notbirding: Unst 2017: Days 3-5

Thursday, 28 September 2017

Unst 2017: Days 3-5

Our second full day on Unst, the 26th, saw a quite start with little at Houlland (1 Chiffchaff), but a bit more around Baliasta, including a Yellow Wag over (Western judging from the call), a Brambling, and a Yellow-brow nearby at the Manse. On to Haroldswick, and as well as a mini influx of Grey Herons (7 plus 4), a single Robin was one of only a few migrants.

Moving on to Clibberswick, we literally saw nothing, so paid a visit to Skaw, where a male Blackcap was the only migrant around the buildings. With the wind now quite strong from the south-east, we decided a good strategy might be to check the more sheltered cliffs and geos on the northern side of Lamba Ness. This can be exciting birding, and proved to be a reasonable decision, with 1 Redstart, 2 Robins, 1 Wheatear, 1 Mealy Redpoll, and 1 Song Thrush, plus 9 Dunlin and 2 Ruff, and a Whinchat back up towards the Skaw road.

Paul scanning the cliffs

Mealy Redpoll

Whinchat

Taking heart from these modest returns, we employed the same strategy at Skaw, which produced 1 Robin, 2 Goldcrests, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Wheatear, 1 Chiffchaff, and best a Little Bunting. A juv Glaucous Gull was with a handful of other gulls offshore, as was a small pod of Risso's Dolphins, a cetacean tick for me. We then had another look around the buildings, which still held the Blackcap, plus a Chiffchaff (with a couple of people on Twitter suggesting looked like an abietinus, which I need to learn more about, starting here...) a Lesser Whitethroat and 2 Wheatears, all new-in since the morning.

Little Bunting

Glaucous Gull

Blackcap

Chiffchaff (abietinus..?)

The 27th was something of a re-run of the previous day; Houlland was checked first with Chiffchaff lingering, plus new Blackcap, Robin, Redwing and Song Thrush. Baliasta had 2 more Redwings, the burn in Burrafirth still held a Yellow-brow, and we stopped to see the Snow Bunting in the small quarry near the Quoys junction.

Snow Bunting

Norwick (the area from Leawart to Valyie) had a few migrants present, with 2 Robins, 2 Redstarts, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 1 Song Thrush, 2 Yellow-brows, 2 Willow Warblers, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrests, and a roosting Long-eared Owl, plus an elusive Little Bunting which had been found the day before. Nearby, a showy Purple Sandpiper was on the beach (which we'd missed previously) and the willows at the bottom of the hill on the Skaw road had one each of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff, and a Whinchat.

Redstart

Long-eared Owl

Purple Sandpiper

It was then back to the cliffs. Lamba Ness held 2 Redstarts, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Robins, 3 Song Thrushes, 1 Mealy Redpoll, 2 Wheatears and 3+ Blackbirds, with the same wader selection as yesterday plus a Common Sandpiper. The Skaw cliffs held a Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Wheatears, 2 Song Thrushes, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Robin and 1 Snow Bunting, with the juv Glauc and Risso's Dolphins still offshore, and 1 plus 5 Grey Herons. So no biggie - in fact, I would have settled for an RB Fly... The buildings at Skaw still held a Lesser Whitethroat, plus a fresh looking Reed Warbler.

The cliffs at Lamba Ness

Pied Fly

Spotted Fly

Risso's Dolphins

Lesser Whitethroat

Finally, a check of the quarry at Hagdale failed to produce the Bluethroat which Paul French's Shetland Nature group had found earlier - all we could manage was a Grey Wag.

And so today (28th)... the wind was howling from the south-east, and we had some rain from 11, making conditions very difficult for birding (and for birds). In fact, we gave up by about 1, after 5 hours of battling. We gave Houlland a miss as we knew it would be completely blown-out, and headed to Lund. Any hopes this might be a bit more sheltered, being on the western side of the island, were quickly dashed, and a slog through the thistles produced little more than a Blackcap, a Whinchat, a Song Thrush and 3 Redwing.

The thistles at Lund

Nearby at Westing, the docks along the beach held a Yellow-brow, a Willow Warbler and a Lesser Whitethroat, and the willows held a Redstart, whilst a flock of c.200 Golden Plover did not hold a Yank. A flying visit to Uyeasound allowed us to pad our trip list with a few new species of wildfowl, including single Pintail and Gadwall, but the American Wigeon found earlier in the week was still gone. At Burrafirth the Yellow-brow had gone, replaced by a Reed Warbler; our third of the trip, and contrasting with last year where we had just one, but 4 Blyth's Reeds. A single Redwing was also present, whilst the Shore Station was pretty uninspiring, as it mainly seems to be.

We then got wind of an RB Fly at Skaw. Despite ourselves, we decided to go and twitch it. However, even though Dave Cooper and his dad had seen it just a few minutes before we arrived. we couldn't find hide nor hair of it, despite multiple sweeps. It's never good when you can't find a bird you know is present... what else are you missing?! 2 Blackcap, 2 Robin, the Reed Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Wheatear, and a Siskin could, however, be found.