The Standlake Birder

Arctic Warbler I guess the main reason for me coming to Shetland is the prospect of seeing very rare birds. It's great to see and photograph the scarce drift vagrants but it’s the thought of seeing something I have never seen before which really gets my adrenaline flowing. The list of new birds I have seen in Shetland in the past two years alone is mouth-watering, Swainsons’ Thrush,   Pechora Pipit, Lanceolated Warbler, Myrtle Warbler,   Least Bittern, Veery,   Eastern Sub-Alpine Warbler, White's Thrush and Yellow Warbler. The thought of adding more to this wonderful list of rare birds is what keeps me coming back. On Monday Shetland delivered the goods big time again!   I started the day at the now dilapidated and closed Orca Inn in Hoswick where a very confiding Snow Bunting had been reported. I would hope to see Snow Buntings every year and there is normally an overwintering flock on the cliffs at Eshaness in Shetland. It's very exposed there with no natural cover making

    Little Bunting My ferry arrived in Shetland bright and early on the morning of Thursday 3 rd  October. I disembarked and drove to my favourite coffee house in Lerwick to check the latest bird news and plan my day. A somewhat restless night on the ferry and the aftereffects of Covid had left me still feeling really drained so I planned a gentle relaxing day with some nice drift vagrants. Of course Shetland had other plans for me – read on intrepid reader (that’s you Nick!) read on!   There is a  (tongue very much in cheek) problem with taking an autumn birding holiday in Shetland, it destroys your motivation for birding on returning to a land locked midlands county. As a case in point, Yellow-browed warblers are attractive little so and so’s and would be definitely worth jumping in a car for back home. I don’t know the exact number that were in Shetland this autumn but, at times, it seemed as though there was one in every single bush or tree. So, spoilt for choice I decided to drive

     All photos in this blog are curtsey of my birding buddy – Nick Truby .   The absence of birding and hence blogs recently can be explained thus -Covid! Having successfully avoided it over the past 4 years, Carolyn and I finally succumbed. We think we either caught it during a number of recent hospital appointments or, more likely, at our local vets where the receptionist was wearing a mask and coughing quite a lot. It hit us both pretty hard and  a week before I was due to go on my autumnal  birding trip to Shetland I was convinced that I would not be able to make it as I was completely wiped out and could not imagine doing a 450 mile drive. My ever suffering wife, Carolyn, agreed that I could go a day early and split the drive and by departure day I was feeling  just about well enough to go with lots of recovery breaks.   There are two possible routes I can take up to the ferry terminal at Aberdeen along either the west or east coast. I decided on the east coast route with an over

      Compared to last years stellar birding, this year has seemed very slow at times. I guess it’s inevitable after last year’s September fall of the decade of American warblers that this year would seem dull in comparison.   There’s been nothing in the past couple of weeks to temp me to do a “drop all and drive” so I’ve been concentrating on getting a few jobs done at home prior to my annual Shetland trip at the start of October.   I did, however, recently spend a very enjoyable and relaxed morning at Upton Warren. My plan was to do an hour or so at the moors before moving onto the flashes. A short while after I set myself up in the hide overlooking the moors a Kingfisher flew in and  perched on one of the newly installed sticks in front of the hide. It spent maybe 5 minutes jumping between the three sticks. It caught several small fish providing some lovely photographic opportunities. I hence decided to stick around to see if he came back. The male and female are similar in appearan