A trip to Shetland in October. Something I have been dreaming about for years. My 50th birthday gave me the excuse that I needed to visit the Northern Isles. Even better, I persuaded Andy Last, Dave Lowe, Jason Coppock and Mark Merritt to join me. We spent seven days birding there from October 3rd 2019. Shetland is bleak and beautiful, a series of coastal scenes and moorland, one opening up after the other as you travel around the islands.
Looking south, over Pool of Virkie and the airport towards Sumburgh Head in the background.The west coast
For the first two nights we were based at Toab, in the far south, just at the end of the runway and across the road from the Pool of Virkie. One unusual thing about Shetland is that the main road runs across the runway at Sumburgh. When planes take off and land, cars have to wait at the crossing:
After two nights in Toab we moved into the metropolis of Lerwick, which was centrally placed in the archipelago and has exciting things like shops and people. Over the course of seven full days of birding we visited the sites below:
We saw a respectable 103 species in seven days. Let’s start with the common species, those seen pretty much every day:
Greylag Geese. The only goose species we saw in the week, but nice to see wild birds. Rock Doves: real ones too! Golden Plover: the most abundant wader species, with smaller numbers of Lapwing, Snipe and beach waders.Great Skua: this species breeds on Shetland, a few were still hanging on, cruising around the coast and even over Loch of Spiggie. Black Guillemot: always a treat to see. The birds in Lerwick Harbour fish at point-blank range. Fulmar: surprisingly abundant. Whilst expected at cliffs or at sea, one could be in farmland or by one of the inland lakes and a Fulmar would swoop past, reminding us that we were on islands in the middle of the ocean. Gannet: any view of the sea would produce sightings of Gannet and Fulmar.
Goldcrest migration was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Whilst ‘crests in sycamores is symbolic of autumn migration…
…there were times when we came across Goldcrests on the ground, feeding in the grass, clearly fresh in after just crossing the North Sea. Some you could almost reach out and stroke. If you felt so inclined.
Yellow-browed Warbler: the commonest warbler on Shetland. Really. We saw more Yellow-browed Warblers than Chiffchaff, we all had the pleasure of finding multiple birds. This was the default warbler species. One afternoon at Norwick, in far north-east Unst, we walked down the road by the beach and a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers zipped past at knee-height. High on migration hormones, they were completely wired. They shot around us, landing on the fences, on the road, on a pile of bricks, they never paused for more than a second, they were completely adrenalised. It was an insight into the energy that migratory passerines can tap into, a real migration high:
Chiffchaff on the beach. The second commonest warbler species that we saw on Shetland. Blackcap, the third commonest warbler species we saw. This male has an interesting white tertial fringe. Or at least a white tertial fringe. Shetland Wren, of the race zetlandicus. Clearly darker and longer billed than mainland birds, the difference was more obvious than I expected. Starling: one of the commonest birds on the islands. There always seems to be flocks around, in whatever habitat we were in. Their wind blown calls constantly sounded like something far better. As this species is declining in southern England, it was sobering to be reminded of how common they can be. Brambling: a joyously common finch. The ploughed field at Norwick, Unst, attracted a flock of at least 40 Brambling, including a number of males. Black beauty: this male Brambling was feeding in the leaf litter at Michaelswood, near Aith. In low light levels when viewed from behind, they are perfectly camouflaged. I have not visited a place where Twite are one of the common finches, but that is the case in Shetland. We saw them on a daily basis. Mealy Redpoll were simply everywhere. Paler birds caused us much heartache. A number of Coue’s Arctic Redpolls were reported from Unst during our various visits, but they were notoriously hard to catch up with and we never came across birds with the full suite of characteristics: a small bill and face, a pale buff suffusion to the ground colour of the face and mantle, large white wing bars, limited flank streaking and at best, a central pencil mark on the undertail coverts. The birds above and below are clear Mealy Redpolls.
Next: scarcer species on Shetland. And a few surprises.
