The first Tuesday of our Shetland sojourn was mainly spent climbing over steep rough terrain to see a stunning Snowy Owl. Views were limited to distant scope ones to avoid disturbing the bird so no pics but a wonderful avian experience and only my second UK Snowy Owl.
On Wednesday we visited Lunna to see a Siberian Stonechat. This is one of the two recognised eastern species that have been recorded in the UK in addition to our common Stonechat. I have previously seen all three of these Stonechats in the UK, see here.
The Siberian Stonechat breeds in the East Palearctic including easternmost Europe and winters in central Africa In general the eastern species are paler than our Stonechat with a diagnostic jet black panel on the underwing and both have more white on the tail. The Siberian and Amur are hard to tell apart visibly differing in the amount and pattering of the white on the tail. DNA analysis is usually required to absolutely assign the Stonechat to Siberian or Amur. The song and calls of all three Stonechats are very similar so cannot be used as a diagnostic.
Luna is situated on the north of the mainland past the location of the Veery at Luna Kirk, see here. The church at Lunna Kirk is the oldest on Shetland and still has an original leper's peep hole which was used by lepers to listen to the sermon without coming into contact with the congregation. From Lunna Kirk the road winds past the sombre looking Luna House, a mansion built by Robert Hunter, the first Lord Chamberlain of Shetland, and along a narrow peninsula pointing out north-east from the Shetland Mainland.
There is a lonely bleak beauty about Shetland, if you like peace and solitude and want to be one with nature, I doubt there are few better places in the UK. The population of Shetland is a mere twenty thousand with one third living in the capital, Lerwick, so population this far from the main habitation centres is sparse. As we drove further north along the peninsula signs of habitation became less and less with only the occasional crofters cottage breaking the undulating barren landscape. The narrow peninsula often gave views of the sea on both sides with the rough fractalated coastline providing truly stunning vistas.
We eventually arrived at the remote ramshackle farm where the Stonechat had been reported. My friend Ian had seen the Stonechat earlier in the week so I phoned him for help with the location. Armed with this we jumped over a fence through a sheep field and found another fence bordering a small plantation where the bird had been previously seen. The Scottish right to roam allows reasonable access to most land. We could not immediately find the bird and so started looking through banks of shrivelled lilies close to the sea edge. It wasn’t looking particularly promising but, after maybe 15 minutes , the bird popped up on one of the plantation bushes and started to drop down into the field to pick up an insect and returning to its perch in typical Stonechat fashion. It was pretty fearless and, with us keeping still, it slowly came closer and closer until it was only a few meters away allowing good photographic opportunities. This is the big advantage of being alone with the bird in that common sense field craft will often reward you with very close views. The noise and general hullabaloo generated by a throng of birders looking for a rare bird never ceases to amazing and frustrate me in equal measure.
We spotted a small warbler flitting through the bushes and soon had it tied down as a Yellow-browed Warbler, a bird we were to see some ten times during our holiday. Once considered to be a mainland rarity they have become regular vagrants. I’ve previously discussed the increase in Yellow-browed Warblers and the likely causes, see here.
Shetland had two further big surprises in store for us ….. to be continued!!!
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