As I mentioned in the last blog, we were heading away for the October break, this time we were going to have a week in Cornwall and then the following week would be split between The New Forest, London and the North Cotswolds. As a 'sooth mouther', I do find the October holiday rather long; however, from a Shetlanders point of view it makes sense. One reason is that in the summer months when the days are long, there is more of an opportunity to get work done on the crofts etc than in autumnal months. I believe that it is also called the 'tattie break' as in times past, families would all help to harvest the potato crops. From a birders point of view, October is also one of the best months for less common migrants to arrive to the isles - which is why I'd prefer not to go away.

  We left on the home early afternoon on the 11th October and, after 12 hours on the ferry and then 13hrs the following day on the train, we were met by our friend Roger at St. Erths railway station (near St Ives) at around 9.45pm. During our stay there, we pack quite a lot in and I must say, I did enjoy it. However, as always, as soon as I'd left Unst, Brydon found some birds ! Firstly on the Friday he found a Black-bellied Dipper (the continental race of the British one) over near Woodwick and the following day, he found a Paddyfield Warbler at Skaw - what else is going to turn up I wonder ?

  During our visit to the other end of the country, we visited Lands End (Skaw is much, much nicer). Lands End was a 'must do really' seeing that we live a short distance from Britain's most northerly point. However, once past the 'tourist tat' (yes I know, we were tourists too) the coastline was rather nice. I can remember going there in the early 1960s with my mum and sisters ( we had an aunt who lived in Falmouth at the time) and seeing some Choughs; this time I saw at least 20 or more which was rather nice.

The Skaw of the south....

 .... however, if you look in the opposite direction.........

   After being 'free' of  the 'health and safety' brigade around the cliffs up on Unst, it was disappointing to see so many fences and signs spoiling the vista; however, given the number of visitors that Lands End gets compared to Unst, it's probably necessary......

  The following days after Lands End, we visited Falmouth, St Michael's Mount, a night out in Truro and the Eden Project. Below are few pics from the following few days.......

....as to the last picture, I reckon we (as a nation) have become over protected by the health and safety 'police' !

  The following day, we heeded off to towards St Austel and the Eden Project. It was somewhere I'd wanted to visit for a while as many years ago, a friend of mine who'd been there, said wait a few years for it to mature. All I can say is that it was well worth the money (about £20 per adult) to get in and I could have spent much longer there. So what were the most memorable bits ? It all was, but the highlights were, the tropical dome - with the high level viewing platform and watching folk go past on the high level zip wire (pics below) - I think I'd need a bit of 'Dutch courage to try it myself though. The wire is over 600mtrs long and is the longest in England - here .......

 The tropical dome, looking up to the high platform

From the platform looking to the previous viewpoint

  The zip wire over the dome (a person is just visible just off centre)

   A few days later, I was back in the Cotswolds with Sula (after two nights in the New Forest) and Catriona went to London with Rona. At the start of this post, I asked what would be found next on Unst? Well, I don't think anyone would have predicted what Mike Pennington discovered on the 23rd Oct not far from the school - a Cape May Warbler from America, wow! Only the second record for the species for Britain and the Western Palearctic and a first for Shetland. Rather than type it all out, here's a link to Mike's finders report - here. At first I was gutted that I had to be away when Mike found such a rarity on my 'home patch' so top speak; would it hang around or disappear overnight? that was the question on everyone's mind - or even would it stay until we got home? As it turned out it did, thankfully.

  Arriving back on Unst mid morning on Sunday 27th, I was soon off up to Hillside to have a look. There were only a few birders/twitchers up there and almost immediately, I saw the bird on the wall and despite some folk describing it as a drab little bird, I thought it was rather nice.  

  Over the next few days I saw it a number of times, often a very close quarters just a few yards away feeding on the ground. Over the period that the bird was seen, I believe around 250 people saw the bird, many flying up or getting the north-boat for just one day on Shetland. There were also 11 or 12 charter planes that landed at Baltasound airport, passengers paying upwards of £550 each for the pleasure. It was last seen on the 2nd November.......

A wet and windy twitch :)

   On the 2nd November (the last date the Cape May was seen), I got the call from Brydon to say he'd re-found the Black-bellied Dipper up the burn at Hermaness next to the boardwalk. Reaching there some 20 minutes later, I met up with Mike at the car park and after a short walk, we reached the burn where both Brydon and Dick and Ali Foyster were waiting. A short while later and we were watching the bird feeding on small fish in the burn. While they are fairly widespread down south, on Shetland this continental race of Dipper are less than annual visitors. It was both an Unst and Shetland tick for me and for Mike it was his 304th species for the island.....

Black-bellied Dipper

  The following afternoon, I got 'the call' again from Brydon, 5 'Northern' Longtailed Tits had just turned up in Haligarth. Apparently Mike and Rory had just been in there and had seen nothing; then, a few minutes later someone else (Chris Roger) went in and found these cracking little birds. For me it's bird like these that give me a 'buzz' so to speak - birds that generally come from a colder climate than ours. The last (and only time) I saw some of these birds was in southern Sweden many years ago. By the time I reached Haligarth, the light was fading fast and it was pouring with rain. With the 500 on the tripod, I had to shoot at 6,400 ISO just to get me 1/50sec at f5.6 - not ideal for a fast moving little bird in bad light, so for me this is just a record shot.......

'Northern' Long-tailed Tit

  Over the next week, I was pretty busy at home (and Catriona was away) we also had a couple of America guys staying in the cottage. I did have a few hours out though, including a walk up to Hermaness (to look for the Dipper and a walk to the cliffs) Also I had the almost obligatory drive up to Skaw and Lamba Ness. We also had a feint aurora - although I didn't see it in 'real time' as I'd got to go to Lerwick the following day and didn't want a late night. So what I did was to set the camera up on the tripod, lock the remote release on and then it would take pictures all night until either the battery ran out or the memory card filled up..........

Hermaness is an eery place out of season

Skaw

 

Messing about with slow shutter speeds

Aurora over Baltasound at 1.15am

 

 

 

   Robbie

 

  During August and early September, on numerous occasions, there were literally hundreds of Gannets feeding in the large bays on the north east corner of Unst (Skaw, Norwick and Haroldswick). On the 2nd Sept, I was heading over to Norwick when I saw to my amazement, the view to the east from the beach was taken up by, what must have been, several thousand Gannets as they fished the bay. This time however, they weren't just out in the middle, they were also close in to the cliffs that go out to Lamba Ness. Apart from maybe some photo opportunities, I also liked the idea of being close to them as they dived - not having had the chance to witness this sort of numbers from a boat.

  Parking the car half way along the old road to Lamba Ness, the sight that greeted me as I approached the cliff edge was quite jaw dropping (and a couple of expletives!) The often cliched comparison to seabirds in a situation like this, is that of them looking like snow - or a snow globe - and this was one of those moments. The birds were in every direction and at times, the noise from the shear number of them hitting the water, was louder than the breaking waves on the rocks below; it was an occasion I'll never forget. Because they were so close to the bottom of the cliffs, not only did I get extremely good views of them diving, but I could then watch them swim underwater, often diving down out of sight.........

  In the picture above, there are lots of black 'squiggles' on the water, many of these are distorted reflections of other Gannets overhead. This link here is a short 1 minute handheld video of some of the birds from Lamba Ness. (you will need to turn the audio down on the pc). Judging by the number of Gannets that had been been feeding off the coast over the last few weeks, I was very surprised not to see any cetaceans feeding around there also.

  Over the following few days, there was a trickle of migrants starting to come through; not in great numbers (the wind direction had been wrong for that), no real rarities - which is what many folk are wanting - but still nice to catch up with. These birds included, Citrine Wagtail (found by Brydon and Mike), Arctic Warbler (Brydon), Yellow-browed Warbler (found by me and the first for the autumn) and a number of common birds such as Garden and Reed Warblers, Common Redpoll, Common Rosefinch, Black-tailed Godwits and Ruff.......

Citrine Wagtail

Garden Warbler

Common Redpoll

Reed Warbler

Willow Warbler

   Unfortunately the Yellow-browed' gave me the run around at Skaw and after the initial sighting, proved very difficult to get any images of.

  Early evening on the 10th, I took a walk to Hermaness. I knew it wouldn't be particularly nice, but sometimes it's good to leave the camera in the bag and just savour the place (I did have it with me though). By the time I reached Saito, the light was going so after standing there and watching the birds and the waves for a short while, I took the camera out and took a few pictures. The low levels was in this instance a bonus, as this gave me long exposures which in turn enhanced the feeling of the atmosphere.....

  Over the next five days, I had four more visits up to Hermaness, two in the daytime and two in the evening. On one of the day visits, I finally managed to get the ring numbers from one of the birds in the small colony 'down the bank'; it will be interesting to try and find out the details of the bird, as Gannets can live for 25 to 30 years old. One sad result of getting up close with these nesting birds is seeing the huge amount of debris and bits of fishing net and line that they use in their nests. The picture below is just one small section of the Hermaness colony, there must be tons of nylon net in Gannet colonies around the country..........

  I think I've mentioned it before, the Gannets that I visit on a regular basis now seem to have got use to me and don't really take any notice of me once I'm sitting down and keep to the correct distance. I used to think that the 'correct' distance was about 15 or 20ft. However through taking my time and consideration for them, I have now found I can be between 5 and 6ft. A couple of days ago I ended up using my 10-20mm zoom set at 10mm - one of the pictures below with a guga in it, was about 2ft 6" away (not pleasant kneeling in that mud and guano for several hours) ........

@10mm, uncropped

  The last two pictures were taken using the 500mm + two extension tubes to enable the lens to focus much closer, so I could then get closer to the bird. The last few pictures below are of the coastline in different light etc......

  Frequently when I go to the cliffs, I see a feral cat or two - or rather a fleeting moggie as it goes down the cliff-side. I do wonder how many nesting birds or chicks that they may take during the season and what impact they might have on the populations - however small. Returning along the clifftop the other day, I came across the small cat below, emerging from a Puffin burrow - thankfully the Puffins left weeks ago. I would imagine that it is only when the cats are small kittens that they can actually get down a burrow as the holes are quite small.......

  Well today (19th Sept), the family arrived back home after a week away down south on holiday. I'm going to have to behave like a family man again and not a single one, so spur of the moment decisions to go to the cliffs in the evening will end for a while :) However, not long after Catriona arrived home at lunchtime, I got 'the call' - Brydon had found a Baltimore Oriole in Haligarth ! It was/is an American passerine and it's a long way from home. Unfortunately for me and despite a lot of effort by many, only four (+ Brydon) have seen it, oh well, there's always tomorrow :) 

At least it was a nice sunrise!

   Robbie

One season ends, another starts

  Well here we are on the 1st September and summer seems to have gone and the autumnal wind and rain has arrived with some vengeance. I'm sure that a few folk would disagree, but I don't think it's been a bad one at all. The main concern for us was that we wanted it dry and relatively windless for doing the roof and, as I mentioned in my last post, we did alright on that front. All in all, it took 4 weeks to do the roof and another week to finish the guttering, downspouts and some re-pointing.

  On the 31st July, we fitted the last of the old slates on the front of the house and as we were doing it, I had the added bonus of a garden tick (now at 122 species) in the form of a Common Kestrel which, by the look of it (wet and tired), had just arrived in off of the sea....

Kestrel at Ordaal

  A few nights later, I had my first evening walk of the year up to Hermaness. It didn't look like it was going to be a fantastic sunset, but never the less, it's still great to get up there in the evening. Basically, by the time I'd got to the end of the board walk, it was long before the sun was nearing the horizon and in to cloud at that. Below are five pics from the evening...

Drumming Snipe

Displaying Bonxie

'Clear to Land'

'Evening Stroll'

  The last one could be titled - 'The Sand Eel was this big, honest'

  The following morning was a cracking morning so I decided to spend the morning up at Hermaness and go 'down the banks' to one of the gannet nest sites. Despite the at times, rather precarious route down, it is well worth it just to sit just a few yards from them and to be accepted - as long as the 'circle of fear' is taken in to account (the minimum distance at which an animal etc will be at ease). I could quite easily spend all day down there with them, but unfortunately reality always kicks in and it usually ends up as just a couple of hours......

 

  I was back down there again a few days later hoping to get some shots of gugas (young Gannets) being fed by their parents. There was quite a size variation between the young, some still small and very reptilian like, others were quite large and covered in down, and even some where showing signs of feathers. I did get some photos, everything seamed perfect - light, angle etc; however, once home I was disappointed to see that all of the images were ruined by heat haze. I knew it was quite warm by the number of panting gannets and their young, but I hadn't noticed it over the distance of only 15 or 20 feet.

  By the middle of August, the first sign of a bit of autumnal migration was showing with a Green Sandpiper at Lamab Ness, shortly followed by a Shelduck there and also a Knot. On the 11th of the month, I saw my first Minke of the 'summer' off of Lamba Ness and on several days saw up to three feeding just off the headland. It coincided with huge numbers of Gannets fishing along that bit of coast (presumably on the same fish as the Minke) and the Gannets were also closely followed by the piratical Bonxies who constantly harried the Gannets for their catch......

 Minke Whale

'Unfair odds'

Seconds before the Gannet disgorges its fish

  On the 22nd August, I had a couple of 'spare' (?) hours (and it was a nice day) so I thought I'd go 'down the banks' again. I'm now sorted as to what I carry down in my smaller camera bag (+ a lens case on my belt) which makes the scramble down a lot easier. I'd rather not have to take a tripod down but I do find the ease of using the long lens for close-ups worth the extra weight. Unfortunately on this occasion the midges were a pain but this time I was using 'Smidge that midge' repellant which worked a treat (I've run out of 'Skin so soft'). Just a few more Gannet pics........

   On the bird migration front, a few things are now starting to come through - although a bit less than down on Mainland (Shetland). We've had quite a good passage of Black-tailed Godwits, with 34 today (1st Sept) just along from Ordaal. There was also a Med' Gull in Baltasound which Mike (Pennington) found and Brydon and I found a Greenish Warbler at Skaw (there have been 8 or 10 so far this autumn in Shetland).....

A record shot of the Med' Gull on the Houb

Greenish Warbler at Skaw

  On the 28th Aug, early on in the evening, I had an aurora alert come through to my phone. I didn't have much hope as it had been quite cloudy, it was a bit breezy and also there was a half moon. Looking out around 11pm it looked promising so I decided to head off up north to Lamba Ness. The cloud had cleared a bit, but the moon was quite bright - it didn't look too promising. However on arriving at the end, there was a nice green glow to the north and there was some shelter from the wind by the old RAF buildings. Setting the camera up and locking the remote release on, I retired to the car to watch the northern sky. Glancing around to the east I could see a fantastic light show of long green 'tentacles' reaching down towards the bright moon - what a shot that would make! It took several minutes to retrieve the camera and set it up again in a different spot by which time unfortunately it had subsided a little, hey ho.....

  The last one looks like it's been manipulated in 'Photoshop' or similar, ie taken in black and white and then selectively coloured; it hasn't, that's almost straight out of the camera.

      Robbie