Mainland was pretty dead, a few old favourites were hit, Levenwick and Fladdabister, but struggled to find any migrants, a single Wheatear the lot!
Sumburgh was next up, and despite the views, it was a wasted walk.
A few showers moved through and possibly did the trick with a Garden Warbler and a Willow Warbler materialising in Grutness!
The Crane was seen by Loch of Hillwell along with a load of Ruff and a few Whooper Swans while a single Lesser Whitethroat by the Mill at Quendale was the only bird of note there!
That concluded our day on Mainland, the next morning we headed over to the Skerries on the 10.00hrs ferry from Vidlin, but not before a stop at Loch of Voe where a Yellow-browed Warbler was a welcome sight.
A Yellow-browed Warbler greeted us on arrival to the Skerries, and within a few minutes Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcap were all added, seemingly the place seemed birdier than the whole of Mainland!
That assumption didn't last long though as after the rest of the day working the islands we added very little in the way of additional migrants.
 |
| Yellow-browed Warbler - Out Skerries - 17th September |
 |
| Yellow-browed Warbler - Out Skerries - 17th September |
Our first full day yielded a similar number of warblers (minus the YBW) while new were Lapland Bunting, Common Redpoll and Fieldfare, while a 'Skerries tick' in the shape of two Wren in the Iris Beds on Housay were welcome.
 |
| Common Redpoll - Out Skerries - 17th September |
By the 18th the Wren count had reached five, yes FIVE! A good count for here so I'm told.
Migrant numbers remained the same, with slight decrease noted in Chiffchaff (down to just two).
A Wigeon flew south, the Common Redpoll remained, as did the Lapland Bunting. New were a Snow Bunting on North Hill and a blythi type Lesser Whitethroat that popped up out the Roses as I was taking a quick look out the bedroom window!
 |
| blythi Lesser Whitethroat - Out Skerries - 18th September |
 |
| blythi Lesser Whitethroat - Out Skerries - 18th September |
The 19th saw the blythi Lesser Whitethroat remain which showed rather well at times around Rocklea.
Again migrant numbers were low, if anything they had decreased again slightly, although Dave dropped on a fresh in Rosefinch down the end of Mioness and a nice juvenile Glaucous Gull flew round between Bruray and Housay.
 |
| Some better views of the blythi Lesser Whitethroat - Out Skerries - 19th September |
 |
At least eight Risso's Dolphins were off Housay on the 18th.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment