In the British Isles Fetlar still holds the lions share of this essentially Arctic breeding wader. With rarely more than 15 pairs in recent years, the breeding population is of great national importance. Typical of many Northern breeding species, phalaropes have a very intense breeding season, they are the last to arrive back and the first to leave, adult birds have usually all left with in the first few days of August and by the end of the first week most of the juvenisles have followed.

For the phalaropes it is very much a womans world indeed, once she has laid her eggs- her work is done! The male is left to incubate and rear the chicks all by himself! Females will often repeat this more than once in a season and often go off and find another mate!

It is not just their breeding roles that are reversed, it is the females that are the ‘lookers’, which can be seen by this bird I managed to photograph today, all be it a poor image but their beauty is hard to hide!

What an absolute privilege to have grown up on Fetlar with these bird literally on our doorstep.

Tuesday evening was one of those incredible Shetland summer evenings, when there’s hardly a breath of wind and not a cloud in the sky. I was sat at home, exhausted after 3 fantastic days away with a group of local school kids on a geology trip. I had little enthusiasm for anything which involved movement until my girlfriend asked, “should we go out birding seeing it’s such a lovely evening”. Believe me, this is not a sentence which passes her lips very often!

Earlier that day I learned that I had missed a White-tailed Eagle in Unst yet again, so it took little persuasion to get me outside. In the same way that there is always enough room for pudding, I find that there is always just enough energy for a bit more birding! Twenty minutes later we were being treated to a spectacular aerobatic display in the north of the island, as a group of Swallows careered up and down the burn in front of us. In my opinion there are few better sights in the bird world. “I would love to find a Red-rumped Swallow”, I said as we watched.

Arriving back into Norwick some ten minutes later, another group of hawking Swallows caught my eye a couple of fields away. I was still driving but as the closest of the birds changed direction I caught sight of a pale orange rump. I parked up, grabbed my scope and video camera and we made our way closer to the flock for a better view…A Red-rumped Swallow, unbelievable! This was the first I had ever seen in Shetland, making the find that little bit more special.

Red-rumped Swallows breed across southern Europe and although they are becoming more regular in the UK, there are fewer than 25 records in Shetland, half of those occurring in the last decade.

The above photo was taken (digi scoped) ‘at the scene of the find’, also attached is one from our good friend Robbie Brookes.

A few pairs of Black-tailed Godwits breed in Shetland in most years, but this species is more commonly seen passing through the islands on migration, especially in autumn. Two races of Black-tailed Godwits occur in the UK, but most (or all) of those seen in Shetland are Limosa l. islandica, which breeds mainly in Iceland (with a few in northern Britain and the Faeroes). These differ from nominate limosa, which breeds in northern Europe and further east, by having shorter legs and bill, and (in breeding plumage) by darker red underparts, with coarser black bars, that extend further down the belly than on limosa. This migrant bird, photographed at Quendale in mid May, is probably a female islandica, given that the bill is rather longer than many males, and also because the red is less extensive than a typical male – although it is hard to be sure since there is a fair degree of individual variation.

The day got off to a fantastic start with a pod of over 20 Risso’s Dolphins off the early morning ferry. The dolphins were spread widely across Bluemull Sound between Yell and Fetlar. This stretch of water is one of the best in the Isles for seeing these burly dolphins.

Although you cant quite make out much detail from my cropped record shots, Risso’s are characteristically covered in scars. With blunt- bow headed appearance and these often rather prominent markings, Risso’s can look quite coarse and rather rough looking and with this be very distinct, given decent views. They are often quite deep water predators, with squid being a favourite food source and cause of much of the scarring! Feeding dives can often last up to an impressive 15-20 minutes and Squid in the stomach contents of Risso’s have been found to measure an amazing 12 feet! Lets hope we manage to locate them during our Seamamal Search on the 29th of May!

Barely an hour later, on arrival to Burrafirth Shore Station at the North end of Unst (where the Scottish Natural Heritage reserve’s visitor centre is based) we found a Hoopoe, literally seconds after getting out of the car and kitted up! Quite increadable given that fellow members of the ‘Shetland Nature’ team Garry Bell and Rob Fray had been called out to identify a bird the previous day – which turned out to be a Hoopoe! Which incidentally is the one photographed, by Gary.

But the day was not yet done. Just as we were about to make our way down off the reserve, whilst sitting gazing out over the Atlantic Ocean, simply awe struck by the ‘seabird city’, my good mate Robbie Brooks rang to inform me he had just had a Sea Eagle heading North over his house. Trying not to expect too much more out of what had already been an incredible outing, I thought to myself ‘that could very probably head our way…’

I then also passed on the exciting news by calling the reserve warden Alister Wilson, who I knew was out on the reserve, not too far away.

Sure enough about an hour later we were alerted to the birds presence by the hundreds of Great Skuas which took to the air across the reserve as the bird drifted low over the moorland. A truly awesome sight indeed watching how this fantastic bird of prey simply dwarfed the swarming Skuas. Not wanting Alister to miss out I called him again literally minutes later it soared over his head, when he got this cracking shot- note the wing tag.

The bird was an immature which was first seen a few weeks earlier on Fair Isle and again by good friend and Shetland nature tour leader Roger Riddington soon after. It is one from a release program on the east coast of Scotland. This bird had a green wing tag on with a No.8 on and is known to be a one year old male. We later enjoyed yet another encounter with the bird during an evening visit to the reserve cliff tops.

Oh if only these masterful raptors would return to the Isles to breed some day…

A very special discovery indeed! Since the dying off of the Snowy Owls, which bred on my home Island of Fetlar, between the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, I have longed for another encounter with these majestic birds of prey.

But it was the neighbouring island of Unst, some 14 years later that today; at last I was reacquainted! Reported yesterday by a walker, the bird was said to have been on the far side of a hill, barely a mile from and which overlooks my mother-in-laws house! I truly believe that in Shetland at certain times of year, you are never further than a mile or two from a rarity, only a tiny percentage of the time do we take the right turn though!

On receiving the news late last night, I set out making plans to get into Unst asap and called my good mate Robbie Brookes and arranged to meet at 0700am. To cut along story short, with in an hour of meeting Robbie, we were stood breathless (partly from the climb and partly from sheer elation!) gazing at what was indeed a Snowy Owl! On route we were half thinking, as you so often do in these cases; will it still be there, was it even definitely one etc.

An encounter with a bird as magnificent as this is exhilarating in any circumstance or situation but for me, having grown up with regular, often-daily sightings from my school class room window (yes – literally!) this was truly special. Snowy Owl was a bird that for me as I boy, dare I say it, I almost took for granted. I remember with great fondness as a young boy enjoying trips to the nest sight with legendary Shetland naturalist and my childhood hero, the late Bobby Tulloch.

After enjoying privileged views of this ‘Arctic Owl’ I arranged to meet my wife Vaila with our six month old son Casey to bring them up to the hill, with a scope on my back and Casey harnessed into my front – the hill left me even more breathless! But it certainly was worth it!  Casey is having quite a year, with Bearded seal, Killer Whale and now Snowy Owl, he is notching up quite a list!  Of course at six months he is oblivious to it all but birding parents will know that it matters not – ‘pram ticks’ all count some day, him there makes it all the more special!

Snowy Owl has a circumpolar breeding distribution. It is a very rare visitor to Britain and Ireland although the last few years has seen birds starting to appear far more regularly, especially in the Western Isles and West cost of Ireland.

This bird is only the second one in over ten years in Shetland, the last also being on Unst in 2005 (also on Fair Isle). I hope it is not another decade and a half till my next encounter and I hope that one will be on my home turf…

These images were of the same (or presumed to be) taken in the exact same stretch of water last spring.

Two White-billed’s in one day!

Undoubtedly one of the most distinctive and stunning species of bird to visit our waters, White-billed Divers (or Yellow-billed Loon as they are also known) in summer plumage are simply exquisite.

Almost to the day, an annually returning adult in summer plumage passes through Bluemul Sound, (between Unst and Fetlar) presumably on its way North to its Arctic breeding grounds each spring – and today there it was! Pretty much on queue and in the exact same stretch of water I found the ‘diver’ today. In recent years any day between 25th April and 2nd May is a safe bet.

What was even more exciting was for me to discover another bird, some 15-20 mile South off Vidlin, (off a ferry) a pristine adult in summer plumage, with its bright almost glowingly neon- ivory bill, inc black upper parts topped with gleaning white and rather sequential white chequers on mantle – a sight that equals its status, rare!

White-billed diver breed in the High Arctic but their wintering grounds are something of an enigma amongst ornithologists. They are very rare visitors to British waters but in recent years are becoming more regular, so much so in fact that their status was downgraded from a ‘National rarity’ to a ‘Regional one’. Like the large majority of rarities from the Arctic, the North of Scotland, in particular the Western and Northern Isles very much host the lion’s share of records of this species.

Little, or in fact pretty much nothing is known of where these birds spend the winter. In recent years sightings of birds, such as the two I found today use the North of Scotland as a staging post on their way North to breed and so are either recorded as ‘fly by’s’ or just off shore for a day or two then they are gone. In recent years searching of rarely visited stretches of deeper waters has rewarded birders with multiple records, one of the main factors contributing to the changing of its status in Britain.

It is very likely that Britain hosts a much higher wintering number of these enigmatic seabirds than we may ever know, owing to their preference to much deeper off shore habitats than their commoner counterparts, Great-northern Divers.

Earlier in the month my close friend and ‘Shetland nature’ tourleader Micky Maher along with coleauges  found three of these stunning White-billed Divers, all in summer plumage in Argyll, Scotland. Micky also wrote the species account of White-billed Diver (during his time as Shetland Bird Club County Recorder) in the superb and highly acclaimed Birds of Scotland 3 which was published by the SOC  in 2007.

Along with the two records described above, two others have been found in Shetland waters in the past week, how many more are out there, the search continues…

I summoned my RSPB colleague Pete Ellis from his office, who needed little persuasion to come with me as at the time he was having a major disagreement with the photocopier, printer and just about everything else involving technology. On arrival at Levenwick the bird was still sitting around in fields on the edge of the village. It was certainly a big raptor, but it wasn’t the expected White-tailed Eagle: it was a Red Kite. In most places in Britain this would have been something of a disappointment, but here in Shetland Red Kites are a major rarity. This was only the 15th Shetland record, and the first since 1999. The bird was untagged, and given the weather over the previous couple of days (sunny with light south-easterly winds) it seems likely to have been a continental bird heading for Scandinavia rather than a wanderer from the reintroduced populations in mainland Scotland.

The bird stayed around for much of the afternoon before disappearing into the low cloud and hill fog. The next day it was at Cunningsburgh (about ten miles to the north), but returned to Levenwick on the morning of the 28th. It then went on a big wander around south mainland that afternoon, and rather gloriously appeared just north of my house at Virkie, where I watched it from my garden!

It wouldn’t be right not to give thanks to the people of Levenwick, who not only alerted us to the presence of this splendid bird but also put up with some rather haphazard parking when Pete and me first saw the bird!

Taken in February 2008, in this photograph the ‘fairy cake wing’ scapular sails and the striking orangey yellow bill tones are quite obvious.

For the third consecutive winter I have been seeing birds ‘presumed to be’ of the form borealis also known as ‘Northern Eider’ amongst flocks of Common Eider in Bluemull Sound, the channel of sea which separates Yell, Unst and Fetlar. These really are stunning Eiders and with a keen eye are quite easily recognised amongst the ‘commoners’. My first experience of birds showing features of this form was in November 2007, since then there has been at least two wintering drakes returning, with up to four birds together in March 2009. This past winter (‘09/’10) two drakes wintered again, with at least one still present into mid April.

In this image, also taken in February 2008, the difference in bill colour (front right two drakes) to the accompanying Common Eiders is quite distinct.

Knowing that Martin Garner (who we are extremely fortunate to have leading tours with us) was probably the most informed Eider enthusiast in the nation, I emailed him images and so started my interest in the rarer forms of Common Eider.

Superficially the drakes are very similar to the dapper black and white plumage of our Common Eider but it is the small but rather elaborate ‘scapular sails’, which are often pert up like the little wings on a fairy cake and also the bright yellow tones of the bill that really set them apart.

Taken in March 2009, this photo shows three fine drakes (and an apparent female too) which appear to be classic examples of Northern Eider, exhibiting all the key features and has been said to be potentially the best photographic record of them in British waters.

They are perhaps what you might say to be ‘birders birds’- birds that only really keen birders will look for and find interesting, even travel to see. This ‘Northern’ form also known as ‘Borealis’, (which is also the Latin name somateria mollissima borealis) is basically the name given to the subspecies in the Arctic regions of the North Atlantic, from North East Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is possible and indeed quite likely that birds have been over looked in Britain in the passed.

It is currently very much regarded as a rarity in Britain and is a subspecies that is soon to be looked at in detail by the British Birds Rarities Committee in order for criteria to be put together on how to reliably identify and asses records of these vagrants amongst our Eider flocks and hopefully build a picture of their status, both here and where they originate from.

This image shows how in really good contenders for borealis Eider, the leg and feet colour should match the bright yellowish orange tones of the bill.

Through out the British Isles (and indeed many parts of Europe) when it comes to potential rare Eiders amongst our winter flocks, most birders are tuned into that oh so familiar and oh so delightful features of a resplendent drake King Eider, surely one of the Worlds most exquisite sea ducks. Some keener eyed and enthusiastic birders may also be on the look out for a female, ‘Queen’ Eider. Stellers Eider would of course be a dream find for any rarity hunter, as it remains a true Mega, surely we are long over due the next one? But now, with increasing knowledge and awareness of the rarer subspecies of Common Eider that could turn out to be much more sought after amongst birders in Britain.

Taken more recently, this image as well as the one below from last year shows how the bill shape tends to differ structurally as well as by colour, tending to be more elongated and drooping towards tip. The shape of the lobes (the extremity of bill that runs up towards forehead) tends to be different as does the black that borders it.

There are several subspecies in the ‘Common Eider’ group, four of which we should (and many are) on the look out for as they could potentially turn up as vagrants in our flocks in Britain. ‘Northern’ Eider is by far the most likely target for the avid rarity hunter in Britain, as the form is known to occur in Scotland, the Northern Isles and Northern Ireland. The separation, identity and indeed taxonomy involving these forms is still a complex subject to say the least. Another subspecies from the group ‘Dreser’s Eider’ also known as ‘American Eider’ was recently recorded in Ireland, its first appearance in Europe! This is a revolutionary example of what might reach our British waters some day…

It is my reputation as a guide for wildlife photographers seeking to photograph Otters in Shetland that led me to review and wear the clothing, for which the gear is ideally suited. The clothing is designed for dedicated wildlife photographers spending a lot of time in the field and, as my experience so far proves, in all weathers!

Read more about Stealth Gear and my review at: http://www.stealth-gear.com/photographers/brydon-thomason.html

Being sposored by ‘Stealth Gear’ realy is a fantastic development for ‘Shetland Nature’ and especialy so for the Otter Photography trips I guide. The various camo garments I normally provide clients with are now being replaced by ‘Wlildlife photography clothing that has been designed by wildlife photographers’.

Read more about my Otter photography

In the early part of the Shetland spring, Rock Pipits are always worth a closer look. Perhaps surprisingly, Scandinavian Rock Pipits (a different subspecies from the ones that breed in Britain) are relatively rarely recorded in Shetland, and claims are still assessed by the local rarities committee. However, this may well be a function of the fact that the two races are so similar that many cannot be separated reliably. Happily, a few birds are distinctive, and this one, photographed at Scord, near Sumburgh, on 15th April is one of those.

The key features of this one that distinguish it from the local breeders include: the predominantly grey tones to the upperparts, in a particular a strikingly grey head, with little or no streaking; the striking whitish supercilium, broad and well-marked behind the eye; and the rather clean underparts, with a lack of yellow or buff tones to the ground colour but, more importantly, an obvious orangey-pink wash to the lower throat and upper breast. The pink wash in particular is a good feature since British birds rarely, if ever, show an obvious pink flush like this. The lack of the typical deep, saturated olive or yellow tones of a fresh-plumaged British bird are striking – although note that by April, many birds are heavily worn, as this bird is, and this may contribute to a duller, greyer appearance. (Many British birds and at least some Scandinavians appear not to have a pre-breeding moult at all, so their feathers are unchanged from the main, complete, moult carried out after the breeding season). This bird shows very worn wing feathers for example, and little in the way of wingbars. Notwithstanding, the combination of grey head and striking supercilia would not disgrace many summer-plumaged Water Pipits – although the heavy streaking on the underparts is a quick reminder that it is not a Water Pipit. Birders in Shetland are still waiting to find the first Water Pipit for the islands!

Surprisingly, 15th April was set to get even better in a birding context. After work that day, the cold north-westerly didn’t encourage me to get out on foot, birding from the car was much more appealing. Parked up overlooking Loch of Hillwell, there was no sign of any fresh migrants, but then a gull flying over the loch caught my eye. It was somehow ‘different’, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Luckily, I managed to get my scope on it for a few seconds before it went out of view, and what stood out immediately was the well-defined black ring near the tip of the bill! I set off after it, hoping it was heading for a group or 100–200 gulls feeding in a newly ploughed rig. Happily, after few minutes I found it again; and it was indeed a Ring-billed Gull. This American species, closely related to our own Common Gull, is an annual visitor to Britain, but is more regular to the south of Shetland; there is fewer than 20 records in Shetland. At first, I assumed it must be an adult bird, given the distinctive bill pattern (the photos were taken after it had been digging in the newly turned earth, hence it appears to have an all-dark tip) and lack of any obvious sign of immaturity in the wings. However, after examining the photos, it seems more likely to have been a third-summer bird (in other words hatched in 2007), which would explain the dull leg colour, the rather extensive black in the wingtips, the noticeably small ‘mirror’ (white spot) on the outermost primary, and also some faint dark markings in the primary coverts. Anyway, it was a good bird to find, and this is probably the last of my bird-finding posts for this spring…