Our little patch

Although there are lots of great sites on Unst, Nick and I have our own good little patch on our doorstep at the end of our road at Houlland.

Parking on the road before the final house, the walk up has a nice crop field that is currently being grazed by sheep. Nothing in there this morning apart from a couple of skylark.

The garden itself is a nice mix of mature sycamore, fushia bushes and rosa but despite being small is can be very hard to see anything in it. The Blyth's reed warbler last year was a nightmare to see! The garden was quiet this morning holding single chiffchaff and yellow browed warbler.

Dropping down the side of the fields to the loch is a small ditch that although has only held a few meadow pipits so far, it looks good for something. Small patches of meadow sweet are always worth checking before we head up another small iris filled valley that held a reed warbler this morning.

Combining this area with the nettle patches and dense gardens around our digs should keep us bus every morning

.

Several areas checked today including Baltasound, Halligarth, Norwick, Burrafirth, Northdale and Setters Hill provided us with a decent total of 8 yellow browed warblers, barred warbler (Northdale), 2 lesser whitethroat, jack snipe (Burrafirth), 3 chiffchaff and 3 blackcaps. Highlight of the day was a juv common rosefinch found by Nick at Halligarth that managed to disappear before I get there despite being only 10m away!

Nice otter tracks at Norwick