Near Misses and Delayed Arrivals

On Monday 9th October, Jonno, Laurence and I were off to Fair Isle for 10 days in the Springfield Croft. Except it didn't work out that way. Just days beforehand Laurence made the decision to stay on Scilly as it was finally having a great autumn (grosbeak, cedar waxing, REV x 2 and a cliff swallow), and Jonno suffered terrible family news. It was looking lile a solo trip, and one in crap birding weather too. My enthusiasm evaporated, but then Andy C offered to come along from the Thursday 12th. I was happy and grateful to him, so set off to the pub for a family tea on the Sunday night.

 

The birding gods quickly scuppered plans with the genuinely incredible news of an adult male Siberian blue robin on North Ronaldsay!!! This was potentially one of the best birds of all time, and I wasn’t prepared to let the opportunity go. I certainly wasn't prepared to get on my Fair Isle bound flight and skim over the top of North Ron with birders watching the SBR a few hundred feet below - that would be too much to take. I quickly joined a charter with the usual hassles mostly absorbed by Simon who'd sorted the plane. My Fair Isle flight was consigned to the (expensive) bin and next morning I was with Simon and Al Orton at Full Sutton airfield by 8.30am. Typically, the bird had other ideas and we were left empty handed. This bird had seemed too good to be true and sadly that proved to be the case. Just too good to be true. Sigh...

 

I made plans to travel to Fair Isle later in the week with Andy and returned to work for a couple of days.

 

Thursday morning came and I was smoothly on Shetland by 10.30. Andy duly arrived at 11.15 and we took an exorbitant taxi to Tingwall airstrip. The weather was 50/50 for making it across, but suffice to say we were on the Island at 4.15. Bill and the impressive 81 year old Margo made us welcome and we were quickly settled with just enough light to stroll to Quoy where the immature black-headed bunting immediately gave itself up. Nice start, although pretty uninspiring.

 

The next few days were windy, wet and generally quiet. Highlights were long stayers - a smart red-throated pipit and a Richard's pipit along with commoner migrants; jack snipe, redstart, Lapland bunting, lesser whitethroat and flocks of brambling. On Wednesday the wind lashed all morning so we headed out late. Whooper swans were on the move with an impressive 45 on Da Water and others passing over. Greylags and redwings were moving too, with all three species presumably coming from Iceland. A barred warbler was a surprise whilst again watching the black-headed bunting but the wind soon increased to 'un-birdable' levels and we retired early.

 

 

 

The latter part of the week did improve somewhat, if not spectacularly so. Migrant numbers increased a little - more thrushes now dominated by Scandinavian redwings but including my first fieldfares of the autumn, a late grasshopper warbler provided brief fun and games, mealey & lesser redpolls appeared, a little bunting, a brief bluethroat, a yellow-browed warbler, flocks of bramblings, golden plovers and a movement of woodpigeons all showing migration in action.
The AWs found an ‘Eastern-type’ Stonechat at Pund. It was clearly dark overall and a Stejnegers candidate, but it was very mobile an didn’t allow close views before quickly disappearing.

 

The clear highlight, though, was a rather fortunate find with Andy and Brian Minshull. We were birding hard at the school - sat inside the lobby using the Wifi facilities - when a bird landed on a railing just outside the entrance door and so a matter of feet from me. I heard Andy say “what’s that?” as it caught my eye and I blurted out “bluetail!!!”. And so it was, a lovely red-flanked blutail which proceeded to do circuits of the school area before finally settling in the garden and showing to everyone. Great to find one of these gems with Andy and particularly as I’d first (unsuccessfully) twitched one here when they were truly rare a mere 24 years ago. This was only my fourth UK bluetail, and I know they are no longer officially rare but it's still a classic 'dreamt about it when I was a kid' Sibe as far as I'm concerned and I was suitably well-chuffed with our find!.

Bluetail magic, photo by Becca Nason

 

Shortly afterwards, Andy found a rare bird for Fair Isle - a blue tit - at the shop and several more quickly appeared around the island. Later that day, we spent a little time looking offshore and added black guillemot, great northern diver, purple sandpiper & long-tailed duck to the list.

 

The weather looked decidely dodgy for departure, but a call on the Thursday morning from the airport had me scrambling to pack and I was suddenly off after a hasty farewell to the lovely Margo and Bill who have now sold Springfield Croft and are leaving Fair Isle after 40 years. Amazing people - I hope I'm still wrestling with IT in my early 80's as Margo is!!

I had a couple of hours to kill so spent them around the Sumburgh quarries, which were dripping with birds including a smart ring ouzel.

That, however, was the end of Shetland 2017 and me back to reality (for a week at least). Perhaps not a classic year, but still very enjoyable and I’ll most certainly be back!