Shetland 2021: Day 4

Monday 11/10: Shetland, via Strathbeg

Time to finally head north, which coincidentally meant I could travel with Jono. Collecting my old pal at 05:45 felt like a return to the good-old-days of regular avian-focussed adventures. The airport experience was it's usual joyous self but there was time for a cooked breakfast before flying more or less on time at 08.30, arriving in Aberdeen by 09.30. That left us with a massive five hours to kill before the onward flight. We mused whether it was possible to get to Andy's patch of Strathbeg RSPB (an hour north) and back in the time we had, but it was clearly a ridiculous idea given we had no transport. Pretty much at that moment Dan Pointon texted; he happened to be headed that way and happened to be driving through Aberdeen. In fact he was five minutes away from the airport. Blimey, lady luck was shining brightly. I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to leave the airport with our bags already checked through to Sumburgh, but as we had boarding cards what could go wrong?? We headed up the road and jumped in with Dan, who took us north for some filthy twitching.

I'd never been to Strathbeg RSPB until a few weeks ago when I visited Andy at his new country estate, but an hour after descending the plane steps I was back for the second time watching the GREATER YELLOWLEGS found by Andy himself. Whilst I've seen hundreds of these abroad, it was my first in the UK since Minsmere in 1985, which was my first ever long-distance twitch. There's something about these birds that I find really charming and I enjoyed watching it cavort and prance on the pools in front of the visitor centre. Well done Laird Carroll!

We then walked over to another hide (I've forgotten the name) to view the superb wetlands maintained by RSPB. Birds were everywhere, in particular Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese, but with plenty of and other wildfowl and waders. There were a few Ruff and, after a while, the LESSER YELLOWLEGS showed, albeit distantly. Both species of American yellowlegs have never been recorded at the same site at the same time in the UK before, so it's a remarkable double. Even better, though, was the sheer abundance of birds. Superb stuff.

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs at Strathbeg RSPB (Tim Jones). the birds weren't together on our visit but still great to see both on the same reserve.

Shortly after Andy kindly collected us at the reserve centre (Dan went off to search for a Red-crested Pochard) and we headed back to Aberdeen airport. Jono and I were straight through security and there was even time for a couple of pints before boarding. Shetland-bound. Finally.

The flight was uneventful and in an hour we approached a relatively sunny Shetland, with views of Foula impressive on the descent. Bags were collected and the car picked-up quickly, our steed for the week was a spacious Skoda Superb. 

We had a couple of hour's light so headed to Gulberwick to see a putative Eastern Yellow Wagtail. The bird showed well, but despite the bold head pattern and grey-toned upperparts was distinctly yellow on the vent. It was no surprise that by that evening the ID was confirmed by sonogram as a Yellow Wagtail.

Non Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Next stop was on to Clift Sound where the King Eider largely eluded us (I did see it briefly) in the distant tightly-packed Common Eider flock. The first Black Guillemots, Long-tailed Ducks and a Slavonian Grebe helped ease the pain.

Next stop, Tesco's food (booze) shope then Lerwick Harbour chippy and on to the digs at the Decca. A few gentle beers and an uneventful Arora closed the day.