Where do I begin?!! In summary, a thrilling and spectacular morning, but an utterly rubbish afternoon!
I started the day at Hoswick and found a Pied Flycatcher in the cliff top garden, probably the same one I found yesterday, but nothing else of particular note. Went to try and find the Bluethroat that someone has found this morning, but no joy there. Two Hooded Crows landed in a field near the Sandwick Bakery and several House Sparrows were flitting around. A beautiful sunny day and unexpectedly warm for Shetland! A nice warmth though, not muggy hot like it is south!
News on a WhatsApp group of a Humpback Whale AND Dolphins took me to Aithsetter, where I found Hugh H. scoping from his vehicle, so I knew I was in the right spot! I had arrived here at just the right time – I watched a huge pod of possibly 50+ White-beaked Dolphins (identified by Hugh) playing around in the bay (too far to photograph) – they shimmered in the sunlight – no words to describe this really, seeing that many together and having never seen a White-beaked Dolphin before, was another first for me this week! Wow! We and others who joined us, watched these for a good while. Hugh then left to try and relocate where the Humpback Whale was and later on the Humpback Whale appeared in the bay!!! Hugh was watching it from a different location when I rang him. Its a large bay, so not that close, but the closest I've ever seen one! We even saw the tail as it surfaced and then dived – it was an incredible sight. 10 or so minutes would pass and you thought it had gone and it would resurface again, much to the delight of everyone enjoying this spectacle.
Later on I decided to try and find the Red-backed Shrike at Wester Quarff. I pulled into a field entrance for a while at Wester Quarff and suddenly felt seriously tired – I couldn't keep my eyes open and didn't feel too good. The lower part of my head near to my left ear felt painful to touch and I started to become paranoid about my accident, when I cracked my head on the table at breakfast on the ferry, on Sunday morning. I had intended on going to the see the Radde's Warbler at Kergord, but just couldn't go, I could hardly keep my eyes open, didn't know what was going on.
Sensibly, I returned south to go back to the cottage at Levenwick, but stubbornly decided to at least try and see the Olive-backed Pipit, which was being reported as still there this afternoon at Channerwick. Initially I drove down the very steep decline to the house at the bottom of the road and then remembered from my last trip, that this is where the road ends. I could see a birder way off in the distance near some scrub on the shoreside and presumed that the white car at the top of the road was their's I returned up the road and the drove past the white car, which was parked along another narrow tarmac road – I passed this car and then realised the road was a dead end and not one you could turn around on, so I backed up really, really slowly as the tarmac dropped away sharply into a ditch/storm drain on my right hand side. As I passed the car, ensuring I was further enough away from it, my front driver's wheel lumped into the storm drain. I was horrified! I got out and looked in shock at my car, now well and truly stuck! It wasn't going anywhere and it was around 5pm. I felt cross with myself, really cross and was cursing myself out loud! I tried to turn the wheel and reverse out, but I smelt burning, which was probably the clutch, so immediately stopped. I rang the AA, who I confess I lost patience with, when they were trying to find out where I was and how far from the main road I was (they were only doing their job!) and I bluntly said that being as I was in Shetland, it would be a local garage and that I was only yards from the main road and that they would definitely know where it was and would certainly be able to find me! The AA receptionist said a local garage would call me as soon as they could get hold of them. So, I sat and waited in the car, frustrated and worried.
Meanwhile, a knight in shining armour arrived! A very, very kind local man, who lives in the house at the bottom of the road, pulled up in his truck and said he could pull me out of there in 5 minutes!!! Wow! I was hugely appreciative of his help. He had to go up the road to his shed to get a tow rope and returned back a few minutes later. He told me I was the SECOND person to have done this today! Four birders had done the same thing earlier, but they had done a better job than me and had got two wheels in this ditch and they had to be winched out I think he said. He was a very calm person, which is just what I needed and he didn't think I had done any damage to my car, as I had dropped in right next to the storm pipe, so had not scraped along etc. Just to explain further, the reason you can not get out of this ditch is that the tarmac literally cuts away at the edge, straight down – there's no getting out of it. The man's wife turned up and I told her she has the best husband in the world – she smiled. The birder also turned up (he didn't see the OBP) and helped with instructions, when I was towed out of the ditch. I felt very lucky that I had got out of there and seemingly no damage to the car, when we looked underneath. A local garage phoned me (AA) and it was very interesting to hear that they knew exactly where I was and that they had pulled 'many people out of that'!!!
I drove straight home, unloaded the car. Tried to light the fire, but failed miserably – it did get going a bit, but then just died on me. I felt too tired to cook or do anything. I fell asleep on the sofa for over three hours! Sadly, the car pictures are the only ones I took today. Huge thanks to the local man who towed me out of the ditch!
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