Finnaturen suosittelema Kuvaaja!

Finnaturen suosittelema Kuvaaja - HH is Finnature's featured wildlife photographer! Click here to read the full story...

November Wallpaper

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Beans Mean...

Headaches. Spent the day scanning through the geese flocks in the south Mainland and found two new 'Tundra' Bean Geese - one just a few miles down the road from our house at Rerwick and one at Brake. The Rerwick bird looked very similar in bill detail to the Spiggie bird of last week, but the scapulars and median coverts are strikingly different. I assumed that the Brake bird was going to be the Spiggie bird as it was in the same flock as the neck-collared Greylag but it shows a lot more orange on the bill, approaching a 'Taiga' in pattern - but not in structure. I've sent these pix to Willem to get his views from The Netherlands...

Three record shots of the Rerwick bird:

Seaduck Season!

Seaduck and scenics - the start the first of the winter guided photography trips. The light was coming and going throughout the day which allowed some really nice opportunities...

Focus on Shetland 2010

Shetland Wildlife are operating three dedicated wildlife photography holidays in June 2010 and have just the two vacancies on the 5 - 12 June departure; the 12 - 19 & 19 - 26 June trips are already fully booked. Further details can be found by clicking here

Eshaness Landscapes & Snow Bunts

Spent the morning at Eshaness searching for two Tundra Bean Geese which were found yesterday by Mark & Roger T. The birds were very vocal by all accounts, so in the hope of getting some sound recordings, I headed north at first light. A few hours of searching proved fruitless but some amazing light offered spectacular landscape photography opportunities - especially over 'The Drongs':

On the way home I checked one of the sites we are baiting seed to attract Snow Buntings for our winter pho-tours with Shetland Wildlife. After a month of seeding and no birds at all, a superb flock of 50+ birds are now present. If the birds stay, we'll start 'landscaping' in the next few days and get some nice rocks in there for perch shots. Oh, and we'll pray for some snow...

Swan Lake

Office-based and overloaded with paperwork for most of the week with our brochure dropping, so not a huge amount of time available for photography or sound recording. Maybe not a bad thing as the weather has been pretty grim. Spent most of Saturday trying to photograph Redwings and Fieldfares with mixed success and I finally managed a nice sequence of Whooper Swan recordings, finishing off the week with this EP at dusk today! Enjoy...

Whooper Swans at their best!

Winter Pho-tour 2010 - Additional Date!

It remains as popular as ever, so it was no surprise that our exclusive winter pho-tour to Finland and Arctic Norway from 13 - 20 March 2010 sold out! We have therefore arranged an additional week to meet demand and we are now taking bookings for 20 - 27 March 2010. Read all about this awesome trip here

Robins

A fairly good arrival of Robins in to Shetland last week (remember they are migrants in these parts) has resulted in quite a few birds hanging on and establishing temporary territories. We have at least three birds coming to mealworms in the garden and one bird is particularly territorial.

Red-breasted Flycatcher II

Most of the day spent sound recording in the central Mainland. The Red-breasted Fly was still at Swinning and I managed to record the 'tek' call and get a few better images.

Other sounds recorded today:

Blackcap:


Fieldfare:


Golden Plovers:


Redwing:


Common (Mealy) Redpoll:


Common (Mealy) Redpoll 2:

Interesting to see how the sonogram of the Mealy call compares with the Hornemman's Redpoll recorded earlier in the month:

Mealy Redpoll:



Hornemann's Redpoll:

Red-breasted Flycatcher Calls

Huge numbers of thrushes arrived over the last few days but birding, photography and sound-recording has been difficult in the rain and south-easterly gales! Jon Dunn sent me a text to say a Red-breasted Fly was at Swinning and was very vocal, so Saturday morning was spent recording and photographing the bird. Dave Winter called on Friday to say the Little Egret has resurfaced at Spiggie and I managed a few shots in the doom and gloom of ISO 1250 land. I guess this will be standard setting for the new and improved 1D Mark IV...

Red-breasted Flycatcher Calls 1:


Red-breasted Flycatcher Calls 2:

Migrant Sounds

A few recordings of common migrants here in the valley from the last few days:

Brambling


Chaffinch


Goldcrest


Redwings, Brambling & Chaffinch


Robin

Garden Birds

The light was fantastic for photography today so I stayed local and concentrated on getting some images of migrants in the garden. The Starlings were irresistible in the low sunlight.

Spotted Sandpiper II

I returned to Quendale twice on Friday for some more views and photographs of the Spotted Sandpiper but it has become extremely flighty - these were the best images I could manage all morning.

Yellow-browed calls

A very vocal Yellow-browed Warbler sound recorded at Maywick today:

Red-flanked Bluetail II

With the prospect of much better light I finished off some office stuff early on returned to Sandgarth where the Red-flanked Bluetail gave some lovely opportunities for photography.

Red-flanked Bluetail

Three words that send shivers down your spine. Mark Chapman found this superb 1st W Red-flanked Bluetail at Sandgarth yesterday afternoon. I arrived just after dawn in heavy rain and after an hour of searching to no avail, I was thinking of packing in - but it duly appeared. The bird proved to be extremely retiring and was certainly not behaving like the last few of Bluetails I'd seen in Shetland (this individual is now the 6th I've seen in Shetland).

Four hours later and soaked to the skin, I managed some very pleasing images considering the poor light and the paucity of opportunities! Sadly, the owners of the croft and the plantations, Tony & Beth Gerrard, are away on holiday so hopefully it will stay for their return. Imagine how you would feel if somebody found a Bluetail in your garden while you were on holiday. It doesn't bear thinking about!

Spotted Sandpiper

Excellent views of the Spotted Sandpiper near Quendale this morning:

Western Bonelli's II

Out pre-dawn to set the gear up in the Ellister garden to hopefully sound record Redwings and Bramblings - it worked a treat and I'll add some clips at a later stage. The Western Bonelli's Warbler was still present with lots of other common migrants and gave great views. The bird was also calling regularly and I managed to get much better recordings than yesterday:

Maywick Migrants

A few images of other migrants in the Ellister 'Bonelli's' garden: Yelllow-browed Warbler, Chiffchaff & Goldcrests.

Western Bonelli's Warbler

A great day with lots of migrants on the home patch. Found this superb Western Bonelli's Warbler in the Maywick valley this morning - a welcome find tick having had our 1992 Fair Isle bird relegated to Bonelli's Warbler sp. as we never heard it call. This individual called within around twenty minutes of finding it and thus identification was straightforward. It performed beautifully for those who came to see it and not too bad for the cameras (though never once could I set the ISO lower than 1000 due to poor light). I also manged some sound recordings which considering the force 8 wind and rain, aren't bad and sound spot on with those at the excellent Xeno Canto site.

Don't you know I'm Loco...

Flat calm conditions overnight so a pre-dawn start was in order to sound record birds leaving the roost at Quarff. As the sun warmed up the insects, one of the two Arctic Warblers showed well and became very vocal:



I managed to dip the juv American Golden Plover that Dave and the Shetland Wildlife group found and as I was searching for it I got a call from Mark Ponsford and Jack Willmott about a Locustella they'd seen in Toab. The bird was soon relocated and after several flight views the bird perched on a wall under a fuschia bush. The bird looked diminutive to say the least and others thought it short-tailed. With naked eye views as it perched a few feet away in the dull light, the tertials looked very contrasty - almost black - and there appeared to be a good gorget of streaks around the breast. Surely a Lanceolated Warbler and I for one was in that camp. But I wanted better views. Others left, but Brian, one of our Shetland Wildlife clients and Lee Mott stayed to hopefully get clinching views and photographs. Easier said than done as we had now lost the bird completely, but after working the area over and over again, we found it before it dived in to another garden. Up it popped on to the wall for a nano-second and in good light, it appeared a completely different beast: no major contrast to the tertials after all, no real major streaks on the breast or flanks and undertail coverts (impossible to see in the field 99.9% of the time anyway) showing nice dark bases looking like little arrowheads: Grasshopper Warbler.

No shame on anybody here and nobody can claim to have any nagging doubts. For obvious reasons, we all wanted it to be a Lancey, but some things are just not to be. I've seen exactly the same thing happen on Fair Isle and knew one day it would happen to me - and in a bizarre sense. I'm glad it did. I'm just happy to have stuck with the bird and identified it correctly as there is nothing worse than some bright spark coming along after the event and correcting the errors of your ways. Hindsight is a wonderful thing: as those of us involved with Britain's first-ever Olive tree Warbler know all too well...

Hornemann's Redpoll II

Lots of sound recording today plus another visit to the Hornemann's - I'm still trying for that perfect shot! The bird was pretty mute for most of the time but here is a short recording of the call uttered when perched, plus a two-note flight call (not on the sonogram); cf. with the sonogram of a Hornemann's in Dutch Birding Vol 27 Number 1 (2007).

Hornemann's Redpoll

Fantastic views of the Hornemman's Arctic Redpoll at Aith...

Quarff Arctic Warbler Calls & Pix

Yet another Arctic Warbler was on offer, this time at Quarff. It provided some excellent sound recording and photographic opportunities:

Arctic Warbler calls 1 (also House Sparrow and Starling calling):




Arctic Warbler calls 2 - note the double note (also House Sparrow calling):


Arctic Warbler calls 3 (also House Sparrow and Robin calling)

Veery Images

Just back from Whalsay so a quick update - the Veery put on a superb performance for the five of us and offered stunning photo opportunities. Special thanks to Magnus Reid and family for allowing us access in to the garden and as the ferry was passenger-only today, thanks to Jon Dunn for ferrying the new Shetland Wildlife group to and from the Pechora up at Skaw!

Pechora Pipit & Veery: east meets west

Dawn broke flat calm and as I headed out to sound record Twites and Skylarks, I was beginning to wonder whether I'd made the right decision to wait on news of a Veery on Foula. I consoled myself by reminiscing about the amazing views we had of the Lundy bird 22 years ago in 1987 and as I tend to twitch the likes of Foula or Fair Isle only for lifers or UK ticks, it turned out that for once, I'd actually made the right decision to stay put...

After picking up Gary and heading somewhere to pick up a mobile signal, all hell broke loose when I got a voicemail from one of our Shetland Wildlife clients saying that trusty guide Jon Dunn was desperately trying to get hold of me to say there was a VEERY on Whalsay! Bloody hell! Foot down, ferry booked, a couple of calls made and we were soon on our way with Dave Fairhurst, guiding the second Shetland Wildlife group.

An hour and a half later and after a considerable search, out walked this beautiful diminutive Catharus, right in front of me at point blank range to give a 'binsfull' of its rufous, grey and silvery white sullied tones. Wow. My camera was on the other side of the garden but I was going nowhere, choosing to enjoy every detail of this rusty gem through my bins rather than through a viewfinder. So if you've come here looking for pictures, I can't oblige so will point you to these super images by Jon Dunn and our bird club Chairman George Petrie

A Pechora Pipit found a few miles up the road at Skaw was a must-see and after a bit of searching we located the bird practically outside Jon's house! The bird gave incredible views, striding through the grass and there was no way I could keep the camera away from it as it certainly offered the best opportunities I've ever had to photograph a Pechora here in Shetland.

Quite a day (and night ahead).

Shetland Bird Report 2008

The 2008 Shetland Bird Report is now available. Cost: £10 inc. p&p, and now includes a complementary membership of the Shetland Bird Club for a year. If you would like further details on membership, or back copies of the report, then contact the Treasurer & Membership Secretary: Russ Haywood Lamnaberg, Wester Quarff, Shetland ZE2 9EZ. Tel: 01950 477419

Taiga Flycatcher & Arctic Warbler

Just back from a superb sunny day on Fetlar & Yell with Gary Jenkins & Lee Mott - the Taiga Flycatcher offered great views, as did the Arctic Warbler.

Taiga Flycatcher calls. I hinted in an earlier draft that this individual gave some very interesting calls. That's still the case and the sonogram unequivocally proves this . The bird did give a very dry call (not reproduced here) which we have all learned to be of Taiga but also gave a slower call more akin to Red-breasted Flycatcher. It is worth comparing the sonogram of the Fetlar bird with the classic Taiga Flycatcher calls reproduced in the Sound Approach and note how the time between individual notes is much longer. Assuming we are dealing with a 100% Taiga here (and from plumage there is absolutely no disputing that whatsoever) then it is clear that Taiga Fly can give slower and shorter notes that are more Red-breasted Flycatcher-like than Taiga. The Fetlar bird was not particularly vocal until a recording was played and I make absolutely no excuses for using a recording on the day to induce call back, in order to secure what are clearly interesting recordings of a Taiga Flycatcher. As the Sound Approach chapter says, 'Playback and be damned'...




The upper portion of the sonogram below has been produced from a recording kindly sent by Dougie Preston. Compared to my recording that sits under his as a comparison, there are twice as many notes within the call but crucially, the gap between the notes is still relatively long.
















One for the VI: as seen in Bird Watching Magazine...

Garganey

The weather did not look great for photographing the reported Taiga Flycatcher on Fetlar so the day was spent in the south Mainland. Garganey are scarce birds in Shetland - especially in autumn - so it was nice to be able to study and photograph this extremely confiding individual at Boddam.

I tried to get some more Yellow-browed recordings from the long-staying Hoswick bird but it remained silent. A Common Crossbill was flying around the village and from the sonogram, clearly identifiable as a 'glip'.