SHETLAND-1ST-9TH OCTOBER 2022

It's that time again when the annual pilgrimage to the Shetlands begins, and this was my fifteenth consecutive year visiting these wonderful islands. We had a great week but missed out on a first for Britain, Least Bittern, whilst being on Unst, which was an absolute killer, as the bird was taken into care before we could get back to the mainland. Oh well, there'll be another!!!!

Anyway, we had a good week and saw over 120 species of birds during our stay, which was good as there were hardly any common migrants about, and birding from dawn till dusk was hard going, and the weather was shocking on most days. Below are a few of the birds we managed to see:

Olive-Backed Pipit-Brae

Pechora Pipit-Hillswick

Lanceolated Warbler-Wester Quarff 

White's Thrush-Lerwick

Dusky Warbler-Quendale

Magpie at Sandness is only the second record for Shetland, with the previous record on Fair Isle in 1987.

Glaucous gull-Lerwick Harbour

Great Grey Shrike (Homeyer's)??? -Hillswick-Mainland

Ortolan Bunting-Unst

Glossy Ibis-Unst

Yellow-browed warbler

Hooded Crow

Garden Warbler

Wood Warbler

Myrtle Warbler-Bigton

Swainson's Thrush-Yell

Eastern Stonechat-Saxicola maurus-Quendale

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll-Toab-Mainland

Red Grouse-Bressay

Great Spotted Woodpecker

A good week, really birdwise, but I was gutted I missed the Least Bittern, and we were only birding five minutes away from the male Siberian Thrush when it was found, which was suppressed 🤬 until it went dark and news was put out!

Oh well, I'll be back again next year because I bloody love it!