Tuesday 26 September 2017

A day of 2 halves

Bit of a strange day to be honest but one that you learn to expect on Shetland. Despite the calmer winds and brighter conditions this morning, everywhere seemed pretty quiet. Our morning walk around the patch only produced a chiffchaff still at Houlland and another with a yellow browed warbler near the school. I did manage to get a few pics of the YBW and hope for better as the trip goes on.




Our first jaunt around the Haroldswick was tough going in the strong wind. 11 grey herons (groups of 7 & 4) over, chiffchaff, robin and yellow browed warbler was all we could muster.



We decided to go and have a look around Skaw then have some lunch. The croft was quiet and to be honest, we were a bit fed up. I suggested we have a look down on Lamba Ness and if nothing else, do some seawatching.

Instead of seawatching we decided to check the sheltered cliffs which turned out to be a good decision. First birds seen were a couple of robins, not much but they were migrants. Then a male redstart appeared from nowhere. A good decision to check the cliffs and were were getting interested. Our check around the end of the cliffs also produced wheatear, blackbird, mealy redpoll and a nice little group of dunlin. With birds about, we decided to head back to Skaw and do the cliffs north of the croft. Nick and I had checked them last year so we thought it was worth a go.
On the drive back up Lamba Ness we added kestrel, whinchat and a song thrush to the list.






As we got to the top of the cliffs there was a group of large gulls bathing in a pool of water. As they flushed I said to Nick that it would be good if there was a glaucous gull with them. There wasn't but Nick looked down into the geo and said 'there is a glauc down here' A rather beefy 1st winter was showing well.


As at Lamba Ness there seemed to be birds about. Another couple of goldcrests, 2 wheatear, 2 chiffchaff before Nick called 'dolphins offshore' and we were treated to a show from at least 10 Risso's dolphins feeding in the bay. Although a little too far for photography, they showed really well through bins. There was a nice mix of adults and youngsters with one of the adults being so pale and scarred that you could actually see it underwater! They were impressive with their tall swept back dorsal fins, I can only imagine how impressive an orca would look.





Nick was a little further up the cliff edge when he called 'little bunting'. Bugger, I was messing about with the camera further back but managed to get great views as it hopped around the grassy edges of the cliff calling regularly. It eventually came up onto the clifftop and after a bit of commando crawling through the grass I managed to get a reasonable shot.




Back at the Skaw croft, a new lesser whitethroat was in plus a chiffchaff and the same male blackcap that has been there for a coupe of days



After a slow start it turned out to be a good day












No comments:

Post a Comment