Some proper Patching

Its been a while since I've posted about 'being on the patch' but now this should be the first of a few new instalments.

I have changed my patch recently as I've stopped birding at Clickimin/Helendale/Seafield and now I have moved over to the Knab a mile or two away on the other side of Lerwick due to me being at the Anderson High School, while being at my new patch I haven't really birded it as much as I've always seen it as quite poor due to it being a barren cliff with next to no cover, but to be fair I have been wrong about that and really if I'm not trying to see birds I'm not going to get them.
So recently I've started birding it more to try and find my own autumn goodies among everyone else's finds, last weeks good bird was a group of 5 Knot (patch tick) which took the patch total to 28, though they were initially found by a visiting birder who'd come up for the Black-billed Cuckoo.

Today (25/09/2017) saw another addition to the Patch List, after a good 20 Turnstone feeding on the short grass in the graveyard it looked like a good day, walking along the cliff line at (what I believe to be called) South Ness, I managed to flush two small, brown backed waders with white bellies off of the cliff  where they appeared to be sheltering from the strong South Easterlies, I quickly got them in the bins and they were Common Sandpipers!! they were quite flighty birds and I flushed them again in the next geo, one decided to land within view this time and allowed for some rather rubbish photos.

Common Sandpiper as shown by rather large red arrow

A further walk around the east end of the Knab produced nothing else of interest so that ended my denner time birdwatch, I gave it a second go after school around 4pm but the wind had picked up and anywhere on the east side of the patch was being completely blasted by the winds so I gave up and headed to the west side, hoping the geos were more sheltered.

Well it was safe to say that nowhere was sheltered, even the west geos were being pummelled the winds so I tried some of the ditches around the golf course and at least that produced two very unhappy Mipits who didn't seem to be enjoying the winds either, after having found something worth noting I was happy to head back, ending my first proper patch birding of the autumn.

 One of the rather sad looking Mipits