Scarcities Around Shetland - 19/9/2021

 

ROSE COLOURED STARLING

With a general introduction to Shetland yesterday, today was a more dedicated approach to pinpoint some more unusual birds. The only problem is that there weren't too many. At this time of year numbers of birds in Shetland are quite low and apart from these scarcities, there wasn't anything much else of interest. 

I apologise for the poor photos on this page, as the light was terrible, with this bleak murkiness that just kind of ruined every shot I took. Even the pink waist jacket of the rose coloured starling looks faded which is annoying.

WHOOPER SWANS were common in low numbers on the various lochs in Shetland

Around the island we would stop to look at the various small lochans that form part of the landscape. They held few ducks, compared to  English wetlands, but on some were a few WHOOPER SWANS. This bird has quiet recently colonised here and the Western Isles, and is now a breeding bird in small numbers, as well as a winterer in larger numbers.

Wadbister

The first spot of the day was a nice twitch for a KING EIDER. Male king eiders are magnificent birds with a massive blob of yellow just above the beak, and I was really excited about seeing one. Its a good tick for the lists, and isn't too common down south, so worth a look. However this bird was a second winter bird (not quite mature) in eclipse plumage, which meant it looked just like a female common eider, except it had an orange bill.

Record shot of a RED BREASTED FLYCATCHER, the poor daylight, plus the darkness of the plantation it was in led to a poor photo

Arriving at the site, things didn't look great. The bird we were supposed to look at was within a flock of thirty EIDERS black specks right in the distance. They were hanging around a mussel farm, which often proves enticing to these ducks, as it provides free food for them.

And so in a distant flock of black shapes a long way out we were supposed to see an orange billed bird - and we did, amazingly. OK views weren't great and it took a lot of eye straining to see the bird but I was able to see it and that's what counts. No photographs, and not one really to boast about, but we turned up and we got the bird, which is what counts.

Quendale

Second twitch of the day was at Quendale, where a RED BREASTED FLYCATCHER was hanging around. In the grounds of an old mill, stood a stunted growth of trees around a postage stamp in size. Its amazing that in Shetland such small spaces of cover can hold anything, and little places like this can be treasure troves of migrants.

The mill at Quendale

Lining up by the tiny patch of cover we waited and unusually the bird turned up. I managed to get good views of it, although they were fleeting, as the bid wouldn't stay still for long. It would fly onto a small stake, or onto a wire, posing for a bit before flying off. Its a cute bird, brown at this time of year, about the size of a robin, it turns up on the east coast of the UK in small numbers.

The "plantation" where the RED BREASTED FLYCATCHER was sheltering in. This is what a lot of cover in Shetland was like

We would visit Quendale another time. This time we had to wait as a farmer took his large herd of cows from the fields surrounding the little plantation to his barn for the night which proved to be the highlight as no birds were there.

Aith

With there being so little cover in Shetland, places with trees, like gardens become important for migrants to the islands. So we went to the little village of Aith, in the middle of the mainland, to see a ROSE COLOURED STARLING. You can't get much stranger than urban birdwatching; rose starlings, like waxwings usually turn up in built up areas. As a birdwatcher I often get a lot of weird looks as I stand there in a housing estate with binoculars and camera, staring at birds. And so it was, a group of sixteen birders trying to get views of the bird that happened to take residence in someone's garden, standing on tiptoes to look over a fence.

The garden in Aith where the ROSE COLOURED STARLING was in

In Shetland there are lots of STARLINGS, even though there isn't much space for them to nest. And it was in this urban bird's flock that we found the rose coloured starling. Looking like a normal starling, except that it wore a nice pink vest, it squabbled and made a lot of squawking sounds just like a normal starling, it was just a lot more handsome.

The ROSE COLOURED STARLING fed on feeders with other starlings

In the bay, seen from Aith, a pair of OTTERS frolicked in the water, providing good, if distant views. One of them got out of the water onto a rock, bringing its full sleek figure out of the water. There would be further sightings of this mammal around the islands, but its a surprisingly hard animal to see, they have become so used to living with humans that they can become invisible when they need to be.

Across the bay from Aith, where two OTTERS frolicked

That was three nice scarce birds today, adding some glamour to the holiday so far. Unfortunately this would be the highpoint to this trip to Shetland, as from now on the rarer birds would be few and far between. Its no one's fault, not the guides, nor the holiday company, because if there aren't any birds about, there's no birds to see. Its just frustrating that on the entire island system of Shetland there wasn't a single rare bird that someone had phoned in.