The Deskbound Birder: Brambling

Showing posts with label Brambling. Show all posts

Sunday, 4 October 2020

Shetland - 3rd October

In a stiff south-east wind with occasional showers, some heavy, I began the day birding the Sumburgh Head and Grutness area. There were good numbers of migrants with Goldcrest, Blackcap and Robin seemingly in every patch of cover. At Sumburgh Farm a superb, self found, Little Bunting got the pulse racing and raised the expectations. A Lesser Whitethroat was flushed from a weedy field where there was also a small flock of Brambling. At Grutness a brief flight view of yesterday's Great Grey Shrike was a Shetland tick.

Little Bunting - Sumburgh Farm, Shetland

Brambling - Sumburgh Farm, Shetland

Goldcrest - Sumburgh Farm, Shetland

I then headed up to the headland where the Lanceolated Warbler from yesterday was still showing superbly as it fed along the wall and Goldcrest flitted in the tussocks of Red Fescue. Checking my phone there was no news of anything of great significance which was somewhat surprising given the weather conditions and so I decided to head to Rerwick near to Bigton where a Radde's Warbler was found yesterday. I gave the bird around an hour to show in its chosen tiny clump of Willow and Sycamore but there was no sign - the bird has generally been very elusive.

Goldcrest - Sumburgh Head, Shetland

Lanceolated Warbler - Sumburgh Head, Shetland

I then found myself at a bit of a loose end, my camera's electronics seemed to have completely failed and so I fiddled with this a while scanning Loch of Spiggie to add a few water birds to my trip list. There were 38 Whooper Swan present and a passage of 246 Barnacle Goose moving south overhead.

Whooper Swan - Loch of Spiggie, Shetland

I then headed to Levenwick where I birded the area around the stores, the highlight here was a Jack Snipe at the mouth of the quarry. I then headed to Hoswick Burn and worked the bushes lining the burn, here the highlight was three Yellow-browed Warbler and a female (type) Redstart. News then broke of a Siberian Stonechat on the road between Cunningsburgh and Blett and so I headed here and got rather brief and distant views. The light was now closing in and I decided to head back to Lerwick to try and sort my camera out. The day had offered so much by, generally, had failed to deliver on a significant rariety. Maybe tomorrow.

Sunday, 13 October 2019

Shetland - 12th October

I awoke at 06:15 after a good nights sleep and after breakfast I decided to head to the west coast of Shetland for an American Golden Plover and Bluethroat as well as some general birding. I started at Aith and birded the area just north of the village at North Gardie. There was a large flock of c.250 Golden Plover and it was not long before I located the American Golden Plover in the flock. The flock gave me the run around but eventually I had good views of the bird feeding alongside the road that runs north from Aith. The bird was in partial summer plumage and this, along with the grey plumage and large pale supercilium, made the bird fairly conspicuous amongst its commoner cousins. I then birded the village area seeing four Blackcap and two Brambling but little else.

Brambling (male) - Aith, Mainland Shetland

Brambling (female) - Aith, Mainland Shetland

American Golden Plover - Aith, Mainland Shetland

Aith, Mainland Shetland

News broke of a Lesser Grey Shrike on Unst and having only seen one fairly poorly in the UK (a female at Corfe River Meadows, Middlebere, 14th August 2008) I decided to go for it. The bird had been found yesterday morning but had vanished for the rest of the day resulting in many birders missing it, but today the news services suggested it was settled and showing well and so the game was on.

I headed for the ferry terminal at Toft and arrived at around 11:45, I was standing around chatting when a stunning dark morph Honey Buzzard flew over head being mobbed by Gulls. The bird was almost black and its yellow cere and legs were prominent against such a dark plumage, the flight feathers were a little paler but essentially the entire bird was black; a stunning bird. I crossed to Yell and raced across the island. At the Gutcher ferry terminal on Yell I scanned across to the small island of Linga and picked up an Otter on the grass, it was playing on the clifftop before sliding into the water. After a short wait I was on the ferry and landed on Unst at around 12:45. After a 15 minute drive across the island I arrived at Burnside at Halligarth on the east coast of the island with six other birders. The Lesser Grey Shrike showed almost immediately and over the next hour I enjoyed fantastic views, as the bird fed from walls, posts and pylons often sallying to some height in pursuit of White-tailed Bumblebees. This was a fantastic adult bird with full black forehead and a lovely apricot wash to the underparts. At the end of my stay I was alone and had the bird down to around 15m as it fed along a fence line - this was a stunning bird and well worth the trip.

Dark Phase Honey Buzzard - Toft, Mainland Shetland

Ferry crossing to Yell, Shetland

Lesser Grey Shrike (adult) - Burnside, Halligarth, Unst, Shetland

I headed off from Unst at 14:30 and was back on the mainland at around 15:30. I contemplated heading to Ronas Hill for the Snowy Owl but thought better of it as I doubted that I would get back to the car with any daylight. Instead I stopped at Loch of Voe for a Red-breasted Flycatcher which showed well in the fading light. Heading to Lerwick I stopped at the docks where I had my first Wheatear of the trip and enjoyed good views of Black Guillemot. I retired to the Lerwick Hotel at 18:00. Maybe I will try for the Snowy Owl tomorrow afternoon if its a little slow elsewhere.