Foula

Well, Foula, what can I say? The abridged version is I didn't see too much, with winds mainly from the west and south-west (swinging round to the north-west for the last couple of days). The longer version is as follows:

I was staying in a small cottage at the north end of the island called 'Ristie', and had two  and a half days there on my own before being joined by Paul French, who'd invited me to stay at Ristie for this week (prior to the 'regulars' arriving). During this time I had a good explore, met another birder in the annexe next door, and the islands' resident birders, Geoff and Donna. Geoff and Donna were very kind, supplying me (and the other birders arriving later in the week) with tea and biscuits when required, and reminiscing about the birds they'd found recently - Collared Fly, Booted Warbler and Great Snipe, for example! 

Ristie, looking towards the Gaada Stack

The birding during these first few days was steady, but I found (or re-found?) a Buff-breasted Sandpiper on my second day (15th). There had been a Buff-breast found on the 10th, so given the time gap, the consensus was it could well have been a new bird - there were plenty turning up after all; furthermore, it definitely hadn't been seen again at the southern end of the island (where the bird on the 10th was found), and there was no sign of it in the area I found it in (Kinglya) when I walked across there the night before. This bird was last seen on the 17th, and it was great to have it more-or-less to myself, and by crawling on my stomach I managed to get within about 10 metres of it, and got some satisfactory pics.


Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper



Ruscar on the north-east coast

Paul arrived on the 17th, but the birds didn't; in fact things seemed to get quieter and quieter each day; clear skies on the preceding night meant on the 18th there were far fewer Meadow Pipits around (they'd been everywhere when I fist arrived), and the numbers of Northern Wheatears declined noticeably (77 on the 16th falling to 12 on the 19th).

Hiorawick on the north coast, looking towards Stremness

Looking south down the island from Harrier

We did see a few nice birds, with plenty of Lapland Buntings (a peak of 27 on the 17th), Snow Buntings (19 also on the 17th) and Twite (28 on 19th), a single, exhausted-looking Spotted Flycatcher (on the 19th), and a Merlin, but only small numbers of phylloscs (a couple of Chiffchaffs daily, and the odd Willow Warbler). We also had an Acro which we spent 2 hours trying to nail on the 18th, and even then could only say it was a Reed or Marsh - it was incredibly skulking. Others saw it subsequently and thought it was a Marsh.

Lapland Bunting

Twite

Spotted Flycatcher

Other birds included 3 Whooper Swans throughout on the Mill Loch, small numbers of duck and common waders (including a few Purple Sands), plenty of Snipe (large and dark faeroeensis birds), Bonxies (Foula has the biggest breeding colony in the world), huge numbers of (at times very inquisitive) Fulmars, Tysties (including a raft of 100), and the odd Puffin and Razorbill.

Looking north towards Mill Loch

Bonxie

Fulmar

The Redpolls were interesting - all 'North-western' types, some dark (all brown) but others with pale tramlines and rump. Small numbers of Swallows were seen on several days, including 5 on the 17th, and a peak of 7 White Wagtails on the 17th. It was also good to get decent views of zetlandicus Wren and zetlandicus Starlings (not that the latter looked any different from those at home).



A brown 'North-western' Redpoll



Two paler 'North-western' Redpolls

Shetland Wren

Starling

My only 'miss' of the week was a Barred Warbler which had been in Ham since before I arrived - I looked for this on several occasions without success. I was also shown where all the rare birds had been in the past; e.g. the Veery was under the boat here; the Sibe Thrush was up on that slope; over there is were the Bobolink was found, this is the patch of grass where the Yellow-breasted Bunting was, etc..

My last day was a bit frustrating, as there were clearly birds beginning to turn up - a Rosefinch was seen, and I had a brief look at a possible 'eastern' Lesser Whitethroat (with quite sandy upperparts) that was found in Ham, and the talk was that the winds were turning to the east for the weekend.

A possible 'eastern' Lesser Whitethroat

Once back in Lerwick, I had a walk round Clickimin Loch, noting a 1st W Scaup amongst the duck, but nothing in Helendale (a leafy suburb that can be good by all accounts), and a Merlin flew over the ferry as we left for Aberdeen.

Scaup in Lerwick

And low and behold, the birds started to arrive on Foula the day after I'd left, with Bluethroat, Wryneck, and 24 Yellow-browed Warblers amongst what was seen; things were even worse today, with news of a Swainson's Thrush and a Sykes's Warbler! And no doubt more to come. Oh well, hopefully I might have another go next year...



Looking west past Sumburgh to a distant Foula



The good news is that I haven't missed much locally whilst I've been away, although there was an intriguing record of two Black-winged Stilts from Cottam Powerstation (not Cotham Flash, as I thought) a few days back. Might be worth keeping an eye out for..?