Saturday 16/10; Unst Again
Dan Pointon joined us for a day's birding. Again the westerlies determined our fate, but the wind was at least a little less brutal today. We collected Dan off the ferry then headed for a greasy spoon, then had a quick look for some apparently habituaslised otters in the harbour, without success.
Those redpolls were still gnawing away at Jono and we all fancied seeing them, so back north again, narrowly missing the ferry to Yell at Toft. We had an hour to kill, which was uneventful until Dan and Jono (I was on the phone) picked-up an overflying yellow wagtail sp. I missed it completely, but Dan was confident it sounded off for western yellow and may have been an eastern-type. Thankfully it ditched in a field a few hundred meters away. Dan, being Dan, sprinted across the bog to get photos and recordings, which he duly did. Andy and Jono stayed with the car and I headed over at a more leisurely pace, arriving just in time for a few seconds of scope view before it flew off calling repeatedly. I'll admit that the call wasn't that different to my ear, but once we compared recordings it was clear who had the experience here (and it wasn't me). Such is the modern world Dan had sent his photos and sound recordings to experts across Europe, but opinions varied. In the end, a couple of weeks later, Dan received an email from wagtail expert Alex Hellquist who thought the bird was possibly from western Siberia, or perhaps eastern Scandinavia, so an eastern yellow wagtail, but not an Eastern Yellow Wagtail. I have to admit I find it confusing with these clinal species - exactly where does one species become another? Of course it's all arbitrary, the birds either know nor care.
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| eastern,but not Eastern Yellow Wagtail. Close but no cigar. |
Despite the wind the sun shone, and it took no time to drive up to Norwick and locate a small flock of redpolls; 5 Common Redpolls (presumably of Greenland origin), but more pleasingly the two Hornemann's Arctic Redpolls too.
The photogenic Long-tailed Ducks remained in Norwick Bay, and I enjoyed a quite few minutes photographing them, along with the local Ringed Plovers.
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| Long-tailed Duck |
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| Ringed Plover |
We birded a little around Haroldswick, albeit with a general lack of migrants apart from a few Chaffinches. Nice views of a feeding Otter were good compensation though. Jono and I had a good wander across the headland of Mu Ness in a failed attempt to see Snow Buntings, but the walk felt good and the scenery was spectacular.
We headed back to Lerwick and ended up having a Thai meal and then witnessing the spectacle a Jono attempting to join in a Ceilidh before Dan headed to the bus stop (moving in with proper birders) and we retired. Jono's last night cam just as the wind veered slightly to the east.
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| Warrington Travolta adding with a Gaelic twist |
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