Posted by Brydon Thomason on Tuesday 16th December 2014 | Birding in Shetland

This year Autumn birding seemed to last favourably into November with strong easterly winds, gales at times, but still with a great sense that it wasn’t yet over and there were still potential rares to be found. On 3rd November, I had an excited call from Phil who had gone to Geosetter just ahead of me to check for migrants and do some bird ringing in the calm conditions before heading to work – he had found a Red-flanked Bluetail, a cracking 1st year bird which had graced his only just opened net! A superb find and a bonus surprise bird to ring along with more usual Goldcrests, Blackcap and Robins. This bird was to stay for over a week and prove popular with birders and photographers alike as it fed around Geosetter burn.

Fast forward one week, to the 8th November, after a few days of birdless gales and bad weather, the 8th saw calmer, milder ESE conditions and Phil and I had set it aside to bird all day, our route firmly planned with headed off with a certain degree of optimism. North of Lerwick, our first port of call was Kergord where we saw 3 Great Tit and a Blue Tit. A brief stop at Loch of Voe and Goldcrests could be heard in the low pines, 12 were seen in total. We headed down into Voe, stopping to view a couple of favoured spots near the harbour. A solitary Waxwing was a welcome sight and raised the game slightly in a relatively uneventful morning. Another Blue Tit was also noted, it’s been an exceptional year for Blue and Great Tits on Shetland.

We returned to the car and headed up out of the back of Voe, stopping at one of my favourite spots, Burn of Kirkhouse, a small bridge over a trickling burn, a small crop and sheltered small woodland copse. Our immediate impression was of how quiet it was as we started birding the site, moods slightly lowered at the distinct lack of migrants. A couple of Robins were all we could muster. Deflated, Phil walked up the road towards some roadside gardens and I headed along a track and fence line towards the small woodland patch with a sparse understorey just up from the burn.

A minute or two later I glimpsed into the darkened, shaded wood. I heard a Robin tick and I didn’t even raise my bins as a similar bird moved quickly from right to left and landed on a sycamore branch in half darkness within. The same bird then flicked up and towards me, landing again in half light but closer to the woodland edge, maybe only 10 metres from me.

I raised my bins, expecting to see a Robin – OH MY GOD!!! I’d found a Bluetail – was my instant thought as my eyes focused on a full head on view of a very distinct 1st year Red-flanked Bluetail . I couldn’t see any blue as it was facing me straight on, but the beige breast shone out where I had been expecting to see Robin red, the paler white throat patch was clear to see, the burnt orange flanks erupted from it’s rotund little chat form on dark stick like legs, all puffed up in the cold, a white fringed beady eye stared back at me.

The adrenalin kicked in as it disappeared back into the woodland shadows and out of view. I ran to the road and called Phil over, shouting that I had a bluetail! Wow, one each in the same week and one of three we’d seen in a month, after the strikingly tame Sumburgh bird back in October.

A frustrating 10 minutes went by until the bird showed again, it really was a skulking individual and very hard to even glimpse at times in the woodland canopy and denser scrub along the burn. Moments of dread thinking it may have vanished up the burn without being noticed were soon alleviated as it appeared suddenly right out in the open on a fence post near the bridge, vibrating it’s vivid blue tail as I nailed a couple of record shots. We then headed off to find a spot with a phone signal to put news out and continue our birding afternoon North. The bird was seen again that afternoon and the next day only.

Rebecca Nason / Phil Harris