Shetland is a long way!!

Well I started my journey to Unst on Friday afternoon via Newark to pick up Nick, an easy journey to Aberdeen on Saturday followed by a rather sleepless night on the ferry up to Lerwick. We eventually arrived on the Shetland mainland on Sunday morning and the birding could begin.

First birding stop of the trip was the small roadside site at Sandgarth, an oasis of willow scrub by the main road.
First birds to get us going was a small flock of redpolls containing a very pale bird but the flock was massively frustrating as they kept disappearing into the trees and out of sight. We had our 1st yellow browed warbler of the trip (one of 3 on the site), goldcrest and  couple of blackbird  - a rather quiet start, We did however catch up again with the redpoll flock and our pale bird turned out to be 2 mealy redpolls.

Once onto Unst we have a look around some of the sites to see what was about.

Brambling, 2 blackcap and garden warbler around our digs at Scraefield, yellow browed warbler at Burrafirth, 2 blackcap and garden warbler at Skaw.

Quiet but good to be out in the field