Shetland.....Next 3 Days

Long Tailed Ducks.

Day Four on Shetland 27 Th September 

Once again the day started of at Boddam in the south and more or less the first bird we saw was found by Michael , it was a really active Yellow Browed Warbler , this was a really smart bird and was zipping around everywhere , a good find by Michael , there was also a male Blackcap in the garden , from here we headed of to Sumborough and had distant views of 2 Long Tailed Ducks , we called into Vikerie beach and were soon enjoying Sanderling and a Curlew Sandpiper ,  other birds noted were Arctic Tern 20 + , Red Throated Diver and a summer plumage Great Northern Diver , we then moved onto Sumborough garden where Michael found another Yellow Browed Warbler , then we were alerted to news of a Little Bunting showing well on Whalasy so without any time to spare we headed of to catch a ferry onto Whalasay , we saw Gannets from the ferry.

Gannet.

 We met up with Ashley Powell and Dan Pointon on Whalasay and followed them to the site and within minutes we were enjoyed really great views of the delightful Little Bunting i have seen several over the years but this was my best ever view down to less than 5 feet at times .

Little Bunting. 

Other birds of note seen today were female Merlin , Ruff and new for the trip Chaffinch at Grutness.

Day Five on Shetland 28th September

Red Grouse one of nine birds seen.

We started the day at Girlsta which is slightly north of Lerwick and our target birds were Red Grouse we drove along the road with moorland either side of us stopping and scanning every few yards and we then reached a point that looked like a good area and within 15 minutes we heard then saw a Red Grouse in flight very briefly , Dan managed to locate it and distant views were obtained , as we were heading out of the moorland Dan spotted a small party of Grouse on a hillside and another 8 birds were added to our total and these were much closer , we headed of to Yell to try for some more Otters and on our journey we saw a Moorhen along side the verge , once on Yell we were treated to 2 Great Skuas which showed well at times.

Great Skua.

Other birds of note on Yell were Garden Warbler , Black Throated Diver and Gannet. We decided to try for better views of the Couse's Arctic Redpoll which we only really saw in flight earlier in the week and we were not disappointed , it showed very close and even dropped down into the grass at times .

Couse's Arctic Redpoll.

The undertail coverts were completly un streaked as was the rump which appeared huge in flight , we then headed of to Urkridge to hopefully see the adult male Surf Scoter and although it was quite distant we had good scope views , the white nape and huge bill was easily seen .

Adult male Surf Scoter.

Day Six on Shetland 28th September

Black Headed Bunting.

News of a first winter Black headed Bunting on Unst yesterday evening had made our plans easy today we arrived at the ferry terminal for the 6.45 am crossing to Yell we then had to race and i mean race the length of the island to the ferry crossing which took us to Unst , the ferry only held about 4 cars and we just made the fourth spot , we arrived at Belmont house and the Black Headed Bunting  was on view and in the bag , wow a really smart bird even though it was a first winter , white eye ring , white median coverts caught my eye straight away , then it flew up on to a stone wall reveling its yellow under tail coverts , in flight the tail was all dark with no white at all , it was quite a large bunting and is a UK lifer for me .

Black Headed Bunting note white median coverts and Yellow under tail coverts.

Thanks to Dan and Michael for the use of their photo of the Black Headed Bunting  on stone wall , the photo of the Bunting near the chimney stack i was taken by yours truly lol. 

We also had some super flight views of a Bluethroat at a different location which the name escapes me but was nt far from Belmont house , we spent the whole morning on Unst and came away very happy , we called into Laxo on the way back had some more excellent views of the Lesser Grey Shrike 

Lesser Grey Shrike.

Our final destination of the day was Boddam and we saw 10+ Twite and some close Grey Seals.

Grey Seals