Shetland day 3 - Winds of change

Too late to blog so I will do it short. Hey, sleep is completely over-rated. Difficult weather in the morning. Force 7 westerlies but I headed out anyway. Walked through Clevygarth towards Virkie. Hoped for a Buff-breasted sand or something like that but nothing good. Few passerine migrants but plenty of snipe on the wetland. Among the 50 or so commons were at least 8 Jack Snipe - not bad. A pair of Bonxies followed me closely:

Then I went with Gary to Lerwick to do some stuff. There were about 200 Eiders in the harbour, and two sweet Black Guilelmots:

Whooper Swans on Clikcimin Loch:

Then suddenly the wind dropped, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It smelt like sibes in the air... We checked Hellendale and Seaview in Lerwick, there were some fresh migrants in - Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Lesser Whitethraot, Grey Wagtail and quite many yellow-brows, but nothing more than that. We decided to give the OBP a miss. There was this Purple Sandpiper roosting with knots on the shoreline:

Red Knots

In the afternoon a short walk with Roger in Exanboe produced very little, only a Merlin that flew past. In the evening following a lovely dinner with Becca and Phil (thanks!), I gave a talk to Shetland Bird Club - it was a fun evening!

The wind really dropped this afternoon and the weather from Sunday onwards looks much more promising. So with some new birds today I am optimistic towards the weekend. Good night.

Hen again

Today is my birthday. Traditionally, I go out birding in the morning and see nothing special at all. Today was not different. After receiving my share of attention from wife and kids, headed out and was greeted by wild easterlies, creating a disgusting sand storm. Far from ideal weather for birding. Headed again to Bet Kama alfalfa field to try and relocate the possible Dusky Warbler from yesterday, but the wind was so strong that no passerines were showing on the deck. Only the harriers flying over the field flushed the birds up. So I decided to spend some time to photograph the (same?) Hen Harrier passing over the field. Such a beautiful bird.

Hen Harrier

  

Taking a dump

I usually prefer images with neat background, but I like this image too with the very cluttered background

Other raptors hunting over the field included Peregrine, Sparrowhawk and 3-4 Marsh harriers. The pipits were flying non-stop this morning.

Marsh Harrier

Other birds of interest in the field were one Richard's Pipit and this Jack Snipe - a good bird for my region (only...):

Mud plus mosquitoes equals birds

Woke up outrageously early this morning and went ringing in Ashdod. I wanted to work in the dark for a couple of hours in hope of catching some shorebirds before dawn. Eventually caught only one but a bloody good one - Jack Snipe!

Also caught two of these nasty Egyptian Fruit-bats:

As dawn arrived the rest of my team joined me and we started catching well. At first large numbers of Bluethroats, later on a good mix of Chiffchaffs, Spanish Sparrows, Chaffinches and lots more. 

Moustached Warblers typically arrive in early November, one this morning:

Moustached Warbler 

A nice flock of about 20 Penduline Tits was feeding in the reedbed, we caught three, including this cracking male:

But for sure the most beautiful bird of the morning was this Palestine Sunbird - a total gem of a bird:

Quite many good birds flying around and moving about - very brief views of a probable Isabelline Shrike, one Spotted Crake, several Hawfinches and Siskins overhead - a very birdy morning.

Many thanks to the hard-working team - Arad, Eli, Shahar, Roei and Ron.