We swiftly disembarked the Hjatland at just after seven and
headed straight round to the Fjara for breakfast only to discover that they do
not open on Mondays so we had to resort to popping into Tesco opposite to pick
up some grub to keep us going.
It was
then up island to Brae where the Eastern Yellow Wagtail was not parading around behind the Co-op so
we continued north to Hillswick where the Great Grey Shrike was found before we
had even parked up. I have a very good
track record of seeing Shrikes from moving vehicles up here! Over the next hour we watched this
distinctively plumaged bird conducting flighty circuits around its patch. The striking wing and tail patterns suggest
that this may actually be of the form 'Homeryeri' from south-east Russia. The kinked
white wing patch and two wholly white tail feathers leaving a black diamond in
the middle were certainly very distinctive but a Shrike is a Shrike and you can’t
go wrong regardless of the species or race.
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| Homeyer's Grey Shrike |
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| Homeyer's Grey Shrike - Peter Moore |
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| Homeyer's Grey Shrike - Peter Moore |
I put up three Redpolls from behind the shop, two Mealies
and a gleaming snowball of an Hornemann’s but they bounded over the houses and
Bradders head as they went. The marshy patch by the roadside held 19 Snipe,
Rock Doves, 23 Mallard and rather oddly five Pheasants. I had only seen one or two here before at
Orbister.
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| Pheasant |
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| Rock Dove |
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| Rock Doves |
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| Super tough Shetland Mega Starlings |
Bradders skirted one side of the large Iris bed by the
cemetery and Pete and I did the other to get to the lovely bay ahead. If only we had gone through the middle… A Great Northern Diver snorkelled just offshore
with a Harbour Seal eyeballing us between dives. A dead Gannet and Guillemot were on the sandy
beach and I carefully checked them for rings without touching them – so sad to
see.
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| Great Northern Diver |
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| Great Northern Diver |
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| Gannet |
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| Gannet - just look at that foot |
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| Goose Barnacle |
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| Sea spume bubbles |
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| Sea spume bubbles caught around a piece of fishing line and some seaweed |
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| Yellow Dung Fly rave - 'wave your hands in the air if you just don't care!' |
It was grey and breezy and we used the car as a hide to
check a soggy field for waders on the way out and counted 49 Ringed Plover, nine
Snipe, 30 Turnstone, 16 Redshank, three Dunlin and two Curlew before moving on.
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| Ringed Plover |
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| Common Snipe |
On to the well vegetated gardens at Orbister but despite
looking great they gave us nothing bar two Redwings, three Song Thrush, eight
Blackbird and four Pheasant that exploded from cover. Some Greylags fed in the fields below and a
Grey Heron was out on the point.
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| Orbister |
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| Raven |
A voyage of discovery at Sullom followed as Dave took us on
a walk through the marshy fields at the end to a house and garden that looked
promising. It was very quiet although
nine cackling Red Grouse were probably as many as I have ever seen here in
total. A single Brambling flew over but the gardens only had tough Shetland
Wrens and Starlings and a few Blackbirds and Redwings. The rather well developed ivy tumescence on
one of the ruins caused a momentary pause…
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| umm... well... |
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| Red Grouse |
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| Shetland Wren |
Rain followed us back to the car and so we sought shelter in
the normally impenetrable pine copse back down the road through what counts as
Sullom village. It had been made far
more accessible since my last visit and very quickly we started finding Goldcrests
and there were Redwings and Blackbirds foraging in the leaflitter of the deciduous
margins. Three Siskins were in the Alders
and I was delighted to find my first Shetland Great Spotted Woodpecker as it
actively removed Spruce cones and jammed them into a fence post for easier
access. We could hear Pink-footed Geese and a Sparrowhawk circled over.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
There were some fine patches of Peltigera lichen amongst the
lush mosses and a single Eristalis tenax hoverfly was the only insect above Gnat size seen.
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| Peltigera sp |
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| Surprising the things you find in Shetland's woods |
Back to Brae and then onto Lower Voe where another Horny ‘Poll
had been hanging out but a walk up the hill in the grey only produced five
streaky Mealy Redpolls, four Woodpigeons, a female Sparrowhawk and a pair of
Essex reprobates. It was very quiet.
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| Gang of Hoodies |
Onwards west, only pausing at the Cake Fridge of Happiness
which not only had Tiffin but now has self service coffee on tap with the usual
honesty box.
Down at Aith the Olive Backed Pipit had been refound in the
Dinosaur filled community woodland but was being a bugger in the long grass around
the margins. A couple of internal circuits
failed to find it but it did the decent thing and came back out in the corner
nearest the cars and perched up on the wires for a short while after giving its
shortened Tree Pipit-like call which was good to hear.
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| Olive Backed Pipit |
News broke as we were
watching it of a Pechora Pipit back up at Hillswick in that field that we
skirted around earlier. It was one of
Pete’s most wanted and so off we went back north once again.
We parked just outside the village as we could predict the
car scrum that would ensue. Jake and
Drew who had found the bird had left it where it was lurking in the iris bed
field until most birders had arrived before an organised sweep was made of the
field (just as we would have done to see if there was anything in there) and
the Pechora duly popped up several times along with Meadow Pipits and both Jack
and Common Snipe.
As with the Olive-backed Pipit, the fact that the bird
called (a high metallic ‘dziip’) was probably the highlight for those who have
been lucky enough to see the species before but with patience you could see the
tramlines, double white wing bars, malar splodge, shorter tail, white underparts and
restricted breast spotting in flight. I was lucky enough to see it twice
land on the cemetery wall by simply sitting and waiting for the bird to come to
me.
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| Pechora Pipit - Peter Moore |
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| Pechora Pipit - Peter Moore |
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| Pechora Pipit - Peter Moore |
With the crowd dispersing we called it a night and made our
way back south to get some supplies from the Co-op and then the long wiggle
down to Tingwall and across to our Croft at Riskaness to the west of Walls and
quite literally in the middle of nowhere.
The warmth of The Waddle (the croft name) welcomed us into
its snug embrace and Pete rustled up a fine Cottage Pie to get us through to
morning.
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