No pain no gain

What an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally. A day that everything that could go wrong, did. But there was a happy ending to the day. Yesterday evening my mate Stu exploded with a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler (aka PGTips) at Burnham Overy. I could not make it yesterday, so this morning I met up super early (again) with James to get to the spot before dawn. We searched for the bird for a couple of hours with a few more tens of people, without success. Dave and I did our very best, alas without reward. It was very windy and cold, and things really did not look good. After the relatively clear night, we all thought the bird had made a move. James had to make a forced early departure, so I thought I'd be a responsible adult, return early to Norwich and go to work. Fail.

Of course, as soon as I got back to Norwich news came of the bird been seen. And again. Another friend, Robin, was heading out there, so I made the quick decision to return to Burnham Overy just few hours after leaving there, demonstrating again that I am not a responsible adult. Arrrgh. While we were on our way, we got some gen that those earlier reports might have been unconfirmed. Noooo! But it was too late to turn around, so we headed on and decided first to visit the Arctic Warbler at Wells Woods and wait for the pgtips to get nailed. The little arctic sprite was easily located by the hordes of twitchers looking at it. It kept high in the treetops, and was pretty mobile, but it did show alright and I even got some half-decent pics:

Smart little bird, but not the one I came for

Everybody look up!

I wondered off with some mates to search for more birds but it was really quiet in Wells Woods. Then I returned with Robin to the pgtips site. We were greeted by quite a large crowd gathered there - gotta love Norfolk birding:

For a couple of hours we saw nothing. Then we saw even less. Things were looking very bad. Had the bird really disappeared? A total fiasco was looming. The wind was still blowing strong, and there were few birds to be seen. I walked and worked very hard with another mate, Ashley, and we didn't produce much more than this Reed Bunting:

But then Ashley saved the day, spotted THE bird briefly, and madness began. Over the next hour or so a handful of us had some brief views of the bird. It did give us the runaround, and never gave itself up. Personally I saw it twice - once in flight, just enough to appreciate its large, dark tail. Then I saw it again in the reeds - I had a good head-on view from very close (3m?) - I saw well the bold supercilium, spotted breast on a yellowish background and streaky back. Phew. I was so pleased with this WP tick - one of my most wanted birds. I hoped for better views, or even a photo? That will wait for the next one. For the time being, celebration time.

It was nice to welcome back the Pink-footed Geese. I estimated 3000 birds. Welcome winter.

What a day. Now, good night.

Shetland day 2 - wind and hard work

A difficult day today with hard work and less reward compared to yesterday, but still pretty good. Bad weather today - strong SW west and sort of wet most of the time. Started off early. In Paul's garden 5 yellow-brows, they were really everywhere today. By 10:00 I already had about 25. 

Yellow-browed Warbler

I recorded these two in a duet:

The walk down to Roger's via Virkie was alright but hard work. Birds kept very low and quiet because of the wind. Highlight was a Bluethroat I found in a ditch above Virkie. I flushed it twice, enough to see it was a Bluethroat with the tail pattern etc. but honestly I don't even know if it was a male or female. Nice bird to find but I would trade it happily with a proper sibe. More pipits around today, plus several Redwings and a Fieldfare. Quite a few Pinkfeet went through in the morning, and some landed in the fields for a rest en route from Iceland to Norfolk:

Pink-footed Goose

Pool of Virkie had three Grey Plovers, some Barwits etc. Met up with Martin and we walked back to Roger's, more yellow brows...

Bring it on!

In the afternoon we were determined to see some birds despite the awful weather. We first made the mistake and tried the Arctic Warbler at Weisdale again. Stood around like idiots in horrible wind, watched a Sycamore shaking like crazy and glimpsed the warbler for a split second. We agreed this was not much fun so we went on to watch real, big, showy birds. We started off with gulling at the tip of Weisdale. There were several argentatus herrings, a Little Gull and this hybrid Glaucous X Herring type thing -interesting wingtip pattern, even the unmoulted P10 is odd: 

There was this group of Red-breasted Mergansers there, and also 7 Goosanders flew over:

Red-breasted Mergansers

Then we checked ducks on Tingwall Loch. No interesting aythyas among the tufteds, but this juvenile Goldeneye made us get out of the car and grab our scopes. Interesting bird, tiny with small bill, half-developed head shape, and dark eye:

Then in the late afternoon shorebird in Virkie again. More commoner stuff but nothing new. 

Hoping for some better weather in the next few days!

Shetland day 1 - boom! What a day

A great first day on Shetland - couldn't have asked for much more. Early in the morning Paul dropped me off at Hestingott to look for the long-staying Blyth's Reed Warbler there. At first it was cold and I 'only' had about four Yellow-browed warblers in that garden there. As the sun warmed the atmosphere up a bit, there was more bird activity in the sunlit side of the garden and sure enough the Blyth's reed showed very well. It was feeding busily on insects and I had plenty of time to study the important ID features: bold supercilium, very cold toned flanks and underparts, generally very plain from above - especially tertials and alula very plain, with slightly contrasting rufous wing panel, short primary projection, and long and broad tail, often cocked up.

Blyth's Reed Warbler, Hestingott, Shetland

In this image the very blunt-tipped and rounded wing is apparent - P4 clearly emarginated, and P3 is equal in length to P2 and P4 is only slightly shorter: 

I was very pleased to see this bird - it was a WP tick for me, and it has been many years since I last saw one in India. 

  

After I had enough of this bird, I walked down Toab and birded in the gardens there. Very soon I came across another acro in a garden, and immediately I knew it's another blyth's - my eyes were tuned in on the ID features I had studied just a short while before. It showed quite well too. Again in this image you can see the whole set of features:

Blyth's Reed Warbler, Toab, Shetland

I was really chuffed with this bird - to find one after two hours of birding in Shetland was quite awesome. 

There were many Yellow-browed Warblers today - by far the commonest migrant around. My daily total must have been over 20. Some showed pretty well, such sweet little tough birds:

This individual is on the duller end of the variation spectrum, but not quite there for a hume's:

There were 3-4 Wheatears here and there:

I met up with Martin, Sharon and Will and we headed slowly towards Lerwick to pick up our car. Soon we received news about a pod of 5 Killer Whales of Boddam. We spent the next couple of hours trying to intercept them as they made their way slowly north, but sadly failed. We did have to cute Otters though. After a short stop in Lerwick I checked with Will the area of Leebotten, Noness and Sandwick. There were plenty more yellow-brows and one Lesser Whitethroat that Martin says must be a blythi, and that's it more or less. Two Harbour Porpoises were nice. Several flocks of Pink-footed Geese went through all day long:

Rock Pipit

Meadow Pipit

In the afternoon Martin, Ian and I headed to the wild west to chase after the Pechora Pipit at Norby. We saw it quite quickly with a large group that was there. Mainly brief, silent flight views but it did perch exposed for a few seconds after having a dip in a small stream:

Pechora Pipit, Norby, Shetland

These images don't do it justice. The bird is very wet here and plumage patterns are diluted. In typical views the mantle pattern was bold, and the head pattern was nicer. Another great bird, another WP tick. Gripped.

On the way back we stopped for the Arctic Warbler at Weisdale Voe. It was wet and cold and windy and it was getting dark, but we did relocate the bird and I had brief views of it. Not the best views ever but good enough to identify. Yet another quality bird to end this fantastic day!

Can't wait till tomorrow. Good night.