GREENISH WARBLER
Sumburgh Head, Shetland
A jam-packed day of migrants in Shetland!
At Sumburgh Head, I spent a few hours watching and photographing a Greenish Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Garden Warbler, Twite, Wren, Blackbirds, Fulmars and Raven in glorious sunshine. Jill & Rob here, Hugh H. & Cerys, Paul H, Denise (and her husband) from work.
Greenish Warbler at Sumburgh Head
Ambled for a while in the main Sumburgh Quarry and saw several Wheatears, a Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Sparrowhawk, Wren, House Sparrows. Met Richard Ashbee here too.
Grutness Pool produced 3 Dunlin and 2 Pied Wagtails. Caught up with Jill, Rob and Jim whilst here.
The Sumburgh Hotel garden produced a lovely Pied Flycatcher, but it escaped before I could get a picture.
Went to Exnaboe to try and find a Icterine Warbler that someone found earlier and failed. Masses of waders on the Virkie Pool, including Ringed Plovers, Turnstones, Sanderlings, Dunlin, Redshanks, Knot, Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew etc.
Quendale Mill – nothing of particular note, but Willow Warbler in the scrub by the mill and 3 Swallows overhead. In a field close by, masses of birds were feeding, including Rock Doves, Curlews, Oystercatchers, 13 Knot, tons of Starlings and House Sparrows – it was a real spectacle!
Went to find the Barred Warbler by a pond that Rob Fray had found, between Brake and Culsetter. Found the right spot, spent a while searching and was just about to give up, when I noticed nettles moving vigorously, this could only mean one thing! Barred Warbler.... or was it? Hugh H. asked me to call him if I found it, so I did, but highlighted that I wasn't 100%, as I had not actually seen it, but saw three nano second 'typical Barred' clumsy movement sightings – Hugh joined me, but annoyingly no definite sighting of a Barred Warbler, but it could have still been there somewhere! Only birds seen were a Garden Warbler, Reed Warbler, Twite and best of all – a Merlin being mobbed by 2 Swallows!
Next stop was Levenwick Campsite for the Wryneck – no sign of this either, but was surprised to find 'Levenwick Community Garden' here! I didn't even know there was one! Drove through Levenwick to the beach and watched 4 Ringed Plovers on the shoreline, 1 Bonxie flew over and lots of cute bunnies on the hills! Walked along the road past several gardens, but no sign of anything exciting.
Stunning sunset this evening, Foula, taken from Bigton, Shetland
The day had disappeared so quickly and I had planned to go to loads of other places, but time had run out. It looked like it was going to be a spectacular sunset, so headed to Bigton and got some fabulous pictures of Foula before heading home.
I have some lovey pictures of the Greenish Warbler and other birds, but discovered a short while ago, that I can't open Adobe Photoshop as 'the scratch disk's are full', which basically means my hard drive is full!!! This means I will have to copy a ton of old photos onto external hard drives on Monday night after work! This is a job I knew I needed to do month's ago and now I will have to do it!
MORE PHOTOS TO BE ADDED!
Posts
