The "After Twitch"

The Story of what happened after my twitch into Fair Isle for the Cretzschmar's Bunting.

Saturday the 3rd of May 2014

When we arrived back in Shetland, Tommy put me to Lerwick.

Shortly after getting there we went to my Dad's and we sat in for a while, later on I headed to my patch of Clickimin and Helendale to try and find something.

On a first look at the Loch I didn't see much and on a second nothing really changed, I headed into Helendale and I stood and listened to the birds calling.

I could make out Blackbird and Chiffchaff and another one or two, I actually managed to spot a female Blackcap!

There wasn't much else so I headed to the Loch and I sat on a bench, watching the Loch.

I scanned across the Loch counting about twenty-five Tufted Ducks, one Goldeneye, one Mute Swan and a few Mallards.

Clickimin Loch 'n' Broch

I got a call from Paula about ten minutes later asking if I wanted to take a run to the South End for look.
I met Paula at Tesco and we headed south, our first stop was Spiggie but on the way we spotted a Hare chasing two Hooded Crows, I'd never seen anything like it!

"Retreat!"

We moved south to the Loch of Spiggie and we hunted round the south side of the Spiggie Loch for a Crane.
Well we couldn't find it but we saw a lot of common birds, Rock Doves, Meadow Pipit, Twite and Oystercatchers.
We headed to Hillwell and Quendale next for a look, at a first look we found some Moorhen, Mallards, Wigeon and some Lapwings.

A young Rabbit at Hillwell

A Meadow Pipit

We headed to the Quendale Mill and we searched round some bushes for warblers, in total we found two Chiffchaffs and a Robin.
The Pool of Virkie was our next stop and we just hoped there was waders there (I always get the tides wrong!).
Well this time we managed to get the tide right! and we saw two Dunlin, Redshanks, ten Curlews and a Swallow!
We headed to Sumburgh Head just afterwards and by this time it was about seven! the cliffs were teeming with Common Guillemots and Puffins! 

The scene was beautiful with the setting sun and a couple were also there to add effect.

The sun, sea and the couple

This is probably one of the best Twite pics I've ever gotten!

Tall and Proud

A nice looking Puffin

"Puffin feet, I got those Puffin feet"

It started to get cold so we moved north to Lerwick, where Paula dropped me off and that ended this day!

Sunday the 4th of May 2014

This morning it was pretty rubbish weather for anything but I got a text from Paul Harvey saying about a summer plumage Great-crested Grebe so my Dad and I decided to head down.

The Grebe was at the south side of the Loch and we luckily saw a birder looking at it so we knew it was there.

I got my eyes on the bird and it was a beaut, my scope was the next thing out and I tried to get a shot of it through my phone (which came out ok).

A car with two more birders and I had a speak to them, the two men were Dave Okill and Pete Ellis.

They told me that the Common Crane (which had been hanging around Quendale for the past few days) was at Hillwell!

After they'd left, Dad and I headed south to Hillwell to look for this Crane! we got there and we saw nothing so I ran down a park to check and right at the end was the Crane!

The Common Crane, a bit scruffy looking but a nice bird!

I got only two pictures because that's all I had left to take! we then decided to head north and really that's all the birding I did today.