Rare Bird Alert News
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SIBERIAN THRUSH 1w. male, Yellow-browed Warbler in garden just west of Loch of Asta, south of Scalloway.
Common Rosefinch at Grutness.
Western Subalpine Warbler 1w still in first garden with pond at North Levenwick.
Barred Warbler at Papil, West Burra.
Rustic Bunting still at east end of The Wadill Water, Yellow-browed Warbler, Common Rosefinch at Urafirth.
Blue-winged Teal at Loch of Spiggie.
Iceland Gull flew south at Boddam.
Ortolan Bunting in garden of first house +adjacent field/crop plus Common Rosefinch (in field only) at Ireland.
Yellow-browed Warbler at Melby.
Yellow-browed Warbler, Chiffchaff at North Gluss.Barred Warbler, Common Rosefinch at end of Westerloch Drive at Loch of Clickimin, Yellow-browed Warbler at Burn of Sound, Lerwick.
Yellow-browed Warblers x 3 at St Michaelswood, Aith.
Rustic Bunting (probable) in crop field behind church at Sandwick.
Yellow-browed Warbler at Islesburgh.
Mealy Redpoll at Otterswick.
Yellow-browed Warbler at Trondavoe, NE of Voxter.
Red-breasted Flycatcher at Swinster Burn, Sandwick.
ISLANDS
BLACKPOLL WARBLER just NE of Victoria's Tea Rooms at Haroldswick, Unst. Glossy Ibises x 3, Greenland Redpolls x 5, Yellow-browed Warbler at Norwick, Short-toed Lark at Burrafirth, Little Bunting at Baliasta, Siberian Chiffchaff at Baltasound, Unst.
Barred Warbler at Mid Yell, Yell.
Bluethroat, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Yellow-browed Warblers x 2 at Out Skerries.
Arrived on site at Asta at just after 8am. I was pleased with my photos last night and huge thank you to all the very lovely messsages I received about my best photo, much appreciated indeed, but I wanted more! I decided to stay by the fence in front of the lawn in hope that I would get a 'lawn' shot. It rained on and off, well more on than off to be precise, throughout the day. The Siberian Thrush flew across the loch side a few times, but never stayed there long and always returned to the garden. I missed out on more photos in the same spot I was photographing from last night, as wanted to stay by the fence and in any case, there were too many bodies at that spot today.
Great to see Neil Bostock from Norfolk here today, along with Dan Pointon, Gary Elton leading a Oriole Birding Tour and great to chat with other birders too including a Leicestershire birder called James. A very sad and sick individual flew past on a racing bike at an insane speed and shouted loudly and aggressively "you dirty bastards"!!! I was slow to process this as could not think of why he had said this at all. I then worked it out – he was basically referring to the fact that he thought we were a bunch of perverts looking through the garden into the windows of the house! As I said to other birders, did he really think that a whole group of perverts were there on mass for all to see on a public and very much used road and looking through windows? – you couldn't make it up, in fact if he really thought that, then why didn't the police turn up?! It was extremely offensive to all those standing there, but at the same time hilarious! When I relayed this occurrence to a 'local' and very much respected birder who turned up a bit later, he said he would have jumped in his car and chased him to confront him if he had been here, pity he wasn't, oh well!
Anyway, back to the bird! The hours ticked by and the rain kept falling. There are some gorgeous very tall (around 5ft plus) blue flowers in the garden and I have since found out they are called "Monkswood". It was so nice to see Chris turn up (who lives on Unst with his wife Tracy) who had only just come over today to see the Siberian Thrush and said this now made his UK list 400! Eventually the Siberian Thrush looked like it was going to appear on the grass, it kind of did – on the very far left edge of the lawn and just left of the bonfire. Also just left of the bonfire was a very wide girthed tree, which obscurred my view (mostly), which is why there are several fuzzy areas on my photos below and why some pictures had to be cropped a little more than I wanted! I was patient and hoped the thrush would start walking to the right, which mean't I could have potentially got my very best pictures, but it didn't and then duly flew off to the very back of the garden and that was it! I think it was around 2pm, when I decided that I was way overdue for breakfast, lunch, a warm up and a loo stop!
Particularly love this shot of carrying and tossing
so many leaves in search for food!
SIBERIAN THRUSH
My third visit to watching this cracking bird!
Drove south to Ireland to try and see the Ortolan Bunting. A good number of birders were here, more than I expected and all nicely viewing from the road/verge into the fenced crop field. Lots of banter including a very funny man who told me he had an excellent view through his scope of a jacket and went into amusing detail about the quality and clarity of the fibres in the jacket – I'm presuming the 'jacket' walked in front of him! Jacquie Bridges spotted me and helped me as she was departing and said "stand here Penny, look over the first post and under the wire". I couldn't see a thing! Lots of the thermal imagers were on the go and one man told me he could see it and after repeating his instructions to me twice about where the bird was amongst the crop, I did then see a grey out of focus blob! I couldn't count that, it could have been absolutely anything, so dipped on that! I have seen Ortolan Bunting before and even found one when I was walking out to Blakeney Point, many, many years ago, but can't remember the last time I saw one, so it would have been nice to see, but not lucky with that. It was freezing cold now. I gave up and drove to the carpark next to the beach just for a scan and to plan where to end the day.
News hit the WhatsApp Rare Birds with "BLACKPOLL WARBLER at Haroldswick, Unst!!!" I looked at my watch and knew that there was no way, even if I could get there this evening that I would be seeing that in anything but darkness. Booked the ferries for tomorrow as I'm sure many others have. There was also news later by the finder (short version of message) that they could not rule out options for other American species. Whichever species it is, will be new for me!
Ended the day looking for my own birds at Geosetter Burn. It was pouring with rain now and the light was disappearing fast, but I decided it was worth checking out. As I drove up the road to park by the boat I caught a brief glimpse of an LBJ about a third the way up the road in the grass alongside the burn for a nano second and then disppeared. I parked up and walked throughout the burn and over the stile and walked up to the top of the burn to check out the willows and scrub. Nothing seen, probably because everything had gone to roost, well anything that was there. Returned back to the road to check out the bird I had seen earlier. As I neared the exact spot I had seen it a little earlier, something brownish crept through the grass for only a second and then vanished! I waited, walked away, returned and repeated this a few times in hope that I had another glimpse of stripes maybe! I was thinking Lanceolated Warbler, which I have never seen and don't expect to find either, but there was something interesting here and no it wasn't a Wren. I wrote this on the Common Birds WhatsApp group in case someone heads that way in the morning, but I guess most people will be heading in a different direction tomorrow!
When I got home, I discovered I had a new rubbish box! Alastair (two doors down) and husband to Margaret, who I bought my house from had popped up to see me a few days ago and had said he could see my refuse box was falling apart and he was going to make me a new one, which I was shocked by that he would do this for me! Alastair said he had been meaning to replace this before I bought the house and told me that he was in the middle of making this and that one day soon I would find that it had been replaced and today it has! I was completely bowled over by his kindness, generosity and time to do this for me. It was dark when I got home so not able to admire it fully, but I was amazed by the fact that it didn't move a millimetre, I don't know how he fixed it to the ground, but it won't disppear in the winds! THANK YOU SO MUCH ALASTAIR ! This has especially lifted my soul after someone on a Shetland Facebook page a few days ago was particularly nasty to me, which was uncalled for, a lie and this person has never forgiven for a mistake I made when I lived in Lerwick (I wrote about it at the time on my blog) and she never believed me, nor accepted my apology or wanted to I have realised, she is obviously just simply someone who hates outsiders. Sadly I will have to live with that, even though I really let it get to me. Something I can't stand is crap being spread that I have done something that I have not done! Social media as we all know can be very upsetting. Some people are so bored and maybe unhappy, they have to try and make others unhappy too – you succeeded in your mission to upset me, but trying to shake if off and "carry on regardless". Apart from this one person, everyone else here in Shetland has been what I call 'normal' and above and beyond with their kindness, friendliness, chatty and fun personalities. I'm not going to let one person ruin my happiness and joy living here. Anybody would think I was an outsider who came here for a jolly and a 'lady that lunched' so to speak. I work in your local hospital and I work hard and value and enjoy my job and love to meet, chat and help all the patients here. I have had nothing but praise from patients I have worked with, so not doing too badly with fitting in I feel!
After getting in the house and sorting all my wet gear out, I could see a gorgeous Hedgehog outside under my bird feeders, not seen one for ages! Lovely end to a very long day!
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