Very 'Tystie'

The local Black Guillemot's (or 'Tystie's) were performing very well this morning!  Constantly calling and chasing each other among the rocks of South Yell...  Also seen this morning was a migrating imm Glaucous Gull heading North, and a few Wheatears including a singing male!

Fetlar folly!

Phalaropes 3, Dougie 1...

That's the score so far with my day trips to Fetlar (only one sighting out of 4 visits!). So what's happened to these wee birds this year? It has been quite a cold Summer with a lot of Northerly winds, so maybe they are indeed struggling? With a bit of luck they are just hiding out in the long vegetation...

So with no Phals, it was time for plan 'B'. I'd always wanted to get some decent sound recordings of the Arctic Skuas and Whimbrels, and with a good population of both on Fetlar, it seemed like a good opportunity. The only slight fly in the ointment was the strong breeze... Not ideal, but I did manage some recordings. scroll to the end of the post for the sounds...

Arctic Skua;

Whimbrel;

Moorland sounds;

Something to sing about...

Up here the sun is out, and unlike the England football team! the Wheatears all seem to be full of joy! Although being 'Scottish' I know sod all about football (I believe we have a national team, we just don't I ever hear about them!)

For a more in depth review of what went wrong see here;

http://at2h.blogspot.com/2010/06/strange-brew.html

and here;

http://shetlandmisfit.blogspot.com/2010/06/early-winter.html

Oh well, they will just have to relive 1966....again.....and again.......and again......

Otter

I took a day off work today to try and get my new roof watertight before the predicted rain at the weekend. Unfortunately, although it was sunny and mostly dry, the wind decided to blow hard enough to ruin my best efforts at roofing! So predictably attention turned to birding (what a surprise eh!), and more specifically trying to photograph more 'dodgy' variations of the local Rock Pipits! It was while photographing these, that this Otter decided to amble through... Not a great shot, but it was an opportunistic grab, before the Otter spotted me and scarpered!

The Wheatears are also back on my patch....