Fourteen Days Away: Day 4 ...29th September...
The first day on Shetland. After a thankfully uneventful ferry crossing we disembarked in heavy rain, dropped our bags at the Youth Hostel in Lerwick and headed for breakfast before making our way to Easter Quarff where the very erratic Hoopoe was immediately on view and busily probing around the short turf. The second one this week!
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| Breakfast at the Fjara cafe opposite Tesco is highly recommended |
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| and the view is pretty good too |
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| Hoopoe - Easter Quarff |
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| Hoopoe - Easter Quarff |
A good search of nearby Wester Quarff produced the first eight Yellow-browed Warblers of the week along with Wheatear, Whinchat, Pied Flycatcher and a couple of Willow Warblers.
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| Wester Quarff |
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| Wheatear - Wester Quarff |
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| Cracking bit of river - Wester Quarff |
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| One of the usual duo of very friendly Collies - Wester Quarff |
With the wind picking up we headed for the sunken garden in Scalloway and Nick almost immediately found a Little Bunting and although it proved tricky to pin down it eventually gave good views to all. Four YBW’s actively fed in the willow copse along with a couple of Blackcap while just up the road number five YBW was found along with the juvenile Rose Coloured Starling that had taken a serious liking for fat balls and was scurrying around under the feeders with the House Sparrows and Starlings doffing up all comers for scraps.
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| Our first Little Bunting - Nick Croft |
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| The Rose Coloured Starling in Scalloway showed quite well |
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| Rose Coloured Starling - Scalloway |
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| Just ridiculous... |
We added another four YBWs on our travels that day along with a lovely juvenile Red-backed Shrike at Laxo, a couple of immature Scaup amongst Tufties on Loch Asta and Tingwall, pied Tysties and a good selection of species at Sandgarth Burn including three cool coloured Mealy Redpolls, Lesser Whitethroats and Blackcaps but no sign of the collection of scarcities that had gone out on the news networks.
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| Red-backed Shrike - Laxo |
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| Ravens over Sandgarth |
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| Chunky lady - Fladdabister |
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| Sandgarth |
A nice ‘ping curry’ and a Lerwick Brewery ‘Skipper's Ticket’ and my day was complete...
Loving this series H, now I can work out where I saw what I saw!
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