We were back at the
Thick-billed Warbler site by about 08:00 but it had not been seen and there
were less birders present today. After a
patient wait in unpleasant conditions, with a couple of heavy showers, and a
brief view of a Yellow-browed Warbler, there was some interest in a bird that some
had seen fly into the bushes. A few
seconds it flew out again passing low over the crop field and dropped into the
vegetation. It was the Thick-billed
Warbler but it again the views were only in flight and again rather brief. We stayed for perhaps another two hours,
seeing the bird on two more occasions but again only in flight and with news of
an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler at Hoswick we decided to move on.
When we arrived at the site
the bird was not showing but over the next hour or so we had some nice views of
the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler in some rather pleasant weather. The garden also produced another
Yellow-browed Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Garden Warbler.
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler
Garden Warbler
We went to Ennie where we had
lunch and some rather nice views of three Twite that were feeding close to the
beach. Channerwick was where we spent our
final hour or so birding where we found several Chiffchaff and a Yellow-browed
Warbler and a nice pod of Harbour Porpoise in the bay. With time running out we returned to Lerwick,
returning the car and before boarding the ferry for our overnight trip to
Aberdeen. It was pleasing that the
mid-week storms had abated and we had a smooth a trouble free return to the
mainland.
Twite
Black Guillemot from the ferry
Overall our first of
experience of Shetland birding had been excellent with three lifers supported by
a number of excellent and generally well seen birds.
No comments:
Post a Comment