Today Tommy and I took Henry up to Unst to see the Cape May Warbler.
The 2nd of November 2013
I got my stuff ready and then I waited for Tommy and Henry to come up from the Mainland.
Soon Tommy and Henry arrived and they had Paula's camera which they had been told to pick up on the way from Lerwick (my camera was till "out of action" so I was very glad to see Paula's camera) the three of us then headed up to the Gutcher ferry.
We took the ferry across to Unst and soon we were heading up to Baltasound.
Once in Baltasound we headed straight to the Old Manse.
As we rounded the corner from the school, we saw a few cars parked up and a lot of birders so we continued going and we parked up the car.
We got out quickly and went to see if they had seen the bird.
The bird was working it's way along a dyke and we soon got some good views of it.
Henry had met a lot of the people who were there because they had stayed at Haa over the years.
It then disappeared and we were just about to leave when it was spotted in a sycamore tree no more than ten feet away!
Henry and I slowly moved towards the dyke between us and the tree and we started getting amazing views while passing the camera between us.
When I had the camera the bird landed on the dyke really close to where we were standing! and I got these great shots.
I have to say this is a pretty good shot of the bird and it has a insect in it's beak!
Such an amazing bird to be able to get all the way over to Shetland
The bird then flew back into the tree and then along the dyke and we lost it, so we went round Baltasound to find other birds.
At the Baliasta cemetery we spotted a few Chiffchaffs and a bird of prey (it could of been a Merlin but a Sparrowhawk had been sighted in the area), Henry and I spotted some Chiffchaffs flyover to a nearby house and we tried to get picture of them.
I got a really good look at one and it was really pale, I then noticed a small white wing bar and I was thinking that it could be a Siberian Chiffchaff.
The bird then flew off and we lost it so we continued looking round Unst.
We headed up to Haroldswick to a marsh which had a group of bushes on the edge of it, last year Tommy and I came here and we found my first Reed Bunting and some Willow Warblers and every time we've come to Unst we have checked this same spot.
We didn't find anything in the bushes but we did find a few Wigeon and some Snipe, Henry and I then had a quick look on the beach there and he spotted a Grey Wagtail! No matter how many times he pointed to it I couldn't see it, then he pointed and I saw it at the far side of the beach.
We chased after it for a while but were unable to find the bird and so we headed back to the car.
On the way we heard a Great-northern Diver calling, we checked in the sea and we spotted an adult and a juvenile bird (A very nice sight).
We got in the car and we headed south to Baltasound, on the way Henry wanted to have a look at the famous Unst bus stop.
We then went along the coast and then up to Halligarth where we met Brydon Thomason, he asked us if we'd heard about the Dipper (I was thinking, Dipper?!? what Dipper?!?) we said no and he said that one had been found in a burn on Hermaness, he said that we wouldn't have enough time to go up.
I thought we could make it but we turned around when we got to Haroldswick and instead we went to see the Cape May again.
When we got there all but one birder was there so we asked him if he'd seen the bird, he said that he had just lost it so we had a look along the dyke where we originally saw it.
Within a few seconds Henry and I relocated the bird on the dyke sitting next to a Blackcap! we called Tommy and the birder over and they saw it, the birder then started walking back to his car and we headed back to the ferry.
At the Loch of Belmont we spotted a duck, Henry and I got out to have a look at it and it turned out to be a female Long-tailed Duck (there was four-hundred on the Loch this year or last!)
We then crossed back over to Yell and I was put back to Mid Yell.
I had checked Nature Shetland a few days later to see if the Cape May Warbler was seen on Sunday or Monday, it hadn't so I was thinking that Tommy, Henry and myself were the last people to see it!
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