Shetland- birding 60 degrees North.

Just had a great few days birding Shetland with some of my birding friends from the Scottish Highlands- Al Mcnee, Bob Swann, Richard Rafe and Peter Stronach. After initially twitching the amazingly tame Long-billed dowitcher just north of Burravoe, we decided to go and search for our own birds as opposed to just twitching the 'big' arrivals. It is probably a little early for the main event with regards to migration, although we met with varying degrees of success, clocking up two western Bonelli's warblers including a group 'self found' at Sumburgh. Other birds found included a red-backed shrike, six or so yellow-browed warblers, a couple of barred warblers and a number of pied flycatchers. A gropper found in a bed of nettles at Sumburgh initially had everyone's pulse racing! The Sumburgh Bonelli's was very interesting as we had initially tried to find the elusive booted warbler. Once again a pale warbler was encountered in awful light and in wet conditions and following fleeting glimpses of the bird in flight, it took the more senior and capable birders of the group some effort in deciding that the bird was a Bonelli's sp. and not the booted! Amazingly in the low- light and wet conditions no greenish hues could be seen although photos. of the bird showed otherwise! It was finally confirmed as a western Bonelli's after it was trapped, ringed and processed by some of Shetlands' finest. We later saw another western Bonelli's at Burrafirth and the good light conditions made that identification far more straightforward- especially as it had been previously found and identified by top, local birder, Brydon Thomason of Shetland nature. Hearing this bird call was a useful learning process for me. Of course, with some very challenging conditions we did not get everything our own way and dipped Pallid harrier, Booted and Eastern Olivaceous warblers but we also managed to accumulate a trip list of 97 species over our four days including marsh harrier, little stint, garganey, ruff, lapland bunting, red-breasted fly, common rosefinch, lesser whitethroat and jack snipe. A great trip North! I'm going back up in a couple of weeks with Shetland Nature and can't wait!

I have put a couple of phots. below comparing 'our' Western Bonelli's in the awful conditions with the one we later saw on Unst, showing the obvious effect good light conditions can have on the same species.

Western Bonelli's at Burrafirth

Western Bonelli's at Sumburgh

Long-billed dowitcher near Burravoe

Red-backed shrike, Sandgarth.

Grasshopper warbler, Sumburgh.

Yellow-browed warbler, Isbister. 

Torness Booted warbler- fieldcraft lessons for 'twitchy twitchers'

A few days ago I twitched the Booted warbler and Siberian stonechat at Torness point power station. Having picked up Bob Swann in Dingwall we drove down the A9 to Aviemore, where we swapped cars allowing Peter Stronach to drive the rest of the journey. We arrived about 08:50- birds were moving, the light was ok and as we drove down the approach road to the visitor centre a number of birders could be seen wandering about- not good as no one appeared to be actually on either bird. However, having parked up and exited the car, a quick sweep of the nearest sycamore revealed a few birds flitting about- a robin, a dunnock and the Bootted warbler! Although views were brief and against the light they could be classed as 'tickable' if things did not improve. Slight removal of 'twitch pressure'! After an hour of searching for it again without success, we moved off to get crippling views of the Siberian stonechat. The wee bird was incredibly tame and often approached us as if it thought we were a herd of animals flushing up insects. We returned for excellent, albeit brief views of the Booted warbler. The bird was incredibly cryptic and slow- moving amongst sycamore leaves and often proved to be very elusive- but all that was needed to get on the bird were half decent fieldcraft skills- i.e. get the sun at your back, work the habitat slowly and methodically and check everything that moves whilst keeping the noise down and not getting too close to the favoured habitat - it's not rocket science!! Anyway, as obvious as good fieldcraft skills are, they were  proving increasingly difficult for a growing number of frantic birders who started to try and chase the bird down- not a good plan as it only made the bird more difficult to pin down in an orderly and 'bird friendly' way. It also flushed every other bird on site so then all the sycamores had to be checked through again to rule out the agitated robins, dunnocks, gold crests, brambling etc. If it wasn't so irritating for the rest of the 'informed' birders on site it would be laughable! As if to prove a point Bob, Peter and I relocated the bird several times by using said fieldcraft skills, whilst the 'adrenalised twitchers' failed miserably. We did of course put them onto the bird on each occasion. It was also pertinent to note that some very well respected 'known' birders, all drifted away when the nonsense began- they all recognised that the bird was in danger of being flushed off and that 'good views' would not be attained again.  Enough said. Record shots duly taken and happy faces all round! 

Booted warbler

Siberian stonechat

American Robin- South Uist

I have had a good spell of time in the field over the past couple of weeks. As per usual my local patches have produced nothing outrageous, but I have had some fun putting together a number of BTO bird track lists. Great northern divers, woodcock and a merlin have been the nicest birds locally. Slightly further afield I went on a mini twitch to Findhorn in order to see little egret and green sandpiper. Although not great rarities these are difficult species to catch up with in the north of Scotland and indeed both of these birds were 'ticks' for my fledgling 'Scottish list'.

On a similar note, although I saw an American robin a decade ago at Godrevy, Cornwall, the chance to get one on my Scottish list required a trip to the outer hebrides. This is rather arduous at this time of the year with short days, poor light generally and the need to undertake an overnight stay due to the infrequent ferry crossings. Anyway, if birding was too easy I would have seen every species by now and probably feel totally bored with the whole twitching scene!

Having teamed up with fellow Ullapool birder Richard Rafe and BTO (Scotland) atlas guru Bob Swann, we undertook the drive to Uig, Isle of Skye for the ferry to Loch Maddy, North Uist.

American robin on a very dull day.

I got onto two late Leach's petrels on the way over which was rather surprising and we had good views of a white-tailed eagle at Loch Maddy. An hour later we were fortunate to pick up the American robin from the car as we pulled up at the site! We then enjoyed good views of the bird before it was flushed by a kestrel. With an hour of 'daylight' left, we moved over to Ardvule point for good views of sanderling, another white-tailed eagle, peregrine, snipe, turnstone and 60 or so purple sandpipers. 

The following morning after a night in b n b, we had a look for the female lesser scaup at Ard Mhor. Again the light was poor and the bird was rather distant but we eventually got the key ID features sorted as it fed with a flock of tufted duck and widgeon. With only another 90 minutes or so before the return ferry crossing we quickly covered a few more coastal sites and picked up long-tailed duck, grey plover, gadwall, pintail and several great northern divers. After boarding the ferry we were treated to a very unseasonal manx shearwater and on our approach to Uig another pair of white-tailed eagles were seen interacting below a large cliff face. Now it is bag packing time again as I head off for my next bout of sea time. 

lesser scaup- honestly!

Bob and Richard enjoying a very uncrowded American robin twitch!!