Shetland 2014 - Day 8 - The Lancy, the Rubythroat and a fond farewell til next year

I woke up the next morning slightly bleary eyed after quaffing some fine single malt in celebration of our find the evening before and packed my bags ready for the off... This was our last day on Shetland and we had to get down to Quendale to nail that Lancy for sure, so after packing our gear in the van we made our way to the south of the island and arrived at Quendale with the news that people had already been up, seen the bird and confirmed it was a Lancy, but we wanted to make sure for ourselves.

As we made our way up the burn we found the group of birders who seemed to be watching a patch of irises.... good stuff, they'd got it pinned down OK then.... we made it to them and I was introduced to Adrian Kettle who showed me a picture of the Lancy that he'd taken earlier showing the tertial pattern.... that nailed it. Totally and utterly.... the clean, crisp brown edge to the tertials.... longer than the secondaries.... bang on for Lancy. We follwed the bird around a while and got some absolutely stonking views of it sat out on a tussock of grass. I grabbed some shots and, on reviewing them, saw that I'd got the undertail coverts in the photo... pale with dark streaks.... the tertial pattern was there too.... brilliant... that ticked everything to be able to put in a full and nailed on description to the British Bird Rarities Committee. 

Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata), Quendale, Mainland

Eventually the bird settled down in a patch of irises and sat right on the very edge of the iris bed in the open for several minutes only 15 foot away giving all of us the opportunity to see every detail through our bins. It was great to put the ID to rest for ourselves but we would certainly have preferred views like that the night before.

Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata), Quendale, Mainland

 We wandered back down to the tea-rooms to get a celebratory cup of coffee with a few other guys who had made it down like Adrian Kettle, Andy Lawson and Garry Bagnell (which was very kindly paid for by Garry as thanks for finding the bird - his 500th BOU species) and discussed what the plan of action was next.

Post-Lancy celebratory cuppa.

We all agreed that seeing as the bird had been showing well for the last few days, (and it would be rude not to), that we should go and check out the Rubythroat again.

We arrived at Levenwick and decamped but the peace was soon shattered as a pager message came up saying there was another White's Thrush, this time by the south exit to the main road of Levenwick! Fred Fearn was with us and this was his main bogey bird, so he shot off in search of it.... the rest of the guys heading off to help. I decided that I wanted to stay with the Rubythroat and try to get some better pictures so I joined the crowd (of 5!!), including Rebecca Nason and Jim Nicolson and settled in to wait for the Rubythroat to show again..... It didn't take long as per usual and it had obviously got used to people..... It showed unbelievably well... staying in the open for quite some time before running back into the undergrowth. It did this several times and even showed down to 10 foot (unfortunately hidden behind the undergrowth but amazing through the bins!) and I can't complain with the images I got...

Siberian Rubythroat (Luscinia calliope), Levenwick, Mainland

Siberian Rubythroat (Luscinia calliope), Levenwick, Mainland

 What a bird.... most definitely the highlight of the autumn for me... no matter what else turns up.

After a while the guys came back to pick me up with the news that there was no-one around where the White's had been reported from and no sign of the bird either.... The directions to the bird were horrifically vague and with nobody around there was very little hope of finding it... We even started thinking that it could have just been a misidentified Song Thrush as there a small flock of Redwings and Song Thrush in the field next to the southern exit and the guys had got up there within 2 minutes of the report coming out. Who knows.... The rest of my group decided it was time to move on to the south of the island in readiness to catch their flight later on, but as Fred was staying for a few more days, needed the White's and I was catching the ferry later, I stayed with him and scoured the area. We checked every garden and every ditch we could find before finally having to accept that the bird had either moved on. We did find a female Black Redstart in the corner of on of the fields though which was a pleasant surprise. 

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), Levenwick, Mainland

  It was almost time to catch the ferry back to Aberdeen but we still had to quickly check Seafield at the back of Tescos in Lerwick. There wasn't much there but a Brambling showed beautifully in the sunshine.

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla), Seafield, Mainland

It was then time to say goodbye to Shetland for another year.... how on earth this year can be beaten is beyond me... we ended up seeing 8 BB rarities, I had 2 new self-found birds in Lanceolated Warbler and Bluethroat, 5 lifers in the form of Rustic Bunting, White's Thrush, Myrtle Warbler, Pallid Harrier and Siberian Rubythroat and plenty of memories that will stay with me for a long time to come. Shetland is a very special place and I can't wait to be back next year!!

The last goodbye

Shetland 2014 - Day 1 - A White morning and a Yellow afternoon

So it had come to that time of year again. The end of September had been hotting up with loads of Red-breasted Flycatchers, Barred Warblers, Wrynecks and the odd mega appearing around the country like a Masked Shrike appearing at Spurn, East Yorks. I started off my journey north after going to see Kylie Minogue at the London 02 arena, then driving straight up to Aberdeen overnight to catch the ferry to Lerwick that afternoon.

The weather was beautiful in Aberdeen and the ferry journey was pretty relaxing too - not too choppy and I went up top to have a look for some seabirds as the ship headed north past the Aberdeenshire coast.

Leaving Aberdeen

On the way there were plenty of auk and Gannets offshore, some of the Gannets coming extremely close.

Gannet (Sula bassana) from the ferry.

Further along the coast, just off the coast from Rattray Head, I managed to pick out a few more seabirds including a couple of Arctic Skuas, a few Sooty Shearwaters, a single juv. Pomarine Skua and a single Bonxie. The dark soon settled across the sky and I decided to go and get some sleep ready for the next days birding.... It was going to be a big one!

I woke up at 6am to a cracking fry up on the ship and a tense 3 and a half hours to wait until I could get birding.... the reason it was so tense was because for the previous few days there had been a White's Thrush that had sticking to a garden near Boddam on the mainland, a bird sorely needed by 4 out of the 6 of our group, but I was going to be on Shetland a long time before the rest of them, so I had to get off the ferry, wait a couple of hours for a bus and then walk to the garden to (hopefully) see the bird, as long as it was still there, and then meet the rest of the guys when they arrived and travelled up to see it.

Thankfully my wait eased a bit from a text from Phil when he got to Aberdeen to tell me that the White's was still in the same garden. Eventually after waiting in the rain at the bus-stop, a half an hour journey on the bus and a quarter of an hour walk I found the garden at Loch of Brows where a group of birders were already stood by the walled garden peering into the undergrowth.

As soon as I peered over the wall I could see the White's Thrush was strutting its stuff underneath the branches of a small sycamore, bobbing from side to side keeping its head perfectly still - presumably to tempt worms up to the surface. It was an amazing dance to watch and astonishingly (as so often happens on Shetland), the small group I was watching it with with decided to move on leaving just myself and the White's Thrush alone at the garden. 

White's Thrush (Zoothera aurea), Durigath, Mainland

I spent nearly 45 minutes watching the thrush search for food until another group, this time from the excellent Shetland Nature appeared as well as the rest of my group who had finally made it on to Shetland (although minus Marks luggage!!). We carried on watching it until we'd had our fill, opting to come back later for a second look after we'd dropped down to Grutness to look for the Myrtle Warbler.

We pulled up to the car park at Grutness and wandered up to the garden where there was already a crowd waiting for the warbler to appear on its curcuit of the gardens. After only a couple of minutes it flew in to the garden giving a little 'chip chip' contact call.... Although the weather still wasn't great, we got some fantastic views of this Nearctic gem as it went around the garden looking for insects, occasionally perching out in the open showing off it's bright yellow rump.

Myrtle Warbler (Setophaga coronata coronata), Grutness, Mainland

Myrtle Warbler (Setophaga coronata coronata), Grutness, Mainland

We watched it dash round the gardens a few times until we decided to go back up to the White's Thrush and have a second look. This proved to be a good decision as the bird had moved to the opposite side of the garden under a fuschia bush but often coming right out into the open still performing its little dance. I even managed to grab a few videos which I've edited and uploaded to YouTube. Click the following link to see it:

White's Thrush, Durigarth video

White's Thrush (Zoothera aurea), Durigath, Mainland

We watched it for quite some time until it was time to go to Tescos, get supplies for the week and then head up to the Decca to get unpacked and ready for the next weeks birding!

Quite a staggering start to our yearly Shetland trip.... but we weren't to know that it certainly wasn't going to be downhill from there!