Shetland 2021: Day 2

Back Before Arriving, 9/10/2021

The short version is that a helpful lady at Aberdeen airport managed to book me on a flight back to Manchester at 10.30 am. Job done and I headed back to the hotel for a full breakfast (a heavy coffee day was clearly coming). But then came negative news on the stint. Bloody hell. I didn’t have the luxury of waiting on news, so had to take the punt on it being relocated or change back again to the Shetland flight. Stick or twist! As it got to the final moments of decision time I opted for Manchester - there were few birds on Shetland and there were plenty of places for a stint to hide at St Aiden’s. And an extra night at home might just come in handy if weather conditions on Shetland changed later in the week. Despite my apprehension I checked-in and headed through security. My bags were in the scanner and I was just being searched (as usual) when I heard my phone - still inside the security scanner - going ballistic. Either the stint was back, or something else had happened (please not on Shetland). Thankfully it was the former, I had made the right choice. Not only that, for reasons unknown I'd been sent to the VIP lounge so I waited a couple of hours in comfort and stashing pastries. 

The fight was delayed a good hour, in which time the stint had flown high a couple of times. The fear set-in. Meanwhile Jono was in transit from France by train, and had seemed to immediately slip back in to former paranoid twitcher mode. Once a twitcher...He wanted to see the stint too.

The flight was due in at 12.30 but Jono was at best going to be in Warrington at 3.15. The bird was flighty and Warrington is in the opposite direction. So I did what any selfish twitcher would have done and headed immediately to Yorkshire, promising Jono I’d do a double run (I’m not a complete bastard).

By 1.40 I was with the crowd watching the target bird. LONG-TOED STINT. This tiny Asian wader is a true mega. Only the fourth UK and Ireland record, of which only one in 1982 had been properly twitchable. A class-A old-skool rarity and my 560th.

My best-efforts. Great views in the scope but a bit distant for photography. The images below are shamelessly borrowed from the web. Colin Davies, Chris Batty, Lee Fuller and Tony Davidson (I think).

It was a moulting adult and so not as pristine as a youngster, but I love waders and it was still a smart little bird. The most obvious ID features were the extraordinarily long yellow legs and longer-necked appearance (at times) than any other stint, short primary projection and a hint of a split supercilium added further conformation. And those noticeably long toes help too.

After about 30 minutes it was time to head back west to keep my word and collect our French correspondent at a carefully organised rendezvous (a Burger King by the M62). Against his will Jono splashed out for a Diet Coke in thanks (although medium, not large). The miles flew by as we caught up and we were back at St Aiden’s an hour or so later. The stint was in exactly the same spot and Mr Williams finally joined the UK500 club. Congratulations Monsieur.

500 Club newbie.

A Bittern showed distantly at the reed-bed edge and another flew past at closer range before we headed back west again. Home for 8pm to slightly bemused Karen.

I’d deal with how to get back to Shetland tomorrow.