This is my third visit to Shetland, but the first trip during the Summer months and it is simply fantastic. Shetland at this time of year is all about the breeding waders and seabirds and staying on Fetlar is a real privilege. It feels almost uninhabited (the population is currently around 50) with birds nesting everywhere and it is great to see so many breeding waders doing so well, the exception being Whimbrel which has severely declined.
I have managed time for birding before and after surveys and have found a few scarce migrants including RB Shrike, Icterine Warbler and Marsh Warbler. Sadly did not find the Swainson's Thrush! I was birding my adopted local patch that morning, the Houbie Burn. I could see some birders peering into a garden in the distance. After having birded the burn, I went to speak to them and they had just clinched the id after having first seen the bird at around 9.30pm the previous night! Nice group of guys from Oxford who found it and to be fair, the bird may well have never been found unless they had been staying in the B&B which overlooked the very dense and inaccessible garden the bird was hiding in.
The weather has been very cold not getting above 7-8 degrees the first few days and is still pretty chilly now, but still loving it. Birds still seem to be turning up too. Eye-browed Thrush on nearby Whalsay yesterday! More surveys still to do, but shall keep looking......
Here are a few highlights from the trip so far...
 |
| The view from our accommodation on Fetlar |
 |
| Tresta Beach from Lamb Hoga |
 |
| Spotted Flycatcher, Houbie Burn, Fetlar |
 |
| Common Chiffchaff, Skaw, Unst |
 |
| Shetland Wren, Houbie Burn, Fetlar |
 |
| Icterine Warbler, Houbie Burn, Fetlar |
 |
| Icterine Warbler, Houbie village sharing garden with a Swainson's Thrush |
 |
| Swainson's Thrush, Houbie, Fetlar - possibly Shetland's first Spring record |
 |
| Swainson's Thrush, Houbie, Fetlar |
 |
| Marsh Warbler, Loch of Funzie, Fetlar - This bird took a good 2 hours to pin down until I was happy with the id. It was very skulky and looked very pallid in the field, but the primary projection soon excluded the chance of anything rarer! The pale tipped primaries, leg colour, contrast in flight feathers, head shape etc. all finally led to Marsh Warbler |
 |
| Marsh Warbler, Loch of Funzie, Fetlar - amazing how different the supercilium looks in this photo! |
 |
| Light phase Arctic Skua, Fetlar |
 |
| Dark phase Arctic Skua, Unst |
 |
| Great Skua, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Arctic Tern, Fetlar |
 |
| Common Gull, Fetlar |
 |
| The inter-island ferry |
 |
| Helen at the most northerly bus stop in the UK, Unst |
 |
| Curlew Chick, Fetlar |
 |
| Dunlin, Yell |
 |
| Juvenile Lapwing, Fetlar |
 |
| Oysterctachers, Fetlar |
 |
| Golden Plover, Fetlar |
 |
| Male Red-necked Phalarope, Loch of Funzie, Fetlar - with patience this is the safest place to watch and photograph birds without causing disturbance |
 |
| Male and female Red-necked Phalaropes, Loch of Funzie, Fetlar |
 |
| Common Snipe, Fetlar |
 |
| Red-throated Divers, Loch of Funzie, Fetlar - a number of birds regularly gather on the loch to preen before returning to nest sites |
 |
| Gannet colony, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| The impressive Saito Outcrop, Hermaness, Unst - previous home of the faous Black-browed Albatross |
 |
| Gannets and Chick, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Gannets, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Squabbling Gannets, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Gannet, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Puffin, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Puffin, Hermaness, Unst |
 |
| Out Skerries from Fetlar |
 |
| Surveying in the warm Shetland summer! |
 |
| Muckle Flugga Lighthouse, Unst |
 |
| Fulmars, Fetlar |
No comments:
Post a Comment