With our planned trip t oShetland cancelled because of Covid-19 restrictions we had to make a quick change of plans and Jase managed to find a croft for us to stay on Bressay for the week - an island I'd only visited a couple of times before but appeared to have good potential for finding stuff!
An uneventful drive up to Glasgow from Cheshire saw us entering the surreal world of todays airline travel where masks had to be worn in the terminal unless you were eating or drinking and then on the plane until we exited the terminal to pick up our hire car at Sumburgh.
Stopping at Lerwick only to pick up some rings from Phil Harris and fill the car with provisions from the local Tesco's we soon found ourselves at the terminal for the short ferry crossing to Bressay.
Keen to stretch our legs after the long journey north we quickly unpacked the car and set off for a short exploration of the island on foot. We quickly found the first of several Yellow-browed Warblers beore heading back for some dinner.
As we did on Fetlar last year we'd bought a large bag of bird seed and spread it around the drive and gardens of the croft to try and attract a rare bunting or some migrant finches! Unfortunatley the wind direction and weather were against us this time and we mainly attracted the resident House Sparrows and Starlings with the occasional visit by some Twite and Rock Doves.
However, one morning we briefly attracted A Tree Sparrow which only hung around for less than 30 seconds before flying off up the hill towards Uphouse where we saw it again later in the morning and probably the same bird again over at Gorie.
We had mixed weather with some days virtually un-birdable because of high winds and rain but we got into a routine of heading over towards Gorie in the mornings and working our way back to the croft for lunch before searching the areas to the south and north in the afternoons. A lot of footwork for very little return! on our best day we found 5 Yellow-browed Warblers and these were by far the commonest warbler. We managed single figures of Chifchaff, Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Blackcap and Lesser Whitethoat whilst a solitary Reed Warbler was the only 'acro' we saw. Some areas had no birds at all!
We also found a single Redstart and Whinchat but Wheatears were still relatively common as they breed on the islands. We also had singles of Brambling and Redwing during the week to show for our efforts.
Our final day saw us packing early and getting the ferry across to Lerwick and then down towards Mousa sound where we managed to see the humpback whales that had been performing to crowds most of the week.
A great trip and really good to be out looking for stuff even though we didn't find much!
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