Fair Isle - finally!

Since the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle tragically burnt down in March 2019 accommodation on the island for visiting birders has been at a premium. My last visit was in 2017. We were supposed to go in October 2018 but had to cancel as my dad died and his funeral was right in the middle of the time I should have been on the island.  Obs is getting rebuilt but progress has been slow due to escalating costs and the need to re-apply for planning plus the logistical nightmare of getting equipment, materials and people to the island. As I'm writing this it looks as if the first barge loaded with cranes and some of the build modules has arrived at North Haven so hopefully the rebuild will speed up. Not having the Obs has had a devastating impact on the islands economy - as well as providing employment it provided a place to meet socially for a drink in the bar and the island shop at Stackhoul benefited from both supplying the Obs and selling stuff to visiting birders.

Our trip to Fetlar had to be cancelled this year but we managed to get accommodation with Hollie and Deryk Shaw at Burkle. Hollie and Deryk used to run the old, old obs and were the first wardens of the old obs that subsequently burnt down. Consequently they're used to birders! 

Our flight from Tingwall was uneventful and we made good time before landing at the small Fair Isle airstrip.

The annual hill sheep round up was taking place when we arrived so we left our bags at the airport and walked down the road towards the plantation where we met acting warden Alex, assistant warden Georgia, ranger Holly and both our hosts, Deryk and Hollie busy with the sheep.

The weather was mixed during our six remaining days with some days being virtually unbirdable due to high winds  and driving rain. We soon got into a routine of breakfast and then heading our for the day with a packed lunch provided by Hollie. We'd be out all day and then return for our evening meal after having covered an average of 15 miles per day over rough ground in wellies and waterproofs! Hollies delicious home cooking was devoured with relish.

Our route would take in crofts in the south around Burkel before heading to Pund and then climbing to the top of Hill Dyke and following it down to Gillsetter and heading up to the site of the bird observatory rebuild and North Haven. 

We'd then head towards North Lighthouse and work the geos around Easter Loder before heading down Wivey Burn or up and over Ward Hill and down to the airfield before heading south again via  Filed Ditch and Rippack.

During our stay Redwing numbers increased dramatically and there was a constant stream of Greylag Geese flying over with a few Pinkfeet and Barnacal Geese. A few Whooper Swans also arrived a a small party stayed for a day on Da Water before departing and leaving a lone bird that didn't appear to be injured but didn't want to leave.

North haven held a moulting adult Great Northern Diver and we also found a partial summer plumaged Slavonian Grebe. This ast bird cuased a bit of consternation when we saw it from a distance as we weren't expecting to see a bird in this partial plumage! 

A flock of Snow Buntings were around the North Lighthouse and on once occasion we counted 42 birds. A beautiful site as they flew around the short grazed turf on the cliff tops.

Twice we had a flyover Lapland Bunting in this area but we couldn't locate it on the ground. Thanks to Jase's sharp eyes we did find a Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll. Stunning birds and certainly deserving the sobriquet 'snowball'.

It was amazing to see this bird flying around the geos feeding on the seed heads of thrift. Alex confirmed from phots that this was a different bird from the one that had been seen the week before we arrived so we'd found ourselves a BBRC rarity and will complete a rarities form on behalf of hte Obs.

 Later in the week we had two Redpolls flyover us at Hill Dyke which sounded like they were of north western origin and a few minutes later Steve Arlow had another Hornemann's at Pund. I refound this bird later whilst working the heligoland traps at Plantation and this proved to be the same bird as Steve found. It was very mobile and didn't stay long before flying off with Twite.

Fair Isle Wren - an endemic sub-species

Hornemann's - second bird.

Common migrants were few and far between with single figure counts of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, alba Wagtails, Wheatear and Whinchat.

Whinchat

White Wagtail

Scarcer migrants were also few and far between!  We'd seen Yellow-browed Warbler on Shetland mainland but the views of the ones that arrive on Fair Isle are generally much better - mainly due to the lack of trees! This individual was hanging around in a thistle patch at Pund.

A walk around Springfiled and Kenaby was rewarded one morning with a Bluethoat -  again a different bird that had been seen before our arrival and continuing our record of finding rare and scarce chats on our Shetand trips!  See here and here The croft owner invited us in for better views as it fed in his veggie patch enabling us to get point blank views and good photos.

1st winter Bluethroat

The arrival of Redwings later in the week included a few Song Thrushes, Fieldfares and Blackbirds and such an abundance of tired migrants kept the local Merlins well fed.

Earlier in our stay most of the Redwings were of the much darker Icelandic race and I ringed several of these during our stay thanks to Alex who let us drive the heligoland traps in the afternoons after they'd done their morning rounds.

Icelandic Redwing 'coburni' showing darker head pattern and undertail coverts.

For a more detailed comparison on a previous trip to Fair Isle see here.

Later the Scandinavian birds began to arrive in good numbers and these were much lighter plumaged birds with cleaner undertail coverts. Icelandic birds are slightly larger than the nominate ilacius sub species but this isn't very noticeable in the field - see below.

I also ringed a few other birds - including a Twite! A very rare bird in Cheshire. Fair Isle is the only place I've ringed this species. We also managed to ring a Brambling, Starling and a 'Scandinavian' Blackbird.

Twite

Brambling

Ringing hut. With the absence of the Obs most ringing is done either here or from the back of a car

Shetland and Fair Isle Starlings are of the race 'zetlandicus' and are generally darker and longer billed than our local birds. They're one of the commonest birds on Fair Isle and the iridescent sheen of their plumage looks as if someone has poured oil over their wet plumage. Stunning birds! 

We had a great trip and it was over all to soon. We ended up with 71 species for the week.  No mega rarities but enough scarce birds and common migrants to keep us interested and enthusiastic to keep on going. The scenery is spectacular and hopefully the Obs will be open again ready for next autumn. 

Our accomodation at Burkel

We'd booked the latest flight possible off Fair Isle on Thursday afternoon as our flight from Sumburgh was early the next morning. It was almost dark by the time we arrived at Sumburgh so we checked into the hotel ready for our flight the next day.