I started the morning birding at Fladderbister with high hopes, this is one of my favourite birding spots on Shetland and I always have great expectations when I visit this place. The winds were light north-east and it was clear with sunny spells. I spent some time birding around the village and ruins and then along the road to the south. It was slow going, in the three hours I was here I recorded an Eastern-type
Lesser Whitethroat with a sandy coloured mantle, a
Yellow-browed Warbler, five
Goldcrest, a late
Willow Warbler and 35
Redwing. I was just wandering back to the car wondering what to do next when news broke of the long-staying Snowy Owl showing on Ronas Hill in the north of the island and so, having considered it yesterday but bailing out when the news of the Lesser Grey Shrike broke, I decided to go for it today.
Eastern-type Lesser Whitethroat - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland
Chiffchaff - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland
Yellow-browed Warbler - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland
Shetland Wren - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland
I stopped at Lerwick to grab some lunch and then drove the 50 minutes or so north and then up the track to the masts on Collafirth Hill where I parked. It was then a 3 km walk north-west to an area known as The Hadd on the southern edge of Loch of the Hadd. The landscape was spectacular with wet cotton-grass bog, heather and exposed granite, it felt like the middle of nowhere. The walk produced a
Merlin and a high flying flock of around 50
Snow Bunting. Having joined up with a couple of birders it seemed like a long walk but eventually we saw a small group of other birders looking through their scopes, as we joined them I recognised Dan Houghton. Dan showed me the
Snowy Owl through his scope which was sitting on a ridge some 200m or so away in a slight heat haze and so not the best of views. This was a stunning, mainly white male, which as far as could be seen had black barring restricted to the flanks. I was back at the car for 15:45 and decided to spent the last hour or so of birdable daylight at Lower Voe. There was not a lot to be seen as the sun was off the trees and in the hour or so I was here the only bird of note was a
Spotted Flycatcher. I headed off and was back to the hotel by 17:45.
Snowy Owl - The Hadd, Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland
Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland with Yell in the distance
Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland with Yell in the distance
The Hadd and the Loch of the Hadd, Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland
This was the view point for the Snowy Owl, the bird was on the left hand most ridge - Loch of the Hadd, Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland
Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland
Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland with Yell in the distance
