Grutness and Mossbank - 18/9/2021

SEAL

As the small passenger plane landed with a thud, I looked out of the small window and my eyes lit up with wonder at the new vista ahead of me and it finally dropped - I've arrived in Shetland! The land looked bleak, a low cloud hung over the hills, but still there was still a bountiful world of birds ahead of me.

GANNET

I had met up with the group at Aberdeen airport having travelled up the day before, everything went pretty much as scheduled, which is always good when travelling. 

Getting into the minibus at the airport car park, first port of call was Sumburgh Hotel where we stopped to look at some trees for a greenish warbler. We didn't see it in the wind, and with time at a paramount, the leaders decided to pass on it. This as a mistake as it showed later on in the day, but there were bigger things to catch...

Grutness

Just across the bay from Sumburgh Airport, Grutness is a well known migrant spot, I guess because its so close to the airport. An uninspiring place, it wasn't a great start for a trip to Shetland. I mean on viewing the place, I couldn't help but wonder if there were better birding places on the islands. It consists of stony, boulder strewn grassland gradually dissolving into pasture with some stunted trees in the gardens of the few settlements. There was a rocky sea wall, as well as a beach and of course the sea, which provided am assortment of habitats, although that didn't result in many birds.

Female EIDER

The most prominent bird here was an unusual one. A first for the UK and Ireland, which was good as I haven't seen too much of those, this little bird was quite easily found perched on a fence. The only problem with the bird didn't exist on many checklists so there was no twitches which is usual for a first, sometimes you get birders from all over the country arriving for a view. The bird in question was a WHINSTART, a hybrid between a REDSTART and WHINCHAT, a type of bird recorded once before in Europe, ringed and DNA checked in Sweden. So the bird here at Grutness was only the second ever confirmed sighting, ever. What's strange about this hybridisation is that whinchats and redstarts live in different habitats to each other, redstarts prefer open woodland and whinchats open moorland, so with little chance of hybridisation the bird was a rare one. Its top parts resembled a whinchat, brown with a distinctive white eye stripe, whilst having a red tail of a redstart. It perched on the fence like a whinchat providing decent views, it was quit a showy bird. An unusual sighting indeed but not really one you can count which is a shame, as it takes away from what was a unique sighting.

Grutness, pretty uninspiring

A small flock of TWITE were about, their distinctive call as usual advertising their presence. This is the most common finch on the islands, a smaller version of our linnets, and little flocks could be seen around the islands on various days. Out on the bay were RED THROATED DIVERS, BLACK GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILS and EIDERS, typical bird of the sea and the bays across the islands, and I would see them most days on this trip. A BAR TAILED GODWIT was on the beach, and unusually for a bird that prefers large flocks, I would only see singles of this species.

RED THROATED DIVER still in summer plumage

Leaving Grutness news spread of an ORCA pod heading south from the north of Shetland, and we headed north to meet them.

Mossbank

Mossbank was the spot we based ourselves at to get a sighting of the ORCA pod that was heading our way. Around mid afternoon we had arrived, north of the mainland, at a lookout across several bays to the island of Yell in the background. The weather which usually changed from minute to minute in Shetland was lovely and sunny, as if giving us a welcome, providing excellent visibility, which was needed as views were distant. 

Mossbank, the ORCAS could be seen against the distant landmass

In the long wait for the ORCAS the supporting act was provided by several HARBOUR PORPOISES in the closest bay, a few little fins breaking the water before us. BONXIES were about, huge pirates of the sea. Like a lot of these type of birds, rare in Suffolk they are very common this far north in Shetland, and would constantly see them off the coast on many parts of the islands. As usual large numbers of GANNET were about often dive bombing into the sea to catch a fish, despite being common, they are very charismatic.

The community at Mossbank, WADERS were present on the mud in the bay

For two hours we would wait and the constant thought that hung with me was whether we would see the ORCAS. When asked about going to Shetland, what I most wanted to see, the reply was always KILLER WHALES, everything else was a bonus.

GANNET

 

And then there came the shout, someone had caught one in their 'scope. What we were looking at was pretty distant, a pinprick even when so magnified. It took some finding to see them in the sea. But with the island of Yell behind, landmarks pointed me to them. And yes I finally saw them, their black dorsal fin rising up from the water, and there seemed to be three of them, but there were probably more. One rose up further from the water and you could see the white patterning beneath. It was an amazing view, better than I expected anyway. The ORCAS soon moved on and went out of view behind a headland. We moved to another spot, further down but they never showed again. As with all nature you only get a very brief glimpse of something stupendous, one I may never see again. Spectacular.

TYSTIE

So a good first day on Shetland, which made me wonder what other goodies were awaiting me on the islands. Arriving at new places can be very exciting with the potential there for anything to be seen. The holiday stretched out before me with the potential for me to see many more birds.