…..but not complaning! Another day of really thick fog, meaning getting back to the beach was not an option. Slightly frutsrating, as I'm supposed to be on a boat bound for Shetland right now, not sitting here picking my nose and flicking bogies over the monitor. One or two rather interestng birds today. Not a lot out to sea, as you might imagine, what with the visibility being rather resricted for most of the day, but the fog always holds promise for birds on the platform itself. Three birds of note, in reverse order of interestingness:

     Oystercatcher – only my second out here. Usually, when one of the guys describes a bird they've seen, I immediately switch off, as most descriptions are along the lines of “it was small and brown” This one was a little better – ” black and white with a long orange beak, and about this big” ( places hands a conveniantly oystercatcher sized distance apart)

    Sanderling – err, not much to say about it really, other than it was a Beatrice first.

    Black redstart – A real surprise! brief views of a female, that could not be refound despite a lot of searching A first for me out here, but apparently, Richard had a male singing out here in march 05, the month before I started the surveys.

    The chopper is due in at about 9-ish tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed

 …..if that is at all possible! Actually, I saw some interesting things today…A Kestrel passed overhead this morning, to the north east. A beatrice tick, no less, which takes my offshore tally to 44, or something like that. Also, piles (literally!) of Magpie moths have turned up, along with quite a few of those crappy little micro things, and 1 Dark arches.

    It seems to be a bad year for the Kittis – I still haven't seen a single first year bird yet. This is possibly ( probably?) due to a lack of suitable food for the young….I watched one adult struggling for well in excess of oooh, seven minutes, with a lively Pipefish. The poor thing was half swallowed, half round the birds neck, and must have taken some considerable effort to get down. Apparently the nutritional value for these fish is very low…..kind of like bird celery?!

   The real reason that this was not a good day was due to the thick fog stopping the chopper getting in. This means that I have got to spend another night on this cock shack, sharing a room with a greasy celtic fan, and his porn collection.

    I was supposed to be getting pissed tonight…… 

 An absolutely cack day to be honest. After all yesterdays excitement, today came as a real come down. I cannot remember a more soul destroying days birding, and I've been to Donmouth plenty of times! 7 species in all, all in very small numbers. Then a real pea-souper came in,  so thick I couldnt even see the sea 40 metres below me. This of course meant I could not see the no birds flying around, which I must say was welcome relief. Cack.   

 Just as I was settling down to a long slog of birdless observations, a remarkable thing happened. Way off to the east, a cloud appeared, just above the sea. On inspection, it turned out to be a cloud of about 300 Kittiwakes, uncharacteristicly throwing themselves downward, into the melee that was undoubtedly going on just below the surface. Auks were also in attendance, and Skuas lurked menacingly. “There must be cetaceans about”, I thought to myself, and bugger me ragged if I wasn't right! Harbour porpoises were continuously on show, and Manx shears dodged in and out of the Kittis. All of a sudden, the water's surface formed into a shallow bubble, which gave way to a breaching Minke whale! What a beast! It absolutely dwarfed the porpoises, and all the birds postponed their feeding and circled round the scene, as if to say “what the fuck was that?”

    All the action had been slowly drifting towards me, and I was now getting crippling views of what was at least 2 minkes, each time they breached. Not only that, but they were so close now, that I could see them turning under the water, the white marked fins really standing out, and allowing me to follow them. They slowly passed to the north, and soon, things returned to normality. Birds rested on the water, as if they were trying to get over all that excitement, and I'd soon picked out a Black guillemot among the auks, and at least 4 Arctic skuas and one Great had benefitted from the feeding frenzy.

     But it didn't end there…2 more minkes passed SW about an hour later, much further out this time, and without the associated excitement. They looked a little feeble compared to the exreme close ups I'd had earlier, but it was great to get these “normal” views all the same.

     At the other end of the scale, a Red admiral was on the platform, the first butterfly I've seen on the rig. But, as you can imagine, its a little difficult getting excited about that when you've just eyeballed a whale!

Wader passage is not only evident in Shetland. The Ythan today had about 10 Greenshanks, good numbers of Whimbrel, and 3 of the brickiest reddest Knots I have ever seen. Also of  interest were a first summer Arctic tern, a calling water rail at cotehill, and at least three Dark green fritillaries around the mouth of the Ythan.

 At one week into this summer job in Shetland, I am yet to see the full splendour of the place, as it has largely been foggy, to the point of not being able to see your hand in front of your face! Without really trying, I've still had good numbers of Whimbrel, Skuas, RT Divers and all the other common stuff. Wader passage is starting up again, with great breeding plumage Knots and Turnstones, but star of the show (so far!) goes of course, to the White-rumped sandpiper at the pool of Virkie, on Saturday.

 Well, another uninspiring morning offshore, with the only sighting of any note being  a manx shearwater that came pretty close. The poor pigeon is still present, but appears to be on its last legs. A Silver Y was also found dead. Happy days!!
   This may be the last entry for a while, as I'll be in Shetland for 5 weeks ( apart from another little offshore jaunt at the end of July) and I dont know how easy it will be to find internet access, or even just the time to do this.

 In total, 11 species today. (well, 13 if you include the dead starling, and the soon to be dead racing pigeon!). All the usual stuff, and a pair of curlews moving south in the morning. The only other thing of any note at all, was a squashed up moth that was one of those yellow underwing things. I'll plump for lesser yellow underwing, cos its the only one I can remember at the moment.

  Finally,  I've made it offshore for June!! Bit of a relief getting out here eventually, but the euphoria soon waned, as soon as i started seawatching. Nothing more to report than a few great and arctic skuas, one of which came extremely close to the side of the rig, giving great close ups. As is sometimes the case out here, my “work” can be distracted by slight movements in my periferal vision, as I look down the scope. These are moments of great excitement for me, as they indicate the presence of a passerine on the rig. So, when it happened today, i was rather disappointed to look down and see a racing pigeon plodding about at my feet! I was going to grab it and see if the chef could do anything with it, but it proved a little too nimble for me. So I had to make do with scampi.

A quick and enjoyable trip to donmouth today, where wader passage seems finally to be under way, with groups of 6 Curlew and 10 Dunlin hanging around, and lots of terns, kittiwakes, and other stuff offshore. Had a lot of fun  playing around with the new toy, with varying results. This Reed bunting allowed a close aproach,  and this partially albino  pied wagtail, with an almost pure white tail  was on show.