Shetland Autumn 2024 part two, Shetland delivers a red letter day – Pallas' Grasshopper and Arctic Warblers!

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 it hard to get close to the rather skittish flock. The bird at the Orca Inn was exactly the opposite, ridiculously confiding. I stood still and it slowly walked right up to and past me at a few meters distance without a care in the world as it fed on seeds buried in the moss covered car park surface. After an hour or so I went for a leisurely walk along the burn at Hoswick and saw two Barred Warblers and at least three Yellow-browned Warblers.

   

Snow Bunting

As I walked back to my car news came in of one of my most eagerly anticipated Shetland birds, Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler, in characteristic Shetland habitat, a marshy field of wild Iris at a place called South Nesting.  It took me half an hour to get on site where perhaps a hundred birders were peering, as is our want, into the marsh. After climbing over a couple of fences and wading through the soggy ground I soon joined them.

 

Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler is one of the Locustellidae family of Warblers, none of which regularly breed in the UK. As an added incentive, it is the one remaining Locustellidae on the UK list that I have not seen. There is a clue in the name with regard to one of this families defining characteristics, their song is easily mistaken for that of an insect being typically very cricket like. They also all have the characteristic of being very sulky birds, loving nothing better than creeping unseen through dense vegetation. Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler is, in birders speak, a true mega with just 64 records to the end of 2022  most of which are from the northern isles of Scotland. This is a mainly brown medium-sized warbler. The adult has a streaked brown back, whitish grey underparts, un-streaked except on the undertail. It is very similar to our common Grasshopper Warbler but is slightly larger, has white tips to the tail and tertial feathers, and a warmer brown rump. The white tips are the reason for its birders affectionate nickname of PG tips! 

 

It breeds in the eastern Palearctic  from the Altai Mountains, Mongolia and Transbaikalia to north-eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and islands in the Sea of Okhotsk (Sakhalin and Kuril Islands). It is migratory, wintering from India eastward to Indonesia. 

 

A number of birders had thermal imaging cameras and were able to track the bird as it sulked through the Iris bed. On several occasions it made short flights to another spot providing me with my first ever views of this great rarity. I was reconciled to these being the best and only views I would have but after an hour or so it moved into a more open area and briefly gave wonderful views. To say I was a happy chappy would be a very great understatement!

Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler

Flushed with the success of seeing one of my most wanted Shetland birds I made my way slowly back to my accommodation. But just as I arrived Shetland struck yet again; a rare Artic Warbler had been found just up the road from where I was staying! I would certainly have gone to see the recent bird at Spurn if I had not been struggling with the aftereffects of Covid so this was a very welcome opportunity to remedy that disappointment. As an added incentive my good mate Nick Truby, with whom I have a friendly rivalry  had seen and got good photos of the Spurn bird. Nick doesn’t do Shetland and jokingly tells me these are Norwegian birds that don’t count on a UK list – dream on mate !!!

 

I suspect that no matter how many times you have visited Shetland, there are little nooks and crannies of vegetation that you never knew existed. The Arctic was in such a small group of typically weather stunted bushes and trees right next to a main road at a place called the Bridge of Firth. I immediately saw the bird well providing me with my 421^st UK tick – watch out Nick I’m on your coat tails!

 

This bird is a widespread leaf warbler  in birch forests near  water throughout its breeding range in Fennoscandia  and the northern Palearctic. It has recently established a foothold in North America  where it  now breeds  in Alaska. The entire population winters in southeast Asia and  it therefore has one of the longest migrations of any old world  insectivorous bird. Birds breeding in Alaska have been tracked with geolocators to the Philippines and Palau. They have a fairly typical leaf warbler appearance having greyish green upperparts and white lower parts. A distinguishing feature is their long yellowish green supercilium which extends in an upward tick well past the eye.

 

This bird was a real delight to watch, restlessly flicking through the stunted trees picking insects off the twigs. Doing so it came right out into the open and showed very well. One can only wonder how this tiny little jewel of a bird, they are only 10 cm long and weigh in at a mere 9 grams, can possibly undertake a twice yearly migration in the region of some 5,000 miles. Just to make life more difficult for themselves, they don’t take a direct route but  instead the european birds migrate eastwards to eastern Russia and China before moving southwards!   I guess this has something to do with the prevailing winds and/or food sources on route. Nature really  is truly amazing!

 

Arctic Warbler

It was such a delight to watch that I returned the next day and spent another 2 hours watching and photographing this avian wonder.

 

 

To be continued …….

 Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!