With an increasing rate in Covid-19 cases in the UK during our second spike of the global pandemic and numerous cancellations of my flights by British Airways I was in two minds as to whether to cancel my trip to Shetland entirely. But, with news of the finding, on Yell, of the fifth Tennessee Warbler for the UK and the forecast of a steady stream of easterly winds my mind was made up and on the morning of the 30th I found myself at Heathrow Airport.
My flights were surprisingly all on time and I landed on a very soggy and wind swept Shetland at 15:15, and while there was just possibly time to get to Yell the Tennessee Warbler had not been seen today other than a brief possible glimpse early in the morning. I opted to bird Grutness, Pool of Virkie and Levenwick but saw little in the strong winds and driving rain. I headed to my hotel for a much needed sleep after a 03:00 start.
On 1st October I headed out into the field following breakfast, it had been very windy overnight and had rained hard right through to just before 07:00 but as I headed out the weather was calm and with the south-easterly airflow I was optimistic. I started by birding at Fladdabista but there seemed to be very few migrants around, the highlights here being a fly over Hawfinch and a Yellow-browed Warbler. Just as I got to my car and began chatting to a couple of other birders news broke of a White’s Thrush at Quendale Mill and so a mad dash ensued and I was soon looking at a rather distant British tick. The bird had been showing in the small garden near to the mill but once surrounded it, naturally, decided to fly and by the time I arrived it was perched on a pile of wood at the end of the Burn to the east. I watched it for a few minutes before it decided to distance itself further flying down the Burn not to be seen again. While driving for the Thrush news broke that the Tennessee Warbler was showing and so I headed north to Yell.
I caught the 11:45 ferry across to Yell and arriving at Burravoe at around 12:15 I was soon looking at the Tennessee Warbler. Over the next couple of hours I watched as this fantastic little bird fed within the Sycamore in its selected garden. Its usual mode of feeding seemed to be to hang upsidedown to glean beneath the leaves, when doing so its white belly was very prominent and often the easiest way to detect the bird. It was a sluggish, moving slowly and steadily through the canopy and lower levels of the Sycamore. There were at least six Yellow-browed Warbler here and occasionally the Tennessee Warbler seemed to be loosely associated with them.
As the wind increased the bird became more elusive and so I decided to make a quick dash to the north of the island where an Arctic Warbler had been present at Gutcher for a few days but in the now strong winds and heavy rain I had no luck. I headed back to the mainland with a brief stop at Voe, where I saw little, before heading to my hotel in Lerwick.
There are four previous records of Tennessee Warbler in the UK as follows:
- 1995 - 20th September - Hirta, St Kilda.
- 1982 - 5th-7th September - Holm, Mainland, Orkney (trapped)
- 1975 - 24th September - Fair Isle, Shetland (trapped)
- 1975 - 6th to 20th September - Fair Isle, Shetland (trapped)
My eBird post for Fladdabist can be seen here and for Burravoe here. There are a few additional photographs of the Tennessee Warbler in the latter list.
