack of the flank patch and the dark chin-strap could be seen. I rattled off a couple of shots, not even able to see the bird in the view finder and I ended up with one shite image of the bird.

This is the Pacific Diver or 'Pacific Thing' as Nigel called it - you have to trust me on this!! I think the throat strap is just discernible but it was far more visible in the field