Fair Isle 2023. Part 3. Another Lanceolated Warbler.

Lanceolated Warbler is a vagrant from Siberia and is a Fair Isle / Shetland speciality. Its one of those group of 'sibes' that everyone wants to see on the archipelago. They're a diminutive locustella with a habit of running mouse like rather than flying. Its a bird I'd always wanted to see and. luckily in 2014 we found one at Quendale on Shetland mainland. See here & here for that story! 

I'd heard the stories of them running along the dykes on Fair Isle and seeing one do this was high on my avian bucket list. Jase and I had breakfasted early as usual and headed out with a packed lunch. As usual we checked al the crofts / gardens and were heading north. A showy juvenile Barred Warbler at Stackhoull stores and a a ringed Lesser Whitethroat at Quoy were new additions to the trip list but we had the feeling that something better would turn up.

We'd just sat down for our lunch outside Stackhoull when sure enough a message pinged up on the local WhatsApp group that AW Georgia had found a Lanceolated Warbler in the ringing hut marsh. The bird was unringed and a different bird to the one at Quoy. Heading north we arrived 20 minutes later to find Georgia, Alex and Glen peering intently into the marsh. The bird had disappeared but when Deryk arrived with his thermal imager it was soon picked up running through the vegetation. It headed towards the dyke where it posed briefly before disappearing into the wall.

The next couple of hours were some of the best I'd spent birding on Fair Isle as the Lanceolated put on the show I'd always wanted to see. Running along the short turf, like a mini velociraptor, it hunted down Craneflies completely unconcerned by our presence and at one stage ran right past me.

@Alex Penn. One happy Wirral Birder as the Lancie (circled) ran towards him. 

What a fantastic experience. I literally took hundreds of photos! 

The decision was made to try and trap the Lanceolated Warbler and ring it so ranger Lucy was sent off to collect a mist net. Catching it meant simply dripping a mist net over the top of it and it was soon in  bird bag awaiting ringing processing by Georgia.

It was aged as a calendar year bird (Euring 3) and a few days after it was released it was found by Brendan in the garden of nearby Setter. The day it was found it mush have literally just dropped in! This was my 3rd Lanceolated Warbler in the UK and by far the most satisfying experience.

Fair Isle 2023,. Part 2. The day of the Shrike

Our flight to Fair Isle was uneventful and we soon dropped down onto the gravel runway to be met by our hosts Hollie & Deryk Shaw, who took our bags back to their croft, whilst Jase & I started birding. Heading south we soon arrived at Quoy and caught up with a Blyths Reed Warbler and only  my 2nd Lanceolated Warbler that had been frequenting the small reed bed & 'rig' (vegetable patch). The Lanceolated Warbler had been ringed a few days previously and was found to be in full body moult and looked a bit scruffy.

We'd heard that a possible Red-tailed Shrike had been seen by Greg  as it was getting dark the day before we arrived. A quick search by Deryk and Alex revealed nothing so we thought nothing more about it. Until Jason suddenly said “whats that, its looking down like a shrike" Sure enough there was superb male Turkestan or Red-tailed Shrike sat on a post about 400 m away. Ringing Alex to let him know we were soon joined by all the islands birders to watch this superb looking little predator as it gradually worked its way closer along the fence lines.

After watching the shrike and fulling our SDF cards with numerous images we left to look elsewhere. Only to get a message less than an hour later that the Obs Staff had trapped the Shrike at Midway and were going to ring it. We were 5 minutes away so hurried up in time to see the bird in the hand and check the ageing and I.D features. A faecal sample was collected for DNA analysis as the taxonomy of the Red-tailed / Daurian Shrike complex is still in a state of flux.

If confirmed as a Turkestan  / Red-tailed Shrike this would be a first for Shetland & Fair Isle as since Isabelline Shrike was split there have been no confirmed records of either. I've been lucky enough to see at least 3 'Isabelline Shrikes' on Shetland - see here & here. A great first full day on Fair Isle.

Fair Isle 2023. Part 1. Delays, mechanical failures and a Citrine Wagtail!

Our trip to Fair Isle for a weeks birding and rarity hunting started badly. Parking my car at Jasons place we got a taxi into the airport and checked in without any problems. We soon found our flight from Manchester to Aberdeen was oven an hour late which meant we were going to miss the connection from Aberdeen to Sumburgh. That in turn meant we were going to have an overnight stay in Aberdeen courtesy of Loganair. However, we soon discovered the outgoing flight from Sumburgh to Aberdeen was late which meant its return would also be delayed! We had a word wit hthe stewardess when we eventually boarded our Manchester flight and she confirmed the Sumburgh flight would wait for us as there were four passengers in the same predicament. Time to relax and enjoy a Tunnoocks caramel bar!

Sure enough the Sumburgh flight was waiting for us and we soon boarded and were on our way. By now it was almost 2 hours later and it was already dark when we arrived at Sumburgh and picked up the hire car. We were due to fly onto Fair Isle from Tingwall at 10 am the following morning but a message from Deryk Shaw had us doubting this would happen as apparently the plane had gone 'tech'. No problem, they've got a spare plane.....

The next morning we turned up at Tingwall where it was confirmed the plane had a mechanical failure. Unbelievably we found out the spare plane was in Leeds for a major service! It was confirmed there was no flights that day and possibly not for a few days as they were having to fly an engineer up from........Leeds.......Arse.

A few quick messages and Becca Nason & Phil Harris kindly sorted a room for us in their superb B & B in Lerwick. The next call was to Star to extend the hire car for a few days. Deciding to head back to Tesco's to stock up on supplies, it would have been rude not to call in and see the juvenile Citrine Wagtail that was hanging out with Pied Wagtails. After a brief wait we picked it up on call as it flew in.

A great little bird and after watching it for about an hour we decided to do some birding further north checking Lunna & Voxter. The best bird we found was a Yellow-browed Warbler yet a week or so later these sites held a Veery and Olive - backed Pipit respectively.

Heading back to Ortolan House (see here ) we were met by Becca & Phil who kindly invited to join them for an 'houres deuve' of freshly caught  Langoustine before we went for our main meal of an Indian! 

Following breakfast the next morning we said our goodbyes to our hosts and headed off to do some more birding before heading to Tingwall for our flight to Fair Isle. Phone reception on Shetland Mainland is patchy and when we decided to call in at Tingwall airport on the way back to Lerwick we found Alan had been trying to contact Jason. Apparently an engineer had made it up from Leeds with the required spare part of the plane and we were flying the next day at 12.30! We weren't so confident but the engineer was tasked with working all night if necessary to get the plane airworthy. The issue was a problem with the brakes and in particular a small sensor.

Waders on Hilbre.

It seems like ages ago that I spent a day on Hilbre over the high tide photographing the various waders that roosted around the island. In addition to the waders we had fantastic views of a juvenile Peregrine falcon.

Other birds included a few Wheatears and the long staying Eider.

Wheatear

Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Dunlin & Sanderling

A single Knot with Dunlin

Loads of Ringed Plover! 

Juvenile Peregrine

Oystercatchers

Moulting male Eider

Curlew

Bar-tailed Godwit

The really high tide meant birds were struggling to roost in the usual places so the west side of Hilbre was covered in birds.

Wader ringing at Hoylake

Thanks to Alan & Kieran for letting me tag along on a Merseyside Ringing Group mist netting evening at Hoylake recently. We arrived at 21.00 to find a noisy party going on next door to Janes house that we were using as a ringing base. Apparently it was to celebrate GCSE results. Luckily it was all over by 23.00. With a small team and literally thousands of birds around it was decided to only set three nets at 90 degrees to the tide edge. Once the tide was in the nets would be over water so they were set high to ensure no birds got wet. 

Through the thermal imager we could see birds moving around as well as hear them and we didn't have to wait long vbefore we caought our first birds - two Oystercatchers. Birds were taken to Janes house to ring and although we only caught 27 birds there was a good variety of Dunlin, Sanderling, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Knot and an adult Sandwich Tern! 

The Knot were colour flagged as part of an ongoing project and the number of juveniles caught indicated a good breeding season.It also gave us the opportunity to compare adult and fresh juvenile plumages before the juveniles get very worn later in the year. See photos below:

Sanderling are always nice to see in the hand and the ones we caught were no exception. 

Sanderling are unusual in that they don't have a hind toe. Apparently this is an adaptation to allow them to run fast over hard sand without the drag of a hind toe.

Several Dunlin were caught including an extremely worn adult which will now undergo its post breeding moult on its wintering grounds presumably in the UK.

Ringing at Janes place is very civilised and this session was no exception. Copious quantities of fresh teas and homemade onion bhaji's kept us going until we eventually finished at around 2.30 am the following morning. I got home around 3.00 am and was awake again by 06.00!