Today I went on a trip to the south mainland of Shetland with Paula Moss and her friend Nat Hall,
It was quite a cold start to the day when we headed out to to the Pool of Virkie for Waders and Shelducks.
On a first look at the pool we saw an Oystercatcher, 5 Shelducks, 2 Redshanks, 2 Goldeneyes and a Long-Tailed Duck (or Calloo its Shetland name).
After spending a bit of our time working our way round the Pool we stopped at the Boating club, got a few pictures of Turnstones on Paula's camera and left again.
It was quite a cold start to the day when we headed out to to the Pool of Virkie for Waders and Shelducks.
On a first look at the pool we saw an Oystercatcher, 5 Shelducks, 2 Redshanks, 2 Goldeneyes and a Long-Tailed Duck (or Calloo its Shetland name).
After spending a bit of our time working our way round the Pool we stopped at the Boating club, got a few pictures of Turnstones on Paula's camera and left again.
Turnstone (or its Shetland name Steynpickker its gets the name
because it flips of stone it find its food.)
After leaving Virkie we went to Grutness for a look, when we arrived we quickly got some pictures of 2 Long-Tailed Ducks (2 Female), Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones and a Brown Rat.
Brown Rat a different sight from birds.
Me taking pictures of Long-Tailed Ducks (photo Paula Moss)
Female Mallard
Stirling
Moving out towards the pier, there was a beautiful male Long-Tailed Duck, Paula and Nat quickly whipped out their cameras and got some amazing shots, while I sat there eating a ham sandwich.
After the Duck had swum away Nat sought after a Wren which she had been hearing while taking pictures of the L-T Duck after 5 minutes she had gotten a few photos.
As we were getting into the car along came another bird watcher Gary Bell, bringing news of the Blue Tit in Virkie, we thanked him and quickly sped towards Virkie, stopping at the Toab shop along the way.
When we arrived back at Virkie, I noticed a flock of "Grey Waders" they turned out to be Bar-Tailed Godwits.
8 Bar-Tailed Godwits
After we had finished with the Godwits, me and Nat headed to see the Blue Tit, while Paula took some more pictures.
After less than 5 minutes of searching I spotted the Blue Tit (The first I've seen in Shetland after many failed attempts in Scalloway) flying into a tree, me and Nat quickly started taking lots of photos and then it moved further into the trees (The photos taken on my camera were very blurry)
When Paula had noticed we had seen the Blue Tit she came up to take some photos, after another minute or two the Blue Tit finally came out of the trees and Paula took some photos, Paula let me take a few pictures on her camera.
My first Blue Tit seen in Shetland!
A truly great and beautiful find
When we had finished with the Blue Tit we headed towards Boddam, when we got to he north of Virkie a tractor was ploughing up the ground, with 100-200 Common and Herring Gulls following behind it.
After a closer look into the flock I spotted an unusual dark backed gull in the flock, after I got better looks at it, it turned out to be a Lesser Black-Backed Gull (probably the same one from Toab, seen a few days ago).
When we arrived at Boddam, Paula quickly took some photos of Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones, Redshank and Oystercatchers, while Nat took some photos of about 40 Greylag Geese on the other side of the road and I started scanning for any nice looking ducks.
After we all finished, we moved along a bit to get some pictures of some nice looking Teal and a few Mallards.
Greylag Geese
Male Teal
Redshank
Spiggie Loch was our next stop, and shortly after arriving we saw Black-Headed Gulls, 2 Long-Tailed Ducks (Male and Female), 5 Moorhen, 10 Shelducks and 2 Wigeon.
A bit further along the Loch we came across a giant flock of Wigeon about 90 strong (most certainly the biggest flock I've seen yet).
Male and Female Long-Tailed Duck
(sorry for the odd sizes shall be fixed)
Male Moorhen
Male and Female Moorhen
Wigeon
Before Heading of towards Quendale and Hillwell Loch we headed up a small back road,
that was full of birds one flock of 12 Ravens and 3 flocks of Greylag Geese making up to One Hundred strong.
Cow on the horizon
Raven
Lapwing or Tieve's Nacket (its Shetland name)
After we'd finished with the Greylags and Ravens we headed towards Quendale.
On arriving we could see a flock of 96 Wigeon, 20 Mallard, 14 Teal, 4 Moorhens, 12 Whooper Swans, 2 Ravens, 2 Hooded Crows, 8 Twite and lots of Lapwing.
Whooper Swans
After the Loch had shown us all it had we headed out towards Quendale Bay for a diver.
One arrival we spotted 2 Mergansers and a few Fulmars.
We then stopped next to an old building just at the Shoreline and after a minute Paula and Nat had spotted a Great-Northern Diver but quite far off so it took me a minute to find it,
And after we had finished with Quendale Bay we headed home for a well deserved rest.
I would like to thank Paula and Nat for taking me on this great day out.
So today I saw a huge variety of species in large and small numbers heres the list for today.
Greylag Goose 331
Oystercatcher 50
Curlew 70
Common Gull 76
Rock Dove 1
Raven 18
Long-Tailed Duck 6
Starling 250+
Greater Black-Backed Gull 2
Turnstone 70+
Blue Tit 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Black-Headed Gull 10
Hooded Crow 4
Teal 28
Common Scoter 1
Great Northern Diver 1
Herring Gull 70
Purple Sandpiper 30+
Whooper Swan 12
Blackbird 4
Wigeon 180
Shelduck 15
Bar-Tailed Godwit 8
Fulmars 30
Twite 8
Mallard 32
Wren 1
Eider 2
Redshank 10
Total : 30 species
and approximately 1400 birds in total
