It's was fun while it lasted!

What with howling Northerly winds, and snow and hail for quite some time now, and the better birds in Shetland recently being the likes of Waxwings and WB Divers... can I now presume Autumn in the Northern Isles is finally over?

There has been a few goodies found, and many more twitched by myself, and I've listed the better ones below.... Whether or not all these Northerly winds will bring some Arctic wanderers our way soon, we'll just have to see!

Autumn 2010;

2 Buff-breasted Pipits, 1 PG Tips, 1 Lancy, 1 Izzy Shrike, 1 EOW, 3 Cit Wags, 1 Dusky, 1 Radde's, 2 Sykes's Warblers, 1 Pallas's Warbler, 1 Richards Pipit, 1 Rustic Bunt, 2 BB Sands, 1 Melodious, 1 Arctic Warbler, 3 Arctic Redpolls, 1 Paddyfield, 1 AGP, Plus loads and loads of Rosefinches, Barred Warblers and YB Warblers, and more Lap Bunts than I knew existed!.... not too bad I reckon!... Now how long is it till spring?

Listen to 'mummy'...

Well my mummy always told me "if I played with it too much, I'd break it", and it looks like she was right. This Autumn has been so exiting so far, that I'd been playing with it on a daily basis, and now it's broken! I'm in the process of trying to get it fixed, which might be a bit painful in more ways than one, but with luck I'll be able to abuse it for many years to come...... I'm talking about my camera lens... What were you thinking!

Mind you, I was also told I'd go blind too...... Oh bugger, I do only have one eye! Maybe I should have listened?

Of the recent sightings in Yell; Otters, Knot, Merlin (stunning hunting action!) and a flyover Lap/Snow bunting has been about it in these strong snowy Northerly winds.

One for the anoraks!

Well I did promise some 'tristis' recordings, and after a good bit of head scratching, and some consulting with the 'guru' of all such things Magnus Robb (cheers once again!), I can give you the following...

Siberian Chiffchaff ('tristis')

The reason for the 'head scratching' was the variety of calls this bird was giving. The typical 'tristis' call is described in 'Collins' as a "piping, straight (or negligibly downslurred) 'hii(e)p'... ". This call was given by this bird, but it also varied the call with some deviations, including a slight upward inflection in the middle of some calls! And quite a few calls with the downslurred ending mentioned in the 'Collins' guide. I know these birds are still a bit of a 'work in progress', and I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on any new info. As I believe the 'tristis' bird to be a first winter bird, I've included the calls of a young 'collybita' bird raised in Shetland this year as a comparison. As you can hear they do sound very different, with the local bird, the calls all have a smooth upward inflection as expected...

Common Chiffchaff ('collybita')

Redpoll overdose!

Back on Unst today, but this time to try for better recordings of these 'Sibe' Chiffchaffs! but more on that later.

Good birds today included; 1 Arctic Redpoll, many (60+) Lapland Buntings, 2+ Sibe Chiffchaff, 10 Snow Buntings, 1 Lesser Redpoll (a good bird up here!), many Mealy Repolls and a few NW Redpolls too. It seemed like everywhere I went I could hear flyover Lap Bunts and Redpolls, and god alone knows how many of each were on Unst today!

Lesser Redpoll found skulking in a flock of 'Mealy' Redpolls;

More of these 'dodgy' looking Chiffs;

'Tristis'

I decided to try the top of Unst this morning, and by 'the top', I mean Hermaness Nature Reserve! certainly not for the feint hearted in this weather either. The rain was constant, and the visibility in the fog was negligible... It was a bloody hard job to find my way back to the car, never mind any wayward 'yank' Pipits or Waders!!!

After the soaking I received, my enthusiasm was a wee bit dampend, but I still decided to try working a few areas before heading home. Best I managed was Arctic Redpoll (BT's bird in Baltasound), 3 Sibe Chiffchaffs, 4 Lapland Buntings, 1 Merlin, lots of Mealy Redpolls and a couple of North-western Redpolls and strangest of all.... A Dunnock on Hermaness NR!

Sibe Chiff;

And of course a sonogram of the distinctive call. For anyone interested in calls... (The actual recording is a bit 'pants', so I've just included the sonogram instead)

Izzy 'in da bag'...

After 7 fruitless hours scouring South Yell for migrants, and only coming up with a 'best' sighting of 7 Bar-tailed Godwits, I'd decided to call it a day and go home. It was then that I found out about the Isabelline Shrike in South Shetland!!!............ What! I'd not received a text or heard anything through the grapevine! and this was after 3pm and the bird was reported just after 1pm. What was going on? After a few frantic calls to the South birders for some 'gen', it was a quick dash for the ferry, and the rest is history, as you can see by the pics. The day has never really got light today in Shetland, so all pics were taken on iso 800, and stupidly slow shutter speeds, but at least I got something. Many thanks to J. Nicolson for letting me use his lens too. Much appreciated mate!

With the remains of a Blackcap it prepared earlier!... Nice.

Incoming!

Sunday morning was spent birding Fetlar with hopes of another PG Tips. When that failed to show, the rest my time was spent looking around the rest of the island! Highlights for me were the many Lapland Buntings, including a flock of 11+ on the East side. Other birds included Redstart, NW Redpoll, Reed Bunting, Spotted Flycatcher and loads of common migrants...

Today was spent in South Yell. Still loads of common migrants around including hundreds of Redwing, many Goldcrests and Blackcaps etc, and a rather nice juv Peregrine which perched on an over head wire... My third in three days!

juv Peregrine;

Goldcrest... Great wee birds, but just too active for photography!

Another migrant that has unexpectedly hit Yell in vast numbers is the Raven! In one small area of moorland there was over a hundred today! No signs of any obvious food source to attract such a large gathering, and they weren't here yesterday.