Shetland 2014 - Day 6 - Mark gets the Horn and the tale of two Buntings

As we woke up the weather was still pretty grim, albeit better than it had been predicted first thing so we trudged out to Veensgarth to get Mark the Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll that Al and I had jammed on the previous evening.

It didn't take us long to pick it out (as it flew across with three other Redpolls), but unfortunately for Mark, it landed in full view for us, but totally obscured from the other side of the bush... precisely where Mark had wandered over to!! It took off again and headed over to a garden 100m away but it was only a few minutes later (and when Mark had got back to where we were) when it flew in again and fed on a thistle in the open only 20 metres away. At first, Al and I thought it may had been a different bird to the night before as it didn't look like the snowballs the other Hornemann's Arctic Redpolls we'd seen previously often do. We discussed the possibility of it being a Coue's but none of us could be absolutely sure of what it was (although we were all agreed it was stunning and definitely an Arctic Redpoll!).

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni hornemanni), Veensgarth, Mainland

We then found out there was a Radde's Warbler that had just been found at the Sumburgh Hotel, so we set off down there to try and connect with it. Unfortunately on arrival we learnt from Hugh Harrop that it had been found sheltering underneath the Shetland Wildlife tour bus with its eyes half-closed and released into the potato field, only for it to flop on its side before slowly making its way into cover, not being seen since. The likelihood was that this was one of many vagrants whose migration had taken just too much of a toll on it's fragile little frame and had most probably died amongst the crop. It's very easy to forget just how much of a struggle migration can be for some of these birds. While we were talking with Hugh we saw a Long-eared Owl huddled up against a stone wall but also took the opportunity to talk to him about the Veensgarth Redpoll. He said that he was happy with it being a Hornemann's and explained that even though he felt it was an interesting bird, the face wasn't 'smashed in' enough and it was just bulky enough around the neck so he'd put it down as Hornemann's-type, probably a 1st-winter female.... No wonder it didn't look quite right to us, the vast majority that end up on our shores are the classic big fat male snowballs! We took the opportunity to have a look around the walls hoping for a Locustella or a rare pipit but the best I could manage were a few Twite (not that I was complaining.... I think they're stunning little birds!).

Twite (Carduelis flavirostris), Sumburgh Hotel, Mainland

We decided to make a move and try Wester Quarff but before that we went to have a look for yet another Little Bunting that had been showing well at Boddam, not too far from the beach, but when we got there the wind was howling and there was no sign of the bird. We had a wander around the area it was frequenting and Phil and Al picked it up as it flew from a track into cover in a garden. We walked up the track and a bunting shot out to land on the barbed wire fence.... but this was a Reed Bunting... I continued on and another bird flew out and landed in the grass behind a shed... I crept to the corner of the shed, looked round the corner and tucked down in the grass was the Little Bunting..... our third of the week! I managed to fire off a couple of record shots before it took flight, went round the shed and landed back on the track where Phil had originally found it. It showed really well there as well as flying over onto the main road picking at the verge for food.

Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla), Boddam, Mainland

Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla), Boddam, Mainland

We watched the bird for a little while until it flew from the road and tucked itself away in a garden at the top of the hill, then we decided to make our way over to Wester Quarff.

When we decamped from the van yet another Yellow-browed Warbler announced its presence and I managed to pick up a Willow Warbler in a small sycamore in the small garden just behind us. We wandered over to a small walled field next to the house and Phil saw a bird fly up from the weeds and land on the wall... it was another Little Bunting!! We got a couple of decent views of this bird as it perched on the wall on occasions, but we eventually left it to it and checked the rest of the gardens, walked the burn and walked a circuit without finding all that much. A flock of 50 Brambling feeding in a field on the other side of the valley was nice to see though.

Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla), Wester Quarff, Mainland

The rain had set in again so we travelled back north, opting to try and see the Arctic Redpoll at Veensgarth again, but we couldn't find it in the plantation, there were a couple more Yellow-browed Warbler though, so we decided to end the day there and headed back to camp.

Shetland 2014 - Day 5 - Blues and Reds

The weather had settled down a little bit in the morning so we chose to get down to Hoswick and wait on news for the Rubythroat as we felt the crowds might have dispersed and it would be great to see it again if it was there.

I had a wander round to the Orca Inn picking out a Yellow-browed Warbler, a couple of Blackcap and a Great Tit in the surrounding sycamores. We carried on to Cliff View Cottage, where the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler had been the previous October and as I got round the corner something flicked out of the garden, hovered briefly and dropped into the dog roses on the edge of the garden. I called Al and Sean around and as they appeared the bird shot out and flew straight past me, dropping into a building site across the field.... The rusty-red on the sides of the tail were obvious and all of us shouted Bluethroat at the same time. We went over to the building site to try and relocate it, but after half an hour of searching for it, the bird was nowhere to be seen. 

We walked around to the other side of the garden where we met Phil and Mark, who had just had what they thought was probably a Barred Warbler disappear into cover and we watched a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers before deciding to give the Rubythroat another go.

As we arrived, there was only a small crowd of around 15 birders gathered at the end of the drive where the Rubythroat had relocated to so I lay down on the grass at the side of the crowd and waited. It didn;t take long for the Rubythroat to appear, wandering across the drive and along the edge close to the vegetation, but it showed wonderfully well... much much better than when we'd seen it a couple of days ago... it really was quite special sharing such a magical bird with such a small crowd and every 20 minutes or so the bird would show on the path after vanishing on its circuit of the garden, one time coming to within 10 foot of us - catching us all off guard and no-one being able to get a shot of it! I was pretty pleased with what I managed to get from that session though and I stayed for a little while longer whilst the rest of the guys went to check Channerwick.

Siberian Rubythroat (Luscinia calliope), Levenwick, Mainland

After they came back to pick me up we moved on to the other side of the island to check out Geosetter, a few Yellow-browed Warblers (not much of a surprise there then!) and a showy Pied Flycatcher were the best we could manage there.

Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), Geosetter, Mainland

We made our way back towards Lerwick and the Pallid Harrier was reported again back at Tingwall, so Al and I stayed in the van as we dropped the rest off and headed down to try and find it again. We had no luck with the harrier, but while we were there Chris Rodger arrived with the Shetland Nature tour group and as we were chatting, a couple of guys appeared saying they'd just found a Hornemanns Arctic Repoll by the pumping station in Veensgarth. As we could see the plantation from where we were stood, Al and I decided we'd go and have a look. We got there with no sign, a Pied Flycatcher was flicking through the back of the plantation, so we moved slightly round the corner and picked up a couple of Redpoll moving through the back. We kept scanning and the white blob finally flew in and settled on a low branch of one of the trees at the front for a minute before flying through the back to feed on the thistles behind the trees giving decent but obscured views. Not the best views of Hornemanns I'd ever had, but an obvious Arctic Redpoll all the same!

We went back to the house and told the rest of the group we'd jammed onto the Hornemann's to find out that Mark needed it for a lifer! At least we knew what the plan for the morning was going to be then!

Shetland 2014 - Day 3 - A Ruby in the dark

We woke up to the wind howling outside and chose to head north to check out the plantation at Voe as well as the gardens in Lower Voe... We wandered around with not a great deal to show for our efforts other than a single Pied Flycatcher, a couple of Yellow-browed Warbler and a very brief  Barred Warbler that only a couple of us saw. We consoled ourselves by visiting the pie shop in Voe and cleaned them out with a fine selection to keep us going for the day!

Phil after raiding the pie shop in Voe

We then headed on to Kergord with pretty much the same results... just a couple of Yellow-broweds but I did flush a Woodcock from one of the ditches and a Merlin shot over the woods mobbing a Raven. Our next port of call was Eswick where a couple of Little Buntings had been showing well the day before.... We got brief views of the first, in a cabbage field around 1 mile from Eswick, and only managed to hear the other 'ticking' away in the plantation in Eswick itself, the wind was obviously keeping it tucked away within the shelter of the trees. We also saw a Great Northern Diver in the bay and a performing 'Mealy' Redpoll. We gave up trying to see the Little Bunting there and opted to go back to the cabbage field, this one showed again briefly before darting back into the cover crop, we did get some cracking views of some of the Brambling there too though.

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla), Eswick, Mainland

It was only moments later when Phil started showing Mark how to age 1st-winter male Blackbirds when things got a little bit crazy as Al shouted for us to ''Get in the f@#*ing car.... Pointons got a Rubythroat at Levenwick!''..... Mother. Of. God..... We were half an hour away...... It was 3:50pm.... enough light for a while at least.... Al put his foot down. The closer we got to Levenwick, the quieter and the more tense the car got.... this was a magical bird, one of the holy grails of 'sibes'.... This bird was only the 12th record of this über-rare beast in Britain, the vast majority coming from this northern archipelago, and to make it even better it was a male.... complete with a full ruby-red throat.... Our nerves were tingling as we came into view of the crowd around the tiny garden filled with fuschia bushes.... Phil had driven as he'd already twitched the Gulberwick bird in 2011 and so, as we pulled up next to the garden, the rest of us piled out while he tried to find somewhere to park. Finding somewhere to view was an absolute nightmare.... There were very limited spaces where the area it was darting in between bushes could be watched and there were already banks of people there waiting. 

Crowd at the Rubythroat twitch (that's me just to the right of the light blue coat!) (Pic by David Gray)

I got a brief glimpse of it scurrying underneath a bush, but nothing to say more than it was small and brown... no look at its face or throat.... For well over another hour and a half it was the same story.... a flick of the bird and too much noise from the crowd forcing it back into the shadows in moments..... it was immensely frustrating.... Eventually people realised that if they didn't shout or talk loudly and kept silent the bird would prove a bit less secretive and it wasn't long before it hopped out in full view for a couple of seconds.... unfortunately I was too far back to see it, but it did at least mean that most of the people at the front began to leave as they'd seen it well enough.... So I moved to the front..... I was now in a perfect place if it came out again so I got my camera ready, and hoped the light held enough to get a record shot... After a tense wait the bird appeared behind the bush, I got my bins on it and it ran across the small gap that was on it's circuit.... I saw it fully for the first time and the leap of joy and excitement that I felt inside was incredible.... WHAT. A. BIRD!! I lifted my camera up just in case it came out into the open and just as I was setting the ISO it popped out into view of the viewfinder, sat there face on!! I froze, almost totally forgetting to click the shutter, but thankfully I remembered just in the nick of time before it dashed off back into the undergrowth.

SIBERIAN RUBYTHROAT (Luscinia calliope), Levenwick, Mainland

The adrenaline surged through me and I was literally shaking as I walked away from the front of the crowd and saw Phil stood at the back.... He grinned as he saw me and after a congratulatory handshake we went to find the others.... By now all of us apart from Al had had decent views, so I grabbed him and showed him to the place where we'd just seen it.... eventually he got better views and we all found Dan Pointon to shake his hand and congratulate him on finding a staggeringly awesome bird.

No-one spoke that much on the journey back to Lerwick.... the feeling of utter contentment and slight disbelief of what had just happened was overwhelming and nothing really needed to be said for the time being! 

That night we went into Lerwick to have a celebratory drink.... but one turned into two, two turned into a Jager-bomb, then a Jager-bomb turned into several..... The result of this was Al showing his moves to the Stone Roses, plenty of games of pool, Mark proving his ability to hold two fingers up (quite a lot), many repetitions of The Kaiserchiefs 'Ruby, Ruby, Ruby' and some very merry and rosy faces by the end of the night!

Yes, Mark is singing Ruby, Ruby, Ruby........