Whalsay day & other birding

Since not many birds have not been reported in Lerwick recently I decided to go find some

Male Pied Flycatcher at Helendale

 along with three Willow Warblers and two Woodpigeons

A Pinkbell

A Bluebell

 Narcissus

(a type of Daffodil)

In hope of seeing the Whalsay Collard Flycatcher which was spotted last week on Friday, my Stepmam and I hopped on the ferry an headed to Whalsay hoping for it to still be there.

 If the Collard Flycatcher had first been seen on the 11th of May it would of been exactly 66 years since 

the first Collard Flycatcher for Britain appeared at Skaw on Whalsay exactly in the same place as this bird!.

 The Linga ferry

 Female Common Redstart

"Whatcha looking at

there's no Blackcap here!"

And at Skaw we spotted a Chiffchaff and my first Common Whitethroat,

sadly it was quite wary of me and kept flying away!

Today I would like to thank all the people who pointed me in the right direction for finding these birds, I didn't see the Collard Flycatcher but I still had a good time and saw a new tick so a great day.

Weekend Birding trip 11th & 12th of May

The 11th

A dull day in Lerwick proved to bring out some very good birds including a lifer tick for me.

Common Terns or Tirricks on their return to the Clickimin Loch, this is one of five birds I saw today.

Also on the Loch today 1 Sand Martin, 1 House Martin and 20 Swallows (even in a flock of that many they were impossible to photograph!)

A male Pied Flycatcher

 This is the first of any Flycatcher species I have seen and quite a lovely sight (even though I had to take my picture through a bunch of branches!)

One of two Woodpigeon at Helendale, I've been told they are very good to eat (Pigeon on a plate might taste nice)

A Willow Warbler

 One of three birds around Helendale, also in Helendale one Siskin.

House Sparrow singing

The 12th

A brighter day in Lerwick brought out a few more birds.

Willow Warbler

for such a tiny bird it has a loud

and beautiful call that can be heard from about

100 metres away

 Willow Warbler

 Sleepy Tirrick

A basking Common Seal

The Loch of Voe was teeming with lots of  bird song (and midges!)

A singing Chiffchaff

 A nice song to hear when walking round a plantation

Also round the loch there was a Robin

Primroses

A Midge or Mayfly of some sort

Also today while crossing on the ferry from Toft to Ulsta a large flock of

about 150 Knot flew South-east over the Sea towards the mainland.

This is the biggest flock of any wader I have seen and its amazing how they

they can all fly together in a large flock without crashing into each other.

On my way back to Mid Yell me and my Grandad stopped along the

Westsandwick Beach to look for a Pilot Whale which had been washed up there

last week.

The whale is about 4.875 metres long

and was washed high up on one of the smaller

beaches south on the main beach

It was quite sad to see such a huge and

majestic animal washed up dead.



A run aroond da toon

Since it was a nice day (the 5th of May), me and my dad decided to take a run around Lerwick for a look for some birds (and a bite to eat).

A Canada Goose on the Clickimin Loch , a nice start to the day and a

new edition to my Shetland List.

Also a Woodpigeon was around da Loch

Relaxing seals at SEALfield

Female Tufted Duck

Redshank at da Skipidock boat harbour

Wheatear or Steynshakker at Gremista,

one of the birds I miss da most when

the Autumn Migration comes

A Raven blinking

always nice to get a good shot of them

Collard Dove

Also the day before me and Paula went to Kergord for a look for some birds and we found a calling Merlin (Link to call at the bottom), 1 female Pied Wagtail, 2 Woodpigeons and alot of Rooks.

Also on the 5th me and my Grandad took a trip around Asta & Tingwall Loch and found a flock of about 400 Black-Headed  Gulls, 40 Common Gulls, 4 Tufted Ducks, 2 Red-throated Divers and 3 Whooper Swans.

Merlin Call

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/merlin/index.aspx

Weekend Birding trip, The 13th & 21st of April

After hearing about a Coal Tit in the South Mainland, my Dad and I headed down for a look, stopping off for any other birds along the way.

Sadly there had been no sighting of the bird the past the past few days so we headed of to Virkie instead and found these.

 Shelducks

A Bonxie eating a fish

(I was told that the white patch around the eye is a good indication of an old bird)

Bonxie chased by a Swaabie

A "happy" couple

Left: 1 adult spring Sandwich Tern (a new tick for me).

This bird has a ring on its right foot you can't see it on this photo

but I looked at another photo of the same bird from a nearby birder showing a ring

that looked like EIF it was hard to tell because it was at quite a distance.
Update: This Bird was ringed at the Ythan Estuary, North of Aberdeen by the Grampian Ringing
Group on the 10th of September 2010 it's ring reads ETF not EIF

Right: Black-headed Gull

 Common Gull at Grutness

 

After visiting Virkie and later Grutness we headed over towards Quendale

and found 1 Sand Martin, 4 Blackbirds and two House Martins.

Other Birds Today:

Virkie- 2 Swallows

4 Sanderlings

9 Shelducks

Grutness- 1 Red-Throated Diver.

Now here is some photos from my South Mainland trip on the 13th of April with Paula and Nat.

First we headed along the coast towards Spiggie Loch (through Bigton) finding 1 Red-throated Diver.

On arriving at Spiggie Loch we spotted a Moorhen, about 40 Wigeon and 5 Shelducks.

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit again

 Lapwing

Greylag Goose

Shalder

a Common Maa

After finishing our spin around Spiggie we went to Grutness looking for a Coot

 and we found it, a great adult bird

Female Mallard aka a Stock Deuk

 A male Stock Deuk

 Shetland Pony

 a Shetland Wren

a Turnstone or Steynpikker

and a Sanderling one of five birds seen today.