October 28, 2004
At least our birds are in good health
Excellent views of 7 Waxwings today driving through Haggersta (that's an eats shoots and leaves sort of sentance isn't it? Bizarre mental image of joyriding Waxwings drunk on berries...). Anyway, you know what I mean. One minute driving along the road minding my own business, the next minute with a Waxwing flying alongside me not six feet from the drivers window, leading a flock of half a dozen others in a kamikaze-style dash along the main road heading for oncoming traffic.
One of the world's best ever insurance claims ("Seven Waxwings flew through my windscreen, so I crashed the car...") was averted when they peeled off at the last minute and settled in a small garden. V relieved for them, though just slightly shamefully wistful (how cool would a stuffed Waxwing be to have in your study?!).
So much for my carping about never finding my own Waxwings. Must start complaining about not finding my own Long-tailed Shrikes and see if this tenous theory holds.
Staggering amount of rumourmongering going on about the Done-in (the) Ovenbird on Scilly. To the tune that it was trodden on/sat on/hit repeatedly with a stick until it gave crippled views to all present. I wonder how many of the rumours were generated by those unable to get there before the weekend? Cynic!
Forget all I said about Shetland being the new Scilly next year - instead expect to see hordes of twitchers renting accomodation in Mousehole and watching their pagers expectantly for the next mega to be "found" at the bird sanctuary.
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October 27, 2004
Scilly - where rarities go to die
Okay, so this is a bit off-track given I couldn't really be further from Scilly if I tried, but can't resist this... Today seems to be a v bad day for rares on Scilly, with firstly the Cream-coloured Courser being taken to mainland Cornwall's version of The Priory for distressed waders, the sanctuary at Mousehole, to be fed a recuperative diet of pasties... followed by the unfortunate Done-in (the) Ovenbird, firstly with a broken leg, then being escorted limping into care also...
Hmm, bit of a bugger for those twitchers planning on doing the Double this week. Or maybe not - perhaps the birds will be in adjacent aviaries... And none of the expense of getting to a far-away group of islands.
On the subject of which - couldn't believe my eyes reading a birder's personal website recently - the birder in question having the nerve to complain about the price of the inter-island boat fares on Scilly (the princely sum of c.£6) when so far this autumn he's twitched Purple Martin, Cream-coloured Courser, Yellow Warbler and finally Chestnut-eared Bunting (and for all I know tried for the Rufous-tailed Robin and Ovenbird)... all off-mainland, so each an impressively expensive trip in its own right, and a monument to one birder's desire to build a substantial list. Okay, each to their own, but when you're spending hundreds (thousands?)of pounds in what's ultimately a fairly selfish pursuit, don't criticise the locals for trying to make a modest living. Good grief.
Would provide a link to this site so others can be equally astounded, but hey, life's too short. However (he said cryptically) I can tell the difference between a Redwing and Rose-breasted Grosbeak...
Not so it seems Our Own Correspondent in the Shetland Times - a tremendous typo recently celebrating the early autumn and our recent rare wheatear in particular:
"A pied wagtail, a very rare vagrant which breeds in South East Europe and Asia was identified on 10th October bringing the Shetland records for this species to five."
Splendid!
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October 25, 2004
A tale of Rufous-tailed Robin
Am beginning to be ever so slightly wary of my prophetic diary entries here... after wistfully predicting that last week's weather was surely good for one last mega on Shetland (and selfishly hoping it'd be on my local patch), another first for the Western Palearctic had to turn up on Saturday, a Rufous-tailed Robin. On Fair Isle.
Got two phone calls in quick succession on Saturday afternoon to break the news, one from PH and one from SM (surely the jammiest birder around this autumn - books a week on Fair Isle in October; the week just happens to produce Chestnut-eared Bunting and Rufous-tailed Robin, two outrageous firsts...). At least this time I knew about the bird in time to do something constructive about it, and in no time I was booked onto a boat charter out of Scalloway on Sunday morning. Walking the mutts last thing on Saturday night, I couldn't help but notice how still and clear it was...
The bird was initially id'd tentatively as a Hermit Thrush, so a boat-load of Shetland birders went for that on Saturday afternoon. Only to find to their incalculable glee that the bird was a confiding Rufous-tailed Robin. PH sounded pretty pleased with himself!
Got a text from SM early on Sunday with negative news - no sign of the robin. Waited with the rest of the charter in Scalloway until 10.30 for positive news before giving up and heading our respective ways. Am drawing some consolation from the fact that had I heard about the "Hermit Thrush" on Saturday I wouldn't have joined that charter, having spent a happy afternoon in October '93 watching the Tresco bird. So Rufous-tailed Robin was strictly one for the lucky few who happened to be there at the time. And that this bird will surely improve the chances of the Chestnut-eared Bunting being accepted onto Category A of the British list. And (ho ho) this is yet another up-yours to Scilly, proving once again that Shetland (and especially Fair Isle) is the place to be! Am afraid that next October Shetland will be the new Scilly, inundated with birders...
Anyhow, the above photos and others can be viewed at the FIBO site. Other photos available here.
Finally, JL turned up a nice bird nearer to home on Friday, a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling. Pity it wasn't associating with the Starlings that hang out with my chickens, but at least that's a species I'm always likely to bump into at my end of the island, given the magnetism hens exert over Starlings. Eventually managed to track it down on Saturday morning, and got some record shots:
And that's about all for now. Many winter thrushes pouring through still, also good numbers of lingering northern Bullfinches. Managed a flyover Waxwing near the house on Saturday, a pair of gorgeous Snow Buntings on Sunday afternoon, and have taken to seeding the heligoland - Pine Bunting here we come!
Follow the Weather Starling…
October 21, 2004
Whether the weather?
Am feeling suitably inspired by the weather (south-easterlies backing easterly, and dropping off conveniently by Saturday) to include a weather link on here for all those who want to know what's happening on Shetland for the next 48 hours - okay, so maybe of limited use if you're not here or planning on coming here, but the site in question seems to be as accurate a forecast as you're likely to get, and you can select your own area... See the Weather Starling down below! In fact Metcheck have been spot-on all autumn for Shetland, which is pretty impressive given how much weather we get, so can't really think of a better endorsement.
The flood of northern Bullfinches continues unabated, but it seems my Good Vomithard sighting of a Woodcock zooming south was something of an omen, as there were a couple on Fair Isle yesterday, and far more importantly, one feeding amongst my chickens yesterday afternoon. Haven't gone to the trouble of working out the croft list yet, but it must be starting to get fairly respectable. Three species of shrike goes a long way towards making up for a lack of bread-and-butter Blue Tits etc!
The current weather bodes well for one last good bird on our island, JL is off the fishing for the next few days, and best omen of all, B is away for the next week or so... If ever fate was to serve up a good bird, it must surely favour when one of the resident birders is away?!
October 20, 2004
Chestnut-eared Bunting - plus links to photos
Phew. Am back at work after one of the more heart-felt twitches I've ever done. Got a phone call on Monday evening from a local birder who hadn't been to see the Chestnut-eared Bunting, and who assured me they were in fact sedentary, or short-range migrants at best. Not having any of my bird books unpacked I was in no position to query that, but I was booked to go to Fair Isle, so no time for second thoughts.
The Good Shepherd was every bit as awful as I feared. Got a text from JL wishing me "good luck on board glorified cork". My first impressions at Grutness pier were prophetic - I'd forgotten how small the damn thing was, and I didn't like the way it was bobbing alongside the pier. I lasted about an hour (time to see a Woodcock flying south overhead) before starting to feel less than brilliant, and as the wind picked up and the sea got lumpier the Good Shepherd started to really bounce and pitch. So did my stomach. The remaining two hours of the crossing were just miserable, as I leant over the side and made seal noises for want of anything left to bring up. All the worse for the presence of T, a birder and ringer from south who spent the whole crossing on the deck with me, laughing and enjoying the ride...
I kept telling myself this was only three hours of my life, and in the overall scheme of things really didn't signify. But that didn't really make me feel significantly better, and by the time I got off the wretched boat I was shaking with cold, fingers going blue, and the retching had been replaced by hiccups.
Once again the wonderful Obs to the rescue with hot food, and feeling more human we were driven down to the south of the island. Work out of the way, Deryk the warden got us straight onto the Chestnut-eared Bunting, and reassured us there's a Ural population that are medium to long-distance migrants, so felt a lot happier again with the provenance of this ultimate Sibe. And what a bird it was - an incredible combination of subtle browns and creams. Got several good, if somewhat distant views of it on short turf before it lobbed back into the oats. No chance of getting a photo, as the south-easterly wind was by now blowing good and hard with the odd heavy shower, so not really ideal weather for birding of any kind. Made do with a habitat shot, just to prove I was there! But this is what it looked like on the deck - see this and in the hand pictures at the wonderful FIBO site.
Walked back to the Obs with three birders along the geos, which didn't oblige with a sheltering rare, but good numbers of Brambling and northern Bullfinches.
Excellent evening at the Obs with good food, plenty of beer, and excellent company. What I don't know about the sex lives of Dippers (promiscuous giant wrens!) or the migration strategies of bats (they do, but conventional wisdom has it they don't) simply isn't worth knowing! Really enjoyed being back in the Obs and getting to talk to lots of folk involved in conservation. The Bunting was nice too!
Flew out this morning, renewing my vows never to go on that boat again!!
Some excellent photos of the bunting in the field here...
October 18, 2004
Bunting hunting
Am a much happier bunny now than a few hours ago - against all the odds, I've managed to sweet-talk my way onto the already full Loganair flight back off of Fair Isle on Wednesday morning, so it's Good Shepherd out tomorrow morning (eew), overnight at the Obs, then back on the plane (hurrah!) on Wednesday.
Had surely the world's worst sea trip on the Good Shepherd in September 1995. Can remember vividly the sheer horror of watching Sooty Shearwater fly past beneath me as the boat slid sideways down the side of a huge wave. Am not ashamed to admit that I was practically weeping with relief when I got onto the pier at Fair Isle. At that moment I swore I'd never set foot on a boat again, and duly flew off of Fair Isle a few days later. Over the years that resolution has modified somewhat (well, living on an island it was always likely to!), but one thing has stayed constant and true - never, ever again the Good Shepherd. It's a measure of just how badly I want to see this bird that I'm prepared to sacrifice all I hold dear and set foot on that boat again.
On a much more positive note, the staff at Fair Isle Bird Observatory are as ever just the nicest bunch of folk you'd ever wish to meet. They're booked solid, but have found me a bed for the night in one of the staff rooms. And have promised me a lift straight to the bird when I arrive. I've not been to Fair Isle since the mid 90's, but it seems nothing's changed - still clearly the best Obs around.
Isn't it ironic?
Well, what an ironic title the last entry had, given the events of the weekend - the trapping on Fair Isle of the Western Palearctic's first Chestnut-eared Bunting. Am staggered that the birding media seem to be treating this with such caution, given weather conditions here last week and the supporting cast of eastern vagrants that have turned up with it.
I only heard about it yesterday, so no time to do anything about getting over there. Feeling slightly pissed off that I didn't know of it sooner, but can only blame myself for not checking the internet. We learn by our mistakes etc. Tried stopping at Tingwall on the way into work, but (surprise surprise) the plane today was fully booked. It's a bit galling that it'll be easier for birders from the south of England to get up here to see this than it'll be for me to make the crossing. Oh well. Am trying very hard to be philosophical about the situation.
Religiously drove the trap this morning. Nothing.
Update : Lunchtime - absolutely no joy finding any way onto Fair Isle - planes are all booked solid in and out, which leaves the Good Shepherd tomorrow - I can get out there, but can't return until the following week.
October 15, 2004
Eastern promise
Am frantic today, as winds have finally dropped away, leaving a residue of promising indicator birds on the island - a few northern Bullfinchs, Brambling, and annoyingly a text from both P and JL today to tell me of 10 Waxwings sitting on a wall below my croft. Can only hope against hope they'll stick around until I get home this afternoon.
I guess Shetland birders might be fairly cool about Waxwings, but hey, I'm from the south-west and they're dead special still for me. Plus v photogenic, and what a bird to add to my garden list... Kestrel was new last weekend, as of course was the Pied Wheatear. I really ought to figure out what the croft list is - am being sufficiently elastic with it to allow birds seen from the croft even when they're not actually on the croft. A necessary move to incorporate Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, scoped from my conservatory window last year after hours of impatient waiting. A bit desperate, but tell me hand on heart you wouldn't do the same? Well, quite!
Was really hoping that the Yellowthroat would still be at Maywick today, as I could have made a work-trip south before lunch, then dropped in on it at lunchtime. Unfortunately it seems to have been a brief stay. Hopefully it'll keep moving north-east and end up in our heligoland...
Being realistic, there should be agood chance of something respectable on the island this weekend, now the wind has eased up a bit. A week of south-easterlies in October on Shetland surely has to bring something good in? Will be spending tomorrow digging up tatties, but with more than half my attention on birds nearby - even at work today there are Redwings calling as they fly overhead, and Goldcrests on the banks outside the office. My prediction is for Black-throated Thrush - but of course secretly hoping for Siberian... there's no pleasing some people, and no limits to my optimism - but on the strength of this autumn so far, why not?!
October 13, 2004
Glaucous needle in gull haystack
Spent half an hour this lunchtime searching through the enormous amorphous swirl of gulls at Shetland Catch for something interesting, much encouraged by practically the first bird I clapped bins on, a respectable creamy-coffee young Glaucous Gull. Managed to stay with it for, oh, all of 20 seconds before it vanished into the seething mass of flying larids, and for the remaining half hour I couldn't refind it or indeed anything else worth recording. (Apart from a late Bonxie far out in the harbour).
Felt slightly churlish about gull-hunting given the splendid south-easterly spell we're having... but the wind is too strong for meaningful passerine birding, as proved by my fruitless attempts to see the Swining White's Thrush yesterday evening - gave up in disgust, defeated by failing light, drizzle, lashing vegetation, and a complete lack of skulking fat thrushes.
Originally meant to be on Foula today, but told there was a less than 50% chance of getting off again in the late afternoon... Next chance to leave would have been Friday, which would be lovely of course being marooned on such a productive island, but work and home commitments forced a reluctant decision in favour of not going. Oh well, no Yellowthroat to tempt me anyway!
Very much hoping the wind will ease off by the weekend, and there'll be a chance for one last BB on the island before the winter sets in with a vengeance.
October 11, 2004
Pied Wheatear gallery
Yet another top bird, and this one found around my house (to within a couple of feet at one happy point!). Yesterday found me doing more house renovation-type work, so was only too glad to see B's car coming slowly up the island, and stopping at the foot of the drive, apparently for a chat (ho ho).
Went down to speak to him, to be asked, "What do you think of that funny wheatear?". Given I'd not seen it, not much! He'd seen it alongside the road, and it had flown behind me up towards my croft. B was thinking Pied/Black-eared, given the darkness about it's face/wings, and was hoping for Black-eared (having already seen Pied on Shetland). We walked up to the house, and sure enough, there was a wheatear sitting on a fence strainer... we both looked at it... Pied Wheatear!
What a heart-racing moment. I rushed inside for the Coolpix (batteries fully charged for once), and as it perched in docks, managed a flurried series of shots...
It was calling as it flew from dock to dock, a soft of "pfft" call - or as B charmingly described it, a sound like a suppressed fart. A fairly ignoble transcription for only the fifth Pied Wheatear on Shetland! The bird then lobbed over a drystone dyke, and moved along the gravel path alongside the house - a careful flush and it could have been in the kitchen... As it vanished around the corner of the house B and I made the necessary phone calls, in my case to JL - who was in Lerwick unloading fish, and at least an hour and a half away. Photos notwithstanding, we knew we needed to take notes, so walked round the house to find... no sign of the bird.
A very anxious hour later, having split up to search, I re-found it out on the moor by the community water tank, and joined by B managed about half an hour of good views, before the wretched little sod dropped over a nearby hill-brow, and couldn't be relocated, despite there shortly being 7 birders newly arrived to help search for it. Then a tense JL arrived, at which point I felt duty called and returned to my chores.
In fading light at 6.30pm Jl and B came down the road - JL had relocated the bird in a geo on the south-east side of the island, and had had excellent close-range views. Unfortunately most of the visiting birders had given up and left the island by this stage...
So I leave you with one final shot...
Gorgeous, but not half as nice to look at as that Yellowthroat on Foula. (See the full mouth-watering gallery of Foula Yellowthroat photos on entirely excellent Nature in Shetland site). If only...
October 06, 2004
White's Thrush (+ picture)
Just a quick note to accompany a photo - thank god for JL, who sent me a text to alert me to a White's Thrush about to be released at Kergord this lunchtime. It'd apparently been found feeding on someone's lawn (why not mine?!), and then caught when it flew into their window... Set to be released in Shetland's best woodland habitat, it seemed alert enough in the hand, but when released it sat motionless on the leaf litter, and shortly went to sleep.
Decision was quickly made to take it into care, so after a very short period of liberty it was rushed away to convalesce. Nevertheless, what an amazing bird. As usual, both the coolpix and the eos were at home, so I had to make do with a Kodak fun-snap thing. However, there will be some stunning shots of this bird taken by others, so make sure you hunt them out. What a beauty.
October 04, 2004
Of Slender-billed Curlews...
Got up at first light on Saturday absolutely brimming with optimism, given what was elsewhere on Shetland. First few birds seemed reasonably promising - some calling Goldcrests and a couple of Chiffchaffs, and plenty of Redwings calling as they flew overhead. Only a Song Thrush in the trap, the first of a dozen or so during the day. A Fieldfare in an enclosed yard. A few more Goldcrests in the plantation. Five Barnacle Geese flying south-west offshore. And a peach of a steady south-easterly blowing all the meantime. By now if truth be known I was feeling slightly pissed off that there had been nothing better, so headed onto the runway thinking Short-toed Lark/Shorelark/Sibe Stonechat, but could only manage 40 Golden Plovers (and nothing remotely American!). Things finally improved by my tattie patch with a Bluethroat, and shortly afterwards a beautiful Red-breasted Flycatcher in the bushes of the croft below us. A really smart bird with a rich apricot-washed breast.
Bumped into B by the trap, and went back to look for the Bluethroat, seeing the flycatcher buggering off over the fields towards my croft. No sign of the Bluethroat, just a Wren masquerading as a Lancie in the tatties.
JL was back, and had found another shrike, Great Grey this time. He needs to up his game to Long-tailed... B had a vocal Yellow-browed Wblr in his garden (why still none in the plantation? Am convinced it's the lack of sycamores!), and elsewhere on the island another Bluethroat and a Bastard Grotfinch.
B set up a net in the plantation in the evening, and repeated drives yielded a handful of Goldcrests, Garden Warblers and a pair of male Blackcaps. The flycatcher had turned up in my thistle patch at lunchtime, but had moved on before JL turned up to see it.
All very well, but no bird to really set the blood racing. And then the bad news that there had been a White's Thrush on the mainland at Voe, presumably the Skerries bird. Why couldn't the big fat thrush have stopped off in the plantation? Oh well, another time.
Met a couple of visiting birders yesterday, with an interesting tale about the curlew in Suffolk - rumour has it that a Belgian curlew-expert has been to see it twice, and is convinced it's a Slender-billed. So much so that on the strength of that prognosis Dutch listers have been over to twitch it. Which reminds me...
I normally consider myself a fairly lucky birder, and have certainly had more than my fair share of being in the right place at the right time experiences (ie twitching the Oriental Pratincole in Norfolk on the day the Pacific Swift turned up at Cley), but there are a couple of occasions when I've shown monumental poor judgement and consciously made a decision that proves to be utterly, spectacularly the wrong one. The least painful of the two whoppers is the Scillonian Fea's Petrel Experience (see an earlier blog entry) - after all, there's still a fair chance I might evenually bump into one of these enigmatic birds.
The one which really hurts however is the Northumbria Slender-billed Curlew. I had a car-full of birders with me, down in the south-east for our annual assault on the Kent Bird Race (racing as The Total Kents, our team name after the organisers delicately asked us to change from the sponsor-unfriendly Amazing 24 Hour Shags...) We had a choice - do the bird race the following day, or drive overnight for a funny Curlew that might or might not be Slender-billed. As the driver, I got the casting vote, and on the basis that a) Slender-billed Curlew was almost certainly globally extinct, and b) the last remaining individual of the species had no business being on the north-east coast of England, I decided we'd stick with the birdrace.
The following day, with a total of 148 species behind us, it seemed like the right decision. The next month, seeing for the first time the photos of the Northumbria curlew, I started to feel a bit uneasy. A few months later, when the BBRC confirmed Britain's first (and surely last) Slender-billed Curlew, it seemed like the dumbest idea of my birding career to date. Okay, so granted they're a birder's bird - brown, and pretty similar to their common cousins, but all the same... what a bird to see.
Let's just say that were I still living in the south, I'd have been to see this bird before any Cream-coloured nonsense on Scilly!
October 01, 2004
Anticipation
Okay, tomorrow is going to be a big day. Spent all of today being a Good Employee and wearing a suit etc, while all the meantime the wind was screaming out of the south east and birds were arriving on all the islands. Skerries had a White's Thrush to add to Short-toed Lark, Richard's Pipit, Bluethroat, Siberian Stonechat... Foula a pair of Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers (already on my croft list, but finding my own would be even nicer!), Pallid Harrier on Bressay, Yellow-breasted Bunting at Toab, American Goldie and Buff-breasted Sand on Fetlar... the list goes on. JL is away at the fishing, so I spent the whole day expecting a text from B to say he'd found something.
Secretly, selfishly quite pleased to find B in the queue for the ferry this evening - he'd been away all day on Mainland, so hadn't been birding on the island. Which means at first light tomorrow it's all evens, and the birds are there for the finding. If I can't turn something up it's a pretty poor show. JL back tomorrow at some point, so between us there's a BB rarity to be found. Definitely my turn!!
JL found a nice bright Yellow-browed Warbler near the school on Wednesday, my first of the autumn. Hopefully tomorrow won't end up with me pleading the fates for one of those by the end of the day...