First Autumn Birding 2016

The blog has been a bit quiet in recent months due to me falling out of the routine of doing it.
But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy, I did a volunteering stint in Fair Isle in May and racked some amazing species with Black-browed Albatross being the highlight!! also I went to China for 3 weeks during the summer and it was amazing.

Now the autumn has come and its time to get out and find some migratory birds, I headed down with Paula Moss and Julie Redpath to the South Mainland yesterday (27th).
Things were pretty quiet in Sumburgh with us missing Wryneck, Tree Pipit, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper but instead getting Ruff, Pied Flycatcher and Kestrel, it was alot less birds than had been seen in the week with over 50 Willow Warbler in Sumburgh.

Hillwell and Spiggie would be our last areas to check before we headed back north, Hillwell had the summering Common Crane and about 40 Ruff which really brightened up our afternoon!
Quendale Mill was next where Paula and I had had Greenish and Reed Warbler earlier in the week.
Sadly there wasn't the same birds there and all we could find was 2 Willow Warbler and a Green Sandpiper.

So with that we headed north to Spiggie but were quickly pulled back to Hillwell when Paul Harvey and Roger Riddington had found a Rosefinch and a Wryneck!! two much desired species for the group.

We raced back and were quickly onto the Wryneck which sat down on a post for a good few minutes before flying off so next was to find the Rosefinch,
I was hunting around for the Rosefinch when Hugh Harrop came down the side of the park so I waited for him, I had a quick scan and I saw this scarlet coloured head half hidden behind a fence post, alarm bells started ringing!!
It hit me straight away that it was a male Rosefinch, everyone came down and got their views before it flew off down the burn and disappeared.

After that we had to head back north, it was a pretty successful day if I do say so seeing as I bumped my year list up to 172, equaling my October best, only 10 species off beating my yearlist record!