Posted by Brydon Thomason on Sunday 27th February 2011 | Birding in Shetland

A memorable day indeed and a very welcome find back in March 2006. A pristine drake in his full and exquisite breeding attire.

There can be few species of bird (let alone sea duck) as exquisite in appearance as a drake King Eider. It is hard to find a word that describes just how strikingly ornate the head and bill pattern is on a fully mature adult but I guess with the title of King enough is said. It is indeed rather apt that their Latin name, spectabillis means remarkable!

King Eiders have a largely circumpolar breeding range and are quite common throughout various regions of the high Arctic. In Britain they are regarded as a ‘national rarity’ with their having been somewhere in the region of 200 plus records of the species in the whole country. It was first added to the British list in 1832. Perhaps not surprisingly and like so many other species of Arctic vagrant to reach Britain, Shetland alone has hosted at least half of these.

Eiders in action, the tightly bunched flock race across the water’s surface as a small boat cruises past.

Historically Kings have regularly occurred throughout the isles and typically found associating with the local Eider flocks as singles and even occasionally multiples. Their beautiful pale, frosty- blue crowns, clown like eye make-up and bulbous orangey-yellow bill shield atop of the red bill are usually easily picked out amidst even a large flock of our local Dunters (the Shetland name for Eider). Structurally they are usually obviously smaller and a little more compact too by comparison.

Female King Eider. A much more subtle bird indeed, this ‘Queen’ spent just a couple days amongst the Bluemull Sound winter flock in November 2008.

Immature drakes and females are however quite a different matter. To the untrained eye any of these plumages will very often blend in amongst a Dunter flock without a second glance. Females are what could be compared and referred to as ‘little brown jobs’, although that is really a descriptive term for small featureless brown warblers, pipits, buntings and so on.

They are of course every bit as adorable to me, so cute and compact in appearance with such subtle features. With experience though these subtleties can become quite striking and are the very reason they stand out, if that makes sense! A small brown, seemingly featureless duck may seem challenging to pick out amongst the very similarly plumaged local females.

‘Queen’ Eiders have been known to spend as long as six days on the nest without leaving and will scarcely feed during the 22-24 day incubation period.

A combination of these features do however create a surprisingly distinct appearance; smaller and more compact overall size and structure, shorter and neater black bill which runs up onto a much less angular head profile, a ‘teddy bear’ like eye which shows a slight ‘tear drop’ line falling away behind and also a ‘grinning’ line which runs back a little from the closed gape. These latter two features especially combine to show a very cute but actually rather sad facial expression. The feathering also runs further down from the forehead onto the bill than on our Eiders.

In addition to these features are two others which can sometimes be just that little bit harder to see; the black flank barring forms arrow head like chevrons as opposed to the straighter and more vertical bars on a female Eiders flanks, they also have feather formations that appear on their back which are often raised creating tiny ‘sails’ which occasionally stand up like little dorsal fins but these are never as prominent as on a drake.

Interestingly for a sea duck, King Eiders are known to migrate overland in some populations and have been known to reach altitudes of up to 1,000m. I wonder where this young fellow was hatched?

Immature and sub-adult plumages of King Eider can be just as subtle, especially on a first winter bird. This is exactly the plumage I found one in in mid-February amongst the Eiders on Bluemull Sound, my favourite and premier winter birding site. The ‘young Elvis’ (“ah- hu hu”) was amongst a flock of around 150-200 Dunters, (less than quarter of the wintering flock there) and is actually the second of this age to be seen in Shetland this winter. Similar to the structural differences described in females, to me he was quite easy to pick out but it was his orangey yellow bill tones and compact shape that made him immediately identifiable.

Some have described this plumage of King as grotty or drab but although I can see why, I couldn’t disagree more, finding the little fellow made my day! This young King was actually the ninth King Eider I have ever found in Shetland, having previously found two females, two first winter drakes and four adult drakes (all were single birds amongst Eider flocks). And indeed a couple of these were known to be annual returnees for a couple of winters. I have also been fortunate to enjoy many others over the years in Shetland.

The first winter plumaged King huddles together amongst the melee of Dunters, the adult drake behind the two centre females is presumed to be of the ‘Northern’ form borealis. A novelty shot to have them both in the frame (note his tiny pert white ‘sails’ on his back and brightly coloured bill).

Searching for this and indeed other rare forms of Eider is undoubtedly one of my main winter birding motivations. One of these forms, regarded as subspecies or race, is Borealis or ‘Northern Eider’ (as they are also known) which are thought to hail from Nearctic regions. Several of these have also brought me much joy in their discoveries amongst their local cousins but as is the case with so many subspecies their identity, taxonomy and origin are still under discussion. And finally there is the one that all birders dream of finding (yes that’s right and quite often too), Steller’s Eider! Oh how I hope I can write a finders account for one of those, someday…

1st winter King Eider, Bluemull Sound, 3rd March 2011.

*Update* What a difference a bit of light makes! A more recent image taken on 3rd March…

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Posted by Brydon Thomason on Wednesday 5th January 2011 | Birding in Shetland

With 2010’s influx of Rough-legged’s in Britain in late autumn/winter my enthusiasm to find one for myself (having never found one) was peaking and given there had already been a few, I was fairly sure I could be in with a chance. I had made several trips up the very rough track to Valla Field (a distinct advantage of driving a Freelander!) and Saxavord and other similar sites on Unst since late October as I figured they were fairly likely RLB sites although Snowy Owl and Gyr are also on my radar for these sites.

Persistence at last paid off when on the 29th of December my luck was in and soaring along the very wild and rugged West facing rocky hill side of Valla Field was a stunning Rough-legged Buzzard. How perfectly placed it looked in such a beautifully remote and dramatic landscape. Two days later I took my wife Vaila and one year old son Casey along and enjoyed good but distant views, all except wee Casey of course who slept through the whole encounter!

Rough-legged Buzzard, montage, December 29th 2010.

The sheer rocky ridge along the west facing hill (not at all dissimilar to the Arctic landscapes they are so at home in) which drops down to a flat and fairly green plateau called Collister which is scattered with small lochens and old ruined crofts which overlook the oceanic Atlantic horizon to the West. It is undoubtedly one of my favourite places in Shetland with its stark beauty well out of view of any main roads.

It was here that I was drawn to for my New Year’s Day walk (which is something of a personal tradition). Having walked the hills which lead to the North I had been slightly disappointed not to have seen the Rough-legged and continued down to Collister. To my surprise I met the Buzzard drifting north as I continued south along the cliff-tops.

I hurried across to the foot of the hills where I watched it gain height and begin to soar and glide in the up-drafts. But hold on a second I thought to myself as watched on in disbelief through my trusty Zeiss 10×42’s, a second bird drifted into my field of view, there was two of them!! I couldn’t and for a second didn’t believe my own eyes, two Rough-legged Buzzards together. I had ended the year by finding one only days before in 2010 and I began the year of 2011 by finding another, an RLB double whammy- happy New Year indeed!

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Posted by Martin Garner on Sunday 19th December 2010 | Birding in Shetland

This was my first birding tour, and it’s hard to see how it could be bettered – good weather brought good birds to be enjoyed in beautiful surroundings, expert leading and each hard day’s birding was finished off with a terrific meal and lots of laughs.Paul-Bright Thomas

With the terrific team effort involved in Britain’s 3rd Taiga Flycatcher (read full finder’s story) as well as self found Marsh Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler and Barred Warbler our promotion weekend in autumn 2009 had set a rather high standard! Would we be able to maintain it the following year?

You decide. Here’s a flavour of our outstanding 2010 autumn birding adventure – from team effort finds such as Blyth’s Read Warbler, White-billed Diver and Lanceolated Warbler to quality mega’s such as Sykes’s Warbler (s!) and Buff-bellied Pipit…

» Read the full eight-day round up …

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Posted by Rory Tallack on Friday 15th October 2010 | Birding in Shetland

As a relative newcomer to birding, this autumn has challenged my ability more than any other.  The Skyes’s Warbler in August was closely followed by some particularly problematic identifications in the forms of Blyth’s Reed and Paddyfield Warblers.

A few weeks later and I was beginning to feel as though I was not far from being ‘all birded out!’ However with Will Miles back in Shetland after three weeks on Fair Isle and October only half way through, I knew my autumn wasn’t over just yet…
 
After a quick ‘Izzy Shrike’ twitch we arrived at Troswick where Will’s girlfriend was staying temporarily.  It was getting close to dark so birding was far from my mind and with Sarah only 20m away, it was even further from Will’s.  As I turned off the engine I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  “Was that a warbler?” I asked.  “Not sure, but it’s just landed on the fence there”.  About 5m from the car a bird was sat on a wire fence.  In this light, even at such close range, ‘bird’ was about as much as we could work out.  We both lifted our bins.  It was facing us, clearly showing off pale underparts, orangey flanks and a pale eye-ring.  “Good gosh, Will, I do believe it’s a Bluetail”, I exclaimed (or words to that effect).  The look of disbelief on Will’s face suggested he had come to the same conclusion but he was unable to get anything resembling a word out. Twenty minutes later it was dark and despite shaking hands and next to no light I managed to get some identifiable footage of the bird (video grab above). Fifteen minutes later it was dark and the bird was never seen again.

I used to believe that the most satisfying finds are those which require thought or those which have been hard-earned after hours in the field.  This one, however, has made me think again – no effort, easily identified and perhaps my favourite find to date.

Although ‘Bluetail’ has in recent years become much more regular in Britain, any birder will surely agree that it still retains an element of that near mythical status it once had as a vagrant. This bird was one of up to a record breaking nine individuals in Shetland this autumn.

Rory Tallack

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Posted by Brydon Thomason on Thursday 14th October 2010 | Birding in Shetland

14/10/10, SHE plantation, Baltasound.

I have such very fond memories of Olive-backed pipit and it remains one of my favourite rarities. One of the main reasons for my soft spot for the species is undoubtedly because it was one of my first ever BB self finds that wasn’t either a Little Bunting, Short-toed Lark or Arctic Redpoll. And personally speaking it is a real classic autumn ‘Sibe’.

On more than one occasion I have found two in a single day and once even two together, in the same crop field as a Richards Pipit way back in October 1992. With that said though since 2003 there has been something of an OBP injunction clouded over me with several years having passed without finding one.

An hour long circuit of some of Baltasound whilst our son was down for an afternoon nap seemed like a splendid idea and having spent the morning working I had convinced myself it was earned. The neighbouring gardens of my mother-in-laws produced little more than a couple of ‘Sibe Chiff’s’ so I continued on to Setter’s Hill Estate plantation where another ‘Sibe- chaff’ showed well. My hour was not yet over so I continued on to circumnavigate the estate and check the lush gardens round the back.

Almost feeling a sense of disappointment of not having seen at least a Yellow-browed warbler I continued on back toward the main road (though two of the chiffs did appeared to be new in), where well away from the gardens I had pinned hopes on rose a fairly fresh looking pipit from the ditch. It landed for a split second but took off before I’d even raised my bins to my eyes- “Prssz-Prssz”, its rather explosive and rasping double call was instantly familiar to me, surely this had to be an OBP!

Typically it flew quite a distance, all the way back over the housing estate to the pines. I cursed my technophobic tendencies for not having my ‘Remembird’ in action as I hurried back to the plantation. I did not want to let this slip and knew well that with- out views on the deck it was lost!

Thankfully following a rather cautious approach to the pines I found it feeding in the lush grass where the following distinguishing features confirmed it’s ID;

Black on its beautiful and rather dark unstreaked olive- toned mantle

Typically striking ‘mascara marked’ facial pattern, with buffy yellow smudged lores and bold white ‘super’ and post ocular spot

Bold ink black breast and flank streaks which almost merged together on sides of breast

Get in- a classic OBP was in the bag!

I returned later that day to try to get some photo’s but in very poor evening light only managed a couple of grainy record shots. Next day though Robbie Brookes managed better ones.

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Posted by Brydon Thomason on Wednesday 13th October 2010 | Birding in Shetland

Redpolls are undoubtedly one the most complicated and difficult family groups of passerines facing birders in Europe (and beyond). Not only can their identification be problematic, whether in the field or even in the hand but for some subspecies and in some regions very little or in some cases nothing is known of their populations or indeed their distributions.

(We hope to put together a bit of a redpoll write up in a future posting when we will look at the redpolls we encounter in Shetland.)

Over the past decade or so in Shetland records of Arctic redpolls, which are split into two forms hornimanni and exsillipes have swung full circle. Coues’s Arctic Redpoll (exsillipes) is now not only very rare in Shetland but also in Britain. In the past ten years or so there have been as few as literally two or three claims of the species in Shetland. It has even been discussed as a possibility to be reinstated as a national rarity to be considered by BBRC.

With this in mind, when I came across this bird in Baltasound on Unst whilst taking a ‘birding drive around the block’ to get our 11 month old son down for his afternoon nap, I set about trying to confirm its ID- and hopefully with photos.

Thankfully the bird favoured a roadside verge in the lee of a plantation, which was right next to a lay-by where I could use the car as a mobile hide. It was at least ten years since I had seen one of these ‘fluffy forms’ of Arctic Redpoll. It’s very small and compact size and structure was instantly recognisable as being so very different to the hulking great Hornemann’s we are now so familiar with in a North isles autumn. As a gauge of size, very often Twite is the first and most appropriate to compare or indeed for Hornemann’s even House sparrow! This bird was certainly no larger than Twite, if anything it appeared possibly even a fraction smaller.

But eliminating its North Western Arctic originating counterpart was not a concern, more importantly and potentially more problematically was to rule out very pale Mealy or Icelandic Redpoll, the former having started to arrive in small numbers only days before. The arrival of Meallie’s from the North East was also in itself a good indicator that they should ‘be on the radar’.

Fortunately the bird was quite obliging and allowed me to obtain photographs, even if it was nearly dark! These are some of the features which I noted to be good for a Coues’s;

• Over all compact and small size and fluffy appearance (especially under parts -flanks, thigh area). Bill appeared distinctly petite especially when fore-crown was raised, thus creating that classic cute appearance.
• Lacked any warm or buffish tinges to ear coverts and face, instead rather cold and greyish with thin faint but quite dense streaking.
• Faint and pale buffish wash to sides of breast.
• Quite a broad clean and totally un-streaked white rump, but as is quite typical fairly well streaked on longest upper tail coverts.
• Broad and bold clean white wing bar with tertials and primaries being distinctly fringed with crisp, clean white fringing.
• Mantle evenly and distinctly streaked down centre, greyish and white with more diffuse and irregular to the sides. This along with the crisp white fringing created a very frosty overall appearance.
• The under parts were wholly very clean and snow white, but it did show faint grey and diffuse streaking all the way down flanks which were most defined on sides of breast area.
• The under tail- coverts appeared very clean and un-streaked but actually had a single short thin and defined streak on each of the longest two utc’s , which is well within the range.

If accepted this will be the first record in Shetland away from Fair Isle for about eight years. I have the feeling that this may well be the first of several this winter…

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Posted by Brydon Thomason on Saturday 9th October 2010 | Birding in Shetland

Without question Pallas’s Grasshopper warbler is one of the most sought after of Siberian vagrants to reach Britain, or indeed Europe. For many determined ‘listers’ and seasoned rarity hunters it is a dream find. At last this year, my luck was in and my time had come!

Searching for rare locos in autumn is one of my main ornithological objectives and draws me to search the ditches, marshes, Irises and Canary- reed grass beds every year. This has indeed worked for me on more than one occasion for Lanceolated warbler but for the ‘lord of the locos’, AKA ‘PG Tips’, I had to be a little more patient before I would find my own.

Accompanied by James McCallum and with my 11 month old son, Casey, strapped to my back, we had almost finished working a lush network of Iris beds and Meadow sweet when out it came. Its first flight was a short one, silhouetted against the sunlight. Its long tailed appearance and largish size was enough to excite us both as we took a few steps towards where the bird came down.

As we cautiously closed in it took flight once again. This time its striking plumage tones were remarkably obvious. James and I looked at each other in disbelief. Its bright, yellowy-buffy olive toned underparts, very warm chestnuty, rufous toned rump contrasting distinctly with the longish and very dark tail, were already enough for us to know what was in front of us. “Why wasn’t that a Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler?”, James rather gleefully and sarcastically asked, knowing full well, as I did, that it clearly was one.

The next few seconds were amongst the most surreal birding moments of my life. We edged excitedly closer, brimming with anticipation, to where it had landed along a well grazed fence line, determined to get ‘on the deck’ views without flushing it. Casey then decided to rather cheerfully remind me he was there! His happy but rather loud vocalisations (baby banter) had me thinking the bird was sure to fly. But at the same time I found the whole scenario completely bizarre and yet so very special to have him with me at such a momentous occasion. I glanced at James who I was pleased to see by his expression was amused by his antics.

Eventually I was in a position to see the bird crouching on the ground in full view – a pristine example of a first winter autumn PG tips – it was ‘in the bag’! I carefully side stepped away from the bird and out of view of it and gestured over to James (who was just out of view of where it sat) with a few celebratory punches into the air, “Get in – we’ve done it!!” Along with a couple of obligatory rare bird finding expletives of course.

But no matter how obvious the bird was to us there and then, we had to make sure to note all the key features and hopefully secure some photographs. With this in mind I speedily returned to the car to grab my camera.

As with acrocephalus warblers, locustellas can be very difficult, especially as their skulking nature can make it hard to assess key features in the field. Although it was never an issue with this bird, Grasshopper warbler has to be eliminated if you find an autumn loco and it’s a good starting point to assume that’s what a bird is most likely to be, rather than assume it to be rare because its Shetland as many people do! These are the main key features we noted to confirm its ID;

• Overall largish size and structure with longish rather heavy ended tail.
• Plumage was very contrasting looking overall.
• Underparts strikingly bright buffish olive toned, completely lacking any streaking especially on undertail coverts where cleanest.
• As mentioned above, very dark blackish rounded tail contrasting markedly with the warm chestnut-rusty toned rump then darkly and well defined streaks on warm toned mantle leaving a fairly plain nape.
• Crown distinctly dark-capped with well-defined clean yellowy-buff supercillium with a yellowy wash from face onto throat.
• The tertials (and primaries) were quite dark blackish as was the tail and were neatly and distinctly white tipped with each having a tiny crisp-white tip. The tail too showed neat restricted white tips. These two features being of course where it gets its nickname of P-G-Tips!

Away from Fair Isle (where it is something of a speciality with 21 records to date) there have been 14 in Shetland and just eight records from the rest of Britain.

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Posted by Brydon Thomason on Wednesday 6th October 2010 | Birding in Shetland

On the morning of the 6th October James McCallum (who had stayed the night with myself and family) headed out before me, leaving me to get our 11 month old son Casey ‘up and about’ for the morning. He had literally been gone two minutes when my mobile rang, “I’ve got a Booted or a Sykes’s in front of your parents’ house”. I could see him standing by our agricultural sheds, literally a stone’s throw from the kitchen window! Before I had even hung up the phone my bins, jacket and Muck boots were donned as I left my wife Vaila with our son.

At this point James had quite literally only had a couple of very brief views of the bird. Only days before he had alerted Roger Riddington (a fellow Shetland Nature leader) to check out the Channerwick ‘Booted’ as in his mind it appeared far from a typical Booted warbler. That bird was actually then re-identified by Roger as a Sykes’s warbler, despite having been present for several days and watched by many birders, including tour groups who all ‘ticked it off’ as a Booted.

Knowing this, and by the expression on James’s face as I joined him to relocate it, I had the feeling it was going to be a much rarer bird than Booted warbler…

It took a few minutes to relocate the bird. It was quite mobile at first, often dipping down amongst the lush docking leaves in the area it seemed to favour, where it found shelter from the strengthening breeze blowing from the south west.

During the course of our observations the bird eventually began to settle as it no doubt started to familiarise itself with its rather unfamiliar surroundings. Being in the fortunate position of us both having very recent experience of Sykes’s (for me Rory and Will’s bird in August) the identification was quite straight forward and eliminating other potential ‘hippo’s’ was not a concern.

Between us we set about evaluating the features the bird showed or indeed didn’t show. The following were among the main conclusive features;

• Structurally the bird’s long-billed and long-tailed appearance was immediately obvious.
• Its ‘jizz’ and posture were also good; typically Sykes’s hold a ‘banana’ shaped profile with the long tail held above the horizontal and the wings dropped either side (a stance also typical of Blyth’s reed). This profile is slightly exaggerated with the longish bill and long sloping fore-crown.
• The tertials were very pallid and plain, showing no contrast at all. Like Blyth’s reed warbler they were totally concolourous with the rest of the upperparts as opposed to the slightly contrasting centres shown in Booted warbler. The fringing of the flight feathers did however show slightly warmer and faintly richer tones at time. This feature (along with all the others noted) were also quite distinct on Rory and Will’s bird on Unst in August).
• The lores were completely unmarked and comparatively quite long (with the ’beedy’ eyes appearing to be set slightly back) which created a distinctly ‘open- faced’ and rather blank looking facial pattern and overall ‘soft’ expression. This impression was probably further exaggerated by the distinct, bold and well defined supercilium which stopped just above the eye, merging into a clean and quite distinct eye ring. The sub-coronal/lateral crown stripe (border above the ‘super’) was almost lacking and only at certain angles could you see a hint of one, unlike Booted which is often more pronounced.
• The bare parts too were important features, with the legs and feet being a fairly pale grey with a slight bluish tinge. Booted warbler having paler fleshy coloured legs with darker feet (hence the name ‘Booted warbler’).
• Like the Unst bird in August, this one often called, giving a soft, short, dry and rather acrocephalus like ‘chck’, distinctly different from that of a Booted warbler.

By the time the first birders arrived (amongst them our ‘Autumn birding’ tour group led by Martin Garner- their second Sykes’s of the week!) the Sykes’s had become very obliging, giving views down to a few metres.

Incredibly this bird represented the third Shetland and fourth British record of the year. Prior to this year’s birds there had been only a dozen records in Britain, half of which are from Shetland.

For me personally it was a real thrill being in on this bird, having found one on Unst back in 2003 (the 6th British record), it being a first for Fetlar and, most importantly, a garden tick for the list I still keep at my parents’ house!

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