Thursday night ended with us having poor views of the Buff-bellied Pipit at Rerwick Beach so we decided to try again Friday. The day dawned bright and sunny so we got there early and spent a few hours searching the area before helping meeting up with our neighbours in the Decca ,Jono Letheridge, Matt Eades, Paul Hawkins and the rest of their crew. Matt had found a Great Reed Warbler at the top end of the Rerwick reed bed but it was proving a bastard to nail down. We got flight views only and a few poor photo's to confirm its identification. It disappeared before a tour group saw it so I decided to start walking the iris bed at the beach end of the burn. Up it popped to the delight of the tour group for whom, for many, it was a lifer.
Deciding to give up on the pipit for awhile we set off for Geosetter where we watched a very active Yellow-browed Warbler before walking the large iris beds on the opposite side of the road and finding a Short-eared Owl.
After Geosetter we worked a few fields before heading to Quendale where I found a typically elusive Barred Warbler in a nettle bed. With the Buff-bellied Pipit having shown in Rerwick Bay on two consecutive nights we headed back to try again and again got poor views but spent a happy hour or two watching the local Fulmars.
Friday dawned beautifully sunny but after a clear night most of the birds had departed by 10.00 am the rain set in and despite extensive searching all we found was a Redstart and a couple of Wheatear.
Deciding we needed t0 see at least one good bird today we twitched the red-backed Shrike at Grutness picking up a cracking male and female Long-tailed Duck on the way. The Shrike was very elusive - not surprising in the gale force winds! Cutting our losses we headed back to Tesco's for the makings of a chili (cheers Matt) and a chill out. Tomorrow is another day...
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