Fetlar 2024. Wind and more wind

Fetlars been extremely windy and  often very wet during my recent stay. In fact the only time I recall so much wind was in the house I shared with three mates in Stretford, whilst at Manchester University in the late 70's early 80's, on a Saturday morning......... Friday nights out on the town would often finish at the infamous Plaza Cafe run by the indomitable Charlie. This curry house was open until the early hours of the morning and served three kinds of curry sauce - mild, hot and suicide. Formica topped tables, plastic beer glasses with water in and plates full of popadoms. The safest option was the chicken curry and this used to arrive on a pile of rice with the curry sauce of your choice in a separate jug.  It was rumoured that some zoology students had taken some bones back to the labs and analysed them  and they weren't what they expected ....put it this way. You never saw any cats around the Plaza!  The few people I knew who tried the suicide sauce left on heir hands and knees and claimed they couldn't taste anything for weeks. The local police used to park up outside just to laugh at the students leaving worse for wear in the early hours of the morning. I did know an Iraqi PhD student called Jamal who ordered the suicide sauce. Drank it with a spoon and said to Charlie, 'I've finished my soup can I have the main course please........' The look on Charlies face was priceless and Jamal was a legend in the Williamson Building from then on.

Plaze cafe menu courtesy of the internet!

Anyway,  I  digress. Fetlar has been extremely windy! Its made birding very hard and its been a slog to try and find anything. My best finds so far have been Moorhen (!), Common Rosefinch and adult Glaucous Gull. As soon as a small bird is found its gone with the wind! Like many other birders I'm lamenting the number of commoner migrants. I've not see n a Whitethroat or Lesser Whitethroat since arriving and only one Garden Warbler. Small number of Goldcrests and winter thrushes have been passing through including my first Fieldfare of the autumn. Wildfowl is arriving in small numbers and the best of these have been a female Scup found by Mark, on Papil Water,  before  I arrived and a Long-tailed Duck I found on Funzi Loch.

Female type Scaup

Long-tailed Duck

Some of the days have been been beautifully sunny but still windy! Summers hanging on in sheltered areas with Sheeps Bit Scabious and Ragged Robin flowering in the mires.

Ragged Robin

Sheeps Bit Scabious

Full English in a pie! 

Tunnocks Tea Cakes - a highlight of my annual trips to the northern isles

One of the undoubted highlights of the week has been seeing Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-Atlas )  as the clouds miraculously cleared for an hour or so on Monday night. This comet was last seen from earth in Neanderthal times and I mulled over the fact that I might be the first person ever to have seen it on Fetlar. With only 50 or so inhabitants its quite likely. I don't think Fetlar was inhabited that long ago and was first inhabited in the Bronze Age.  What a thought! 

Thermal imaging has been a recent development in birding and mine has proved its worth this week. Many birds are hunkered down out the wind but the thermal has picked up a heat signature and allowed me to pick up birds otherwise invisible when just using binoculars.  A case in point is this newly arrived Woodcock found in the plantation up Feal Burn - an area I've been checking 2-3 times daily. It was sitting tight and without the thermal I'd have missed it.

Using the thermal to check for heat signatures in thick vegetation

Woodcock found using the thermal 

I watched 4 Redwing drop into the tops of some pine trees in the plantation. I could see them through the thermal but could not pick them out in the binoculars!

My accommodation is right by the sea, at Houbie, so there's always something to look at from the windows even when its to wet to go out.  The strong southerly winds blew this adult winter plumaged Kittiwake into the bay and I braved the weather to get a couple of photographs as it fed close to shore occasionally plunge diving after some small morsel in the surf.

Greylag Geese are feature of autumns / winters on Shetland. These originate from Iceland and most are genuinely wild birds compared to the feral birds we see in Cheshire. Large numbers winter on Fetlar and I make a point of checking them all  as they can bea carrier species for  something more unusual such as last weeks Barnacle Goose or Pinkfeet.

Although its been hard going I keep telling myself I've got two more days here before starting the long journey home. Tomorrow's another day and it only takes one good bird.............

Fetlar 2024. Part 1. High winds and heavy rain

My trip to Fetlar didn't get off to the most auspicious of starts. Leaving home, in Cheshire, at just after 3 am Friday morning I made good time and arrived at Glasgow airport for my supposed 10.15 am flight to Sumburgh where I was picking up a hire car and taking a leisurely journey north to Fetlar via Tesco's in Lerwick and ferries across to Yell and ultimately Fetlar.

Unfortunately Loganair had other ideas. My flight was delayed by 5.5 hours! With absolutely no help from Loganair, apart from being messaged to advise our boarding card could be used to obtain £5.00 worth of food - not even enough for a meal deal at W H Smiths we were left to fend for ourselves. There was no one to ask 'airside' in the departures area and the 'customer relations' team we phoned on several occasions were about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Its only when we saw 'our plane' being towed off the stand we realised we might be stuck in Glasgow overnight.  Thankfully, probably because it was going to cost them a fortune in putting us all up overnight, Loganair diverted a plane from Aberdeen. One of the airport ground staff told us before even Loganair knew themselves.

Eventually arriving in Sumburgh my now leisurely drive became a high speed dash up the spine of mainland Shetland with a quick 'supermarket trolley dash' into Tesco's before another quick stop at the animal feed store to pick up the obligatory sack of birdseed (more on that later) and then onto Toft for the somewhat later than I expected ferry across to Ulsta on Yell. Whilst talking to one of the ferry crew members he suggested that if I put my foot down I could actually make the original ferry I'd booked for Fetlar via Unst. Very kindly he let me off ahead of the two caravans that would have lost me valuable time. So, despite the best efforts of Loganair I arrived at our accommodation on Fetlar at 20.00 - almost 17 hours after leaving Cheshire.

Saturday was grim weather wise and it was a case of battening down the hatches and seeing what came to the bird seed spread liberally across the drive. It was great to catch up with Mark & Linda Sutton in their new camper van hear a bit more about their recent Australian birding odyssey. Later we met up with local birder Paul Macklam at the community hall social and quiz night. I'd last seen Paul two years ago on my last visit to Fetlar. A serious knee injury meant I couldn't make it last year.

Thankfully the weather improved Sunday but it was still windy with some heavy showers. A good solid 8 hours in the field and 26,000 steps didn't result in anything spectacular but after two days on inactivity it was good to stretch the legs and blow the cobwebs away. Two Yellow-browed Warblers and a handful of commoner migrants was scant reward. However, I did find a nice Siberian (tristis) Chiffchaff  at The Glebe and the local Golden Plover and Lapwing posed up a storm! 

Above: Siberian Chiffchaff

Unfortunately I didn't hear it call and to me the legs don't look black enough but none other than Killian Mullarney himself said it looked good  for 'tristis' so thats good enough for me! 

The scenery here can be spectacular and the skies and cloud formations are amazing. Our accommodation is at Houbie and close to one of the best birding spots on Fetlar - Feal Burn and the plantation. The usual routine is to walk the burn and check the plantation before coming back for a brew and then explore other sites on the island before doing the burn and plantation again late afternoon before it gets dark - birds are dropping in and moving down the island all the time so its worth checking sites more than once.

Looking up Feal Burn to the plantation

Tresta is another birding hotspot with the large garden at The Glebe (formerly the Manse) being well worth checking . Its held a host of good birds - including a Taiga Flycatcher I saw here in October 2009! See here. More recently I found the holy grail of birding finds when I stumbled upon a male Siberian Rubythroat in the garden of one of the crofts. Probably my finest birding hour. See here

You can see why expectations were high but, sadly, the only find was the afore mentioned Siberian Chiffchaff. It was good to catch up with the Barnacal Goose found by Linda a few days previously as it flew in wit ha flock of Greylag Geese.

Most of the Barnacle geese we see in Cheshire are probably of feral origin but this is likely to be  a genuinely wild bird.

I'm pleased to say the bird seed worked and among the throng of local House Sparrows and Starlings gorging themselves three Brambling were attracted down to the free meal.

It was also nice to catch up with this male Merlin hunting along the roadside at Funzie before perching up just long enough for a couple of photos. 

Fair Isle Bird Observatory.

Fair Isle Bird Observatory has been present in one form or another since 1948 when the original observatory was housed in a complex of old naval huts at North Haven. In 1969 a second newer Obs was built in the same location and this lasted until the 'new' obs was built in 2010.  Visited the 2nd incarnation of the Obs when twitching the UK"s first Citril Finch in 2008 and in later years stayed at the 'new' obs that opened in 2010. This unfortunately burnt down in march 2019 and its taken a long time for the Obs to be rebuilt. Fair Isle is a hard place to get to let alone build a brand new bird observatory akin to a 40 room 3 star hotel and it was no surprise that bad weather delayed the project and it was thrown into more disarray when the main contractor went into voluntary liquidation.  See here for a history of the Obs and here for details of the fire and rebuild.

Over the past three years we've watched as the new, new Obs has risen phenoix like from the ashes and during our recent visit got a tour of the new building by Chairman Dougie Barr. The orignianl project manager from the failed contracting company has been directly employed and the Obs committee are now managing the rest of the rebuild themselves. During our visit the place was buzzing with activity with 2nd fix electrics and plumbing being installed along with the sprinkler system. Theres still along way to go but it looks as if a full opening next autumn is well on schedule. By the end of this year there should be definite signs that the finish is in sight. Once the electrics are finished the suspended ceilings can be installed and the interior will look a lot different.

Inside theres a few changes to the original layout. There's no Obs shop and items for sale will be displayed in glass cases i nthe larger lounge area. The kitchen is larger as is the dining room and ringing room. The library is in a separate room whereas before it used to be accessed in the L shaped lounge. larger picture windows are fitted to the lounge and dining room for viewing the 'garden' plantation and nearby North Haven. Upstairs the rooms are either singles or twins with a disabled access room again on the ground floor as previously. The rooms are slightly smaller than previously but all have ensuite bathrooms. Theres a larger laundry room with separate washing machines for staff and residents use. Another major difference is the new building is rendered on the outside whereas the previous one was timber clad.

Previous Obs building was timber clad

The plan is to have a separate director of ornithology and director of hospitality and the accommodation ahs been designed as two separate flats or one big flat depending on whether its a couple who takeover the roles or two individuals. 

The devastating fire was caused by a faulty electrical connection from solar panels located on the roof. This time there will be a separate solar field on a nearby hillside with this being owned by the island and the electricity sold to the Obs.

View of the Obs whena pproaching along the road from the south with the 'directors' flats behind the vans

Front elevation 

Large picture windows in the lounge area

View looking back up to the Obs from North Haven

Side elevation showing the 'obs garden' plantation

Rear elevation with generator shed and 'garage' in foreground

Its a very impressive new building and once again will be at the heart of the islands community providing jobs and helping with the local economy.  Even the most tight fisted birders spend money on food and snacks so Stackhoull stores will benefit as will the islands community of Fair Isle knitters.  Heres hoping I get back next year and meet up with Alex, Luke & Jonny again.

The UK's 2nd confirmed Pale-legged Leaf Warbler.

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler is a 'skulky' phylloscopus warbler that usually winters in South East Asia. Following several UK records of Eastern-crowned Warbler (see here for details of our twitch for the 1st UK record back in 2009!) Pale-legged Leaf Warbler was on every rarity hunters radar. Roll on 21st October 2016 when a dead phylosc warbler found on St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, was positively identified as this species and a first for the UK. A previous record at Portland,  Dorset on 22nd October 2012 couldn't be positively identified to species level as Sakhalin Leaf Warbler couldn't be ruled out. For a write up of the 1st accepted UK record see the British Birds article here. Imagine being casually handed a dead first for Britain as happened to Laurence. I think I'd be trying to give it the kiss of life! 

As a trainee ringer and avid birder in the 70's I bought (and still have) Kenneth Williamsons warbler Identification for Ringers. This was a three volume publication with volume 2 dedicated to phylloscopus warblers. Along with my 2nd edition of  'Svensson'  I read them avidly absorbing the information. One of those phylloscs  I read about was Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. I dreamed about pulling one of these rare leaf warblers out of a mist net at Wicken Fen! 

Roll on Wednesday 26th September 2024 when a skulking phyllosc was discovered at Bempton cliffs RSPB and initially thought to be an Arctic Warbler. And relax.............A few days later it was re-identified as a possible Eastern-crowned Warbler. I was still distinctly chilled...........

By Friday night birding WhatsApp groups were humming with the mind boggling news that the bird had been sound recorded and positively identified as the UK's 1st LIVE Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. Cue my phone entering rapid melt down mode as firstly Fred then Steve offered lifts (thanks guys) and the WhatsApp chatter was full of people arranging to meet up enroute or in the car park at Bempton! 

My problem was that I had two airport runs to do Saturday for family members & I couldn't really let them down. Declining the lifts I did what I usually do in these situations. Sulk. With the bird being present since Wednesday and it being a Friday night surely it would do the famous 'Friday night bunk' as a lot of rarities tend to do just before the twitching masses arrive on a Saturday morning. But no, this particular bird hadn't read the rarities rule book during its long flight and resolutely remained in its preferred patch of scrub in the RSPB car park. Plans were made and when Jan messaged me later in the day to say she'd boarded her flight back from Spain I casually asked if she'd anything planned Sunday as I was off to Bempton. I got back from Fair Isle after 8 days awayin the early hours of Tuesday morning - just a few hours before she and her sister went to Valencia so we'd seen each other very briefly. Feeling a bit guilty my guilt was assuaged when it turned out her sister had locked herself out of the house and her husband was away working for the weekend so she spent the night at ours. As her husband wasn't due back until 10 pm Sunday night it meant my presence was superfluous as they kept each other company whilst I woke early Sunday morning to the news the bird had stayed yet another night and was still present. 

A quick breakfast and I was off. Arriving around 11 am I saw Paul Baker who pointed out where the bird had last been seen. Following  nervous wait the guy next to me picked up in the bottom of a bramble about 10 m deep int o the scrub. For the next few hours it played peek - a -boo with us, occasionally giving away its presence by calling a high pitched  call reminiscent of a squeaky bike. I managed to record it calling in the video below where you can here a single call near the beginning of the 5 second video! 

Despite good views over several hours I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get any photos. Luckily Steve managed some on the Saturday and had let me use his. Cheers mate.

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler @Steve Williams

What really stood out in the field was the bronzy wing patch, reminiscent of of a Bonelli's Warbler,  and the dark crown (without the central crown stripe of Eastern-crowned Warbler. The pale legs also stood out being a very pale pink and unlike any other commoner species of phylloscopus warbler. It was great to catch up with friends Vicky & Paul Wren at Bempton. I first met them on Tiree where we'd met up whilst twitching a Northern Parula in 2010! (see  here). We'd subsequently on other far flung islands - including  Lewis for Wilson's Warbler (here ) and Fair Isle so it was nice to have a chat before I left for home. 

Arriving home in torrential rain I grabbed a quick shower and took Jan and her sister out for a hastily arranged diner at a local restaurant! 

A big thank you to all the staff and volunteers at Bempton Cliffs RSPB who made this twitch possible.

Fair Isle 2024. Final days and a pot of gold for our efforts.

After two days of typically dreich Fair Isle weather our penultimate day dawned breezy but thankfully clear. Determined to get our out and find something as well as the need to walk off Hollies superb meals we set off with our packed lunches and startd the routine of checking all available cover. It was obvious there'd been a movement of Yellow-browed Warblers overnight as they were literally in every garden and ditch we looked at.  There were also some large dark looking 'rostrata' type Redpolls. So different i nsize and structure to our more familiar Lesser (formerly) Redpoll.

Heading north and reaching the plantation there were two unringed birds there so we messaged the Obs staff and Luke arrived with the rings and colour rings. Staying to help I left Jase to walk on and arranged to meet him at the Obs construction site. 

We caught the two Yellow-browed Warblers and whilst we were ringing them three more literally dropped out the sky into the plantation and we walked them into the plantation heligoland. Jason had found more at the gully and in the Obs garden. Its incredible to think of how far these small Siberian 'sprites' have travelled to get here. With so many Yelllow-browed Warblers arriving from the east the feeling was there was something else rare lurking in the ditches and along the dykes.

Birds were definitely moving and taking advantage of the fine weather. It was a regualr raptor fest with Deryk finding a Black Kite soaring over Burkle and eventually heading out to see and lost to site (it ended up being se nat North Ron bird Obs). Luke found a cream headed Marsh Harrier which we picked up as it flew north along the eastern cliffs and Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Kestrel and Merlin were all seen within the space of an hour.

Heading back south from the Obs we found a few more Yellow-browed Warblers as well as Garden Warblers, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers. Stopping at Lower Leogh to check out the Siberia nStonechat and Common Rosefinch we ended up back at The Haa and Walli Burn. The Lapland Buntings that had been frequenting the area were along the burn and several Lesser Whitehroats showed well in the garden.

We were viewing from different sides and I couldn't see Jason but heard his shout of 'Golden Oriole'. Apparently it had been sat with his back to him on a stick and it ws only when he lifted his binoculars that he realised what it was. The bird flew past me and landed briefly on a washing line support before disappearing up the side of the house. Despite searching all the nearby areas we couldn't refind it but on returning to The Haa it exploded past me and did its disappearing act again only fot Deryk to message  to say it had flown past Burkle.  Although there have been a number of records (55) of Golden Oriole on Fair Isle this was only the 9th Autumn record.

Deciding to head north to Quoy and look for it there we drew a blank and sat on one of the benches strategically placed by Elizabeth & Nick at Schoolton to allow birders to sit and view their garden. Suddenly the Golden Oriole was flying towards us and perched up on some incongruous looking tropical vegetation before flying to the croft garden. 

As we watched it  Luke made an appearance, running up the hill in his shorts and wellies, followed by Dougie Barr. Pointing out where the bird was perched up  they both saw it before it again flew off and ended up in the back garden before flying off again and landing on a wall outside the conservatory of Houll where, following a phonecall from Luke, Eileen managed to see it from her window. The bird then flew and landed on a post in the middle of a field where it sat long enough for a few others to catch up with it. A lifer for Luke and we were happy to return the favour for the help he'd given us during our stay.

Returning back to Burkle Deryk informed us it was unlikely any planes would be flying the next day because of forecast low cloud and rain. We were due to leave on the last flight out of Fair Isle in time to catch the 18.45 Sumburgh to Edinburgh flight. The Fair Isle ferry, THe Good Shepherd, was go9ng and making a special trip so we decided to book on that instead. Sure enough Monday morning dawned with a phone call from AirTask saying there would only be one Fair Isle flight and we'd have to be ready by 08.00. Deciding the ferry was still the better option and would give us the chance of seeing a few more species. Deryk took our bags to North Haven in the pickup and Jason & wendered our way leisurely north saying goodbye to Alex and some of the locals as we went.

There were only three of us on The Good Shepherd and Jase & I spent the whole trip  on the rear deck seawatching picking up Sooty Shearwater for the trip list as well as a Fair Isle tick. A message from Jonny saying 'give me a wave I'm at Wyvi Burn' had me waving like a lunatic to a lone figure stood on top of the cliffs as we sailed past.

Leaving Fair Isle with the new Obs building visible to the right

Waving to Jonny Fisk. Thanks Jonny.

Fulmar accompanying us off the island

Sooty Shearwater

After  pleasant journey we arrived at Grutness, said our goodbyes to Deryk and left our luggage in the waiting room to walk up to the famous Grutness garden where we spent an hour in forecast rain watching a lovely little foirst winter Red-breasted Flycatcher. A totally different looking bird to the stunning adult male I'd seen recently at Spurn - see here

This was to be the last bird of pur trip. Meeting Dennis Morrison at Grutness he kindly gave us and our bags a lift to Sumburgh airport where we had several hours wait for our flight. An uneventful journey had me arriving home at 1 am tuesday morning and falling asleep already making plans to return to Fair Isle. Hopefully we'll see the dream team of Alex, Luke and Jonny there next year..

A great trip with the obvious avian  highlights being Tennessee Warbler, Ortolan, Lapland & Little Buntings, Arctic Warbler, Yellow-browed Warblers, Golden Oriole, Pectoral Sandpiper, Wryneck and Barred Warbler! 

                                                        Above: Barred Warbler, Burkle