The Tantalizing Tengmalm's 22nd-25th February 2019

It started like this.

News came out at 11am on Tuesday the 19th of February about a Tengmalm's Owl being discovered in the garden of a house at Bixter which is on Mainland, the principal island of Shetland. Tengmalm's Owl is an absolute 'mega' in twitcher parlance and is probably one of the most desired of birds amongst the twitching fraternity. The last one to be seen on Shetland was in 1912 and despite there being 52 records of it occuring in Britain only eight have been seen since 1929 so you can understand why this particular bird created such a stir.

Tengmalm's Owl is named after the Swedish naturalist Peter Gustaf Tengmalm. It is found from Fennoscandia east across Russia and also occurs as close to Britain as France, Belgium and The Netherlands. It is slightly larger than a Little Owl and has a large head and a prominent facial disc which makes it look a bit like a miniature Tawny Owl in profile. The upperpart plumage is greyish brown prominently spotted with white, especially on the head and its eyes are bright yellow, giving it a 'surprised look' when they are open. Its underparts are dull white streaked with rust brown.

Pictures of the owl at Bixter began to appear on social media within hours which indicated it was showing amazingly well. Its discovery had been entirely by chance when Jackie and Erik Moar opened their bedroom curtains on Tuesday morning to look out over a few metres of paving stones to a spruce tree growing opposite. There, to Jackie's amazement, sitting quite content on a low bough, almost in full view, was a Tengmalm's Owl!

Jackie posted a picture of the owl on Facebook as she was unsure what species of owl it was and the owl was swiftly identified by local birders who all promptly made a beeline to the Moar's home, the first house on the road from Bixter to Tumblin, to see it for themselves. Even some intrepid birders from England managed to get a flight to Shetland in time to see it before nightfall.

I resolved to try and see it myself and made a plan to drive north to Aberdeen the next day, Wednesday, leaving my home in Oxfordshire at around 7am. I would check on news of the owl as I drove north and if it was still there I would continue north and book myself on the overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick that same night. By 10am I had got as far as Keele Services in Staffordshire before news came through that there was no sign of the owl. I waited for an hour at the Services just in case but there was nothing positive about the owl so I turned for home and resigned myself to the fact that this was one bird that was going to elude me.

Thursday morning arrived and checking RBA (Rare Bird Alert) I was confronted with the news that the owl was back in the Moar's garden at Bixter this morning! What was going on? Throughout the day the owl was reported as being seen well by those lucky birders who had made it to Shetland. I decided to risk all and book myself on the first Loganair flight out of Aberdeen to Shetland the next morning, Friday. The flight was at 6.30am and I had the prospect of an eight hour drive to get to Aberdeen Airport. I left that night and all went well with just one brief stop at Tebay Services in the middle of the night and then a few hours later, slightly dazed and bemused I joined a number of other fellow birders to board the one hour flight from Aberdeen to Sumburgh airport in Shetland.

On landing at Sumburgh and with a phone signal restored, news came through that there was no sign of the owl so far and it looked like my gamble had not paid off but, with the usual twitcher's optimism, we all agreed that there was time yet for it to be found but I confess I had that familiar sinking feeling in my stomach

I collected my hire car and set off on the fifty minute journey to Bixter where I found Jackie's house and about forty birders on her patio looking forlornly at a line of spruce trees acting as a windbreak on the southern side of the house. No one had seen the owl and some birders had even crawled into the dense belt of trees and found no trace of it. The game was surely up but we still stood around, reluctant to accept the reality of the situation.

Jackie and Erik Moar's house and patio. The spruce trees
favoured by the owl after the first day are in the background

The infamous spruce trees seen from the Moar's patio and where the owl
occasionally was to be found.

Birders on the patio but sadly with no owl to look at

Coffee, tea and biscuits were offered to us by Jackie in return for a £2.00 donation to a local charity. I even got a slice of cake for good measure.

After a couple of hours Mark and Les, two birder acquaintances arrived, having got a later flight from Aberdeen and we stood around for another hour. In the end we decided the best course of action would be to go birding elsewhere and return here in the evening in the hope the owl might appear. It was a long shot but we had no other option.

We went first to Loch Spiggie to look for a Pied Billed Grebe which, with the help of two other birders we saw, if but distantly. The grebe is a rare vagrant from North America and a good bird to see at anytime but somehow its usual lustre was sadly lacking due to the non appearance of the owl.

We drove onwards to a place called Blett near Cunningsburgh where a Common Rosefinch was spending the winter in the garden of Jim Nicolson, a well known and very likeable Shetland birder. This record is remarkable as it is the first record of a Common Rosefinch wintering in Shetland and only the fourth to do so in Britain. We saw the rosefinch eventually but it resolutely refused to emerge from the dense bushes it was sharing with some House Sparrows  so the views we got of it could only be described as adequate.

Our final destination before we returned to Bixter was the Shetland Catch fish quay in Lerwick as there is always the chance of seeing a white winged gull here in winter. 

Shetland Catch fish quay

A number of Kittiwakes and Fulmars were feeding on the sea together with the usual Herring Gulls and it was not long before we saw a first winter Iceland Gull flying in to join them. Some Long tailed Ducks were further out and a flock of Eiders were in full courtship mode as the males aaaahh ooohed their ardour to the females.

First winter Kittiwakes

Fulmar Petrel

First winter Iceland Gull

Drake Long tailed Duck

Eider Ducks

After a relaxing and enjoyable time photographing the various birds at the quay it was time to go back to Bixter but we went there with little hope and were duly put in our place by the predictable non appearance of the owl. As I inwardly knew but would not admit, the owl was not in the trees, well hidden, as some had hoped and it was definitely not going to miraculously emerge to charm us all.We waited until dusk but there was no sign of it.

Eventually it was time to go to the airport to get our flight back to Aberdeen. Other die hard birders were going to stay on in Shetland, either sleeping in cars or spending a night in the Youth Hostel at Lerwick in the hope the owl would be seen the next morning. Good luck with that.

Disappointed, we homeward bound birders congregated in the cafe of Sumburgh airport and consoled each other with horror tales of how far we had travelled and how we might try again if it was found in the next few days. At around 11pm, back at Aberdeen Airport I collected my car from the long term car park and headed south out of Aberdeen.

Some thirty five miles south of the city I hit something in the road and my tyre disintegrated. I steered the crippled car onto the hard shoulder and called the RAC hoping that it was only the tyre that was damaged and not the wheel or suspension. After a very long wait of over two hours someone turned up and checked and changed the wheel for me. I was told there was no damage to the wheel but the spare was meant for emergencies and short distances only and I should not drive further than Dundee, some thirty miles south. The spare tyre would definitely not get me home to Oxfordshire.

I drove to Dundee and found a Travel Lodge which fortunately had a manned twenty four hour reception. I  checked in, got my key, found my room and collapsed into blessed sleep. It was 2am.

I awoke next morning at eight and checked RBA to learn there was no sign of the owl at Bixter. That was it then, twitch over. I found the nearest Tyre Service Centre in Dundee and by 10am I was back on the road and going home. It was a beautiful sunny morning and I felt in reasonably good spirits despite the severe disappointment at not seeing the owl. I passed Perth, then Stirling and Glasgow and was well on my way to the border when my phone rang.

It was Mark

'Ewan, where are you?'

My stomach did a flip. I knew what was coming.

'Approaching Lockerbie. Why? What's up?' As if I did not know

'The owl. It's back' Mark informed me.'Its been found well hidden in the spruce trees at Bixter'

'What are you going to do. Les and me are coming back to Aberdeen by train tomorrow and then getting the ferry but you could turn back now' he continued.

The slip road to Lockerbie was approaching rapidly. It was decision time. Now or never. Without thinking it through I went up the slip road, turned right above the motorway and them right again down the northbound slip road. 

I was on my way back to Aberdeen, my head spinning and trying to come to terms with just what I had initiated. I stopped at the next Services and called my wife to let her know of the latest twist in events. Well used to such impetuosity she wished me luck. Next I called Northlink Ferries and booked myself and the car onto the ferry that night. I now had a three hour hour drive to get back to Aberdeen.

The long boring journey to Aberdeen gave me a chance to put my shattered nerves back together but I was very uncertain about my future and  anxious about what I was doing.

It was straightforward checking in at Northlink and the car was soon stowed on the car deck of the huge ferry and I ascended to the lounge, ordered a malt whisky and sat glassy eyed, still wondering quite why I was here. It was surreal

A short time passed as body and soul tried to come together and then I was approached by another birder.

'Excuse me do you have a car?'

'Yes' I replied

'Would you be able to give me and my friend a lift to Bixter as we have been unable to hire a car at Lerwick as they have all been taken by other birders'

'Sure, I would be happy to help'

They introduced themselves as John Nadin and Kris Gibb, two birders living in Scotland and for the next two hours we chatted and watched the rugby as Wales beat England.

Consulting Twitter I learnt that the owl had been seen for most of the day but the views were restricted as the owl had remained well hidden in the spruce trees but in the evening birders who had seen it already had returned wanting a better view and shone torches on it as it emerged from its roost at dusk. This made me quite cross as it was a selfish and unthinking thing to do. First the house owners had expressly asked that no one shine torches and their instruction was flagrantly ignored. This might result in them saying that no other birder could enter their property. Second, what if the torches disturbed the owl sufficiently to persuade it to go elsewhere? No thought seems to have been given to all the birders who would want to travel up to Shetland to see the owl. 

Still the deed was done and I could only vent my frustration with a terse message to those offending birders via Twitter

We had been sailing for three hours and it was now 10pm and time for me to go to my cabin and John and Kris to brave sleeping on the floor of the forward lounge.

Next morning we met up at the ship's reception, descended to the car deck, stowed all our gear in the car and at just before 8am drove off the ship, out of Lerwick and onwards to Bixter. Jackie Moar had decided that no one could enter her garden before 9am so we joined around fifteen birders standing in the lonely road and waited for half an hour.

A Red Grouse chuckled and grumbled at us from far out on the moorland and Common Ravens croaked from high in the sky above. It was, despite everything, becoming a beautiful clear day with pleasant sunshine.

Jackie and Erik checked the spruce trees in the meantime and told us there was no sign of the owl. Great, yet another gamble was going south rapidly. Jackie told us that two people could go into the spruce trees to check for themselves and this duly happened around 10am with the predictable result that there was no sign of the owl. So maybe the torches had done their job and messed it up for the rest of us. We would never know.

After standing around for another hour wistfully looking at spruce trees devoid of any owl I suggested to John and Kris that it was a waste of time just standing doing nothing as the owl was obviously not here. I wanted to go birding, as I had done a couple of days earlier, and return later to see if by some unforeseen circumstance the owl might re-appear at dusk.

We then had a discussion in the car about what we would do if the owl was not here this evening.We were all currently booked on the ferry going back to Aberdeen tonight. I suggested we stay over another night just in case and in the end it was agreed. Kris got us three beds in the Lerwick Youth Hostel and we went to the Northlink Ferry Terminal to change our booking to Monday night which proved, as it always does with the ever obliging Northlink staff, 'nae bother at all'. 

We were all set but would the owl co operate?

Stopping first at the Co-op in Lerwick for some sliced loaves we arrived on the Shetland Catch quayside and commenced throwing bread out onto the water to attract the gulls. Soon we were being entertained by a squabbling frenzy of gulls. 

First winter Kiitiwakes ignored the squabbling larger gulls and demurely picked food from the sea's surface, never settling on the water but using their wings to stall and almost walk on their paddled feet across the sea. Kittiwakes are such a pleasant and smart combination of black, grey and white, the adults with wings of the palest grey and wing tips that look like they have been dipped in ink, The more bulky Fulmars, looking clumsy by comparison, preferred to swim on the sea picking at morsels or when taking off had to patter across the water before becoming airborne. 

Adult Kittiwake

First winter Kittiwakes

Fulmar Petrel

We were joined by Hugh Harrop, a well known resident Shetland  birder, photographer of some note and bird tour operator. A first winter Iceland Gull joined the throng before us but then a magnificent brute of a gull flew in. This was what we had hoped to find. It was an adult Glaucous Gull which ignored the scrum of feeding Herring Gulls and flew majestically around the quay in broad circuits, its all white wing tips and massive presence there for all to see. Eventually it settled well out on the sea close to the Iceland Gull.

First winter Iceland Gull

Adult Glaucous Gull

Drake Long tailed Ducks swam just off the quay, their immaculate chocolate, grey and white plumage shining in the sun, the broad pink band on their black bills equally striking. One drake surfaced very close to us, as if to further endorse his finery. Further out came the strange mechanical yodelling sound of the drake's calls as they displayed to a couple of females.

Male and female Long tailed Ducks

We left Hugh and drove on to Cunningsburgh to look for two Tundra Bean Geese that were with some Greylag Geese in a field just beyond Cunningsburgh, near Sandwick . We found the geese with little bother and watched them feeding in the distance before they sat down and became only partially visible. We moved on to Blett and Jim's house for a look at the Common Rosefinch but we could not see it by standing in the road outside Jim's house. Ten minutes later Jim drove up and invited us in to his kitchen to watch for the bird in comfort. He spread some black sunflower seed on the ground under the bushes and we waited. Plenty of House Sparrows flew down to the seed as did a lovely Rock Dove but the rosefinch was nowhere to be seen. 

Rock Dove - none of your feral nonsense here!

Eventually the rosefinch flew down too and we all got good views of it, a dull brown unremarkable bird, the plumage almost featureless with just a couple of narrow buff wing bars and a streaked breast. Its only saving grace being its scarcity.

Common Rosefinch

Time was moving on and Jackie had advised we would be allowed back in her garden after 4.30pm so we duly made the short drive back to Bixter and at the appointed hour stood waiting on the patio. Of course nothing happened as the owl was not there. Everyone hoped that it had been overlooked when the spruces were searched earlier in the day but of course it had not. There was no sign of the owl, just a number of Blackbirds and Collared Doves came flying in to roost in the trees while Common Snipe, out on the moorland, commenced calling a monotonous chipper chipper in the dusk and others were 'drumming' in flight above us. Slowly our fellow birders drifted off as they had planes to catch or the ferry deadline was looming.

We had one more day to gamble, courtesy of our decision to stay an extra day.

We were the last to leave the Moar's house, now virtually in pitch darkness.

In desperation we drove along the road to Tumblin hoping by chance the owl would be sat on a fence post and be illuminated by the car's headlights. Of course it wasn't.

Back in Lerwick we treated ourselves to a curry and a beer and then headed off to the huge gothic building that now serves as Lerwick Youth Hostel.

The weather today had been fine and sunny if a little cold but this being Shetland, tomorrow was predicted to be wet and dull with a lot of mist.

During the night it rained, spots hammering against the window of our room but next morning it was not raining, just damp and grey, dreich as they say in Scotland. We got a coffee and breakfast roll in The New Harbour Cafe and then headed off to Bixter to stand once more in the road with a new arrival of optimistic birders, fresh off the ferry or plane, to await 9am when we were allowed into Jackie's garden. It was a depressing, gloomy morning with mist lying low over the undulating moorland. The Red Grouse continued its mockery of us, calling unseen from the heather moorland.

Although no one was allowed into the garden until 9am I was surprised to see a well known birder emerge from the spruces well before, to announce he had been in there for half an hour searching and the owl was definitely not here.

Whether he should have gone in there before the Moar's gave permission was questionable but what was without question was the owl was not here - again. We had failed and surely all hope was gone now.

I stood deflated and at a complete loss.I just wanted to go home and forget all about this. For an hour we mooched around and the well known birder even checked the spruces once again but we all knew it was a lost cause.We were just going through the motions.  After an hour I told the others this was senseless so let's go and see some birds, any birds, starting with those at the Shetland Catch quayside.

Other birders decided to search any surrounding suitable conifer stands for the owl and everyone said Tresta, just two miles distant would be a good bet as there was so much habitat there that was suitable for an owl to roost in.We said we would go there after our visit to the quayside at Shetland Catch.

It was agreed and we drove to the quay through thick mist that had come down to blanket the higher ground and made driving decidedly difficult. At Lerwick we found we were below the mist and suitably armed with the customary loaves from the Co-op  to tempt the gulls, we drove to the quay.

When we got there it was deserted - not a gull, Kittiwake or Fulmar was feeding anywhere near. They were all sat far out on the sea  or on the shoreline of Bressay directly opposite us. The reason may have been an Otter that swam towards us and then on seeing us dived, only to surface under an adjacent pier before diving once more and disappearing forever.

Otter

The ever present Grey Seals ignored the Otter and looked up at us with their sad opaque eyes from close in to the quay.They were not interested in the bread but certainly very interested in us!

Grey Seal

Eventually we tempted some gulls to come in and a third winter Iceland Gull flew from the shoreline on Bressay to join the gulls circling around us, looking almost ghostly in the dull light of a very grey day, but it soon departed back to Bressay. Other birders have claimed this was a Kumlien's Gull, a hybrid between Iceland and Thayer's Gull but we could see no evidence to point to such a conclusion.

Third winter Iceland Gull

A Black Guillemot already in full summer plumage was feeding just off the quay and some Long tailed Ducks were diving further out but that was all there was to see.

Black Guillemot

We gave up and as we were driving out of the complex Kris saw two gulls standing in a field by the road. One was an immature Herring Gull but the other was a first winter Iceland Gull, so at least we had seen two Iceland Gulls so far today

First winter Iceland Gull

It was approaching noon and I fancied a bag of chips so we drove to Lerwick New Harbour to get them and then watched a couple of Black Guillemots fishing in the harbour. One was in full winter plumage but the other was in transition from winter to summer plumage, something I have not seen before. We spent some time taking pictures of them as they came quite close but Kris was keen to go to Tresta to take up the ongoing and to me seemingly hopeless search for the owl.

Black Guillemot in winter plumage.The orange water is the reflection from
the wheelhouse of the Lerwick Lifeboat moored nearby

Black Guillemots

We duly arrived at Tresta and stopped in a large layby. On the opposite side of the road were two houses and a track leading up past them to Lea Gardens which currently was closed for the winter and is famously home to a collection of over 1500 plants from all over the world, spread over two acres.The local post lady came down the track in her red van and told us we were free to wander around as the owners Rosa Steppanova and James Mackenzie would not mind.

So we went up the track and into an area of small fields and ornamental gardens scattered with various spruce, conifer and deciduous trees and commenced searching,  more in hope than expectation for the Tengmalm's Owl. Kris went off on his own down a grass track whilst John and myself went down  another grass track, meeting Mike McKee who had been searching here for a little while but had seen nothing more than a Goldcrest. We all parted and went our separate ways but not too far.

I commenced searching some dense spruces, getting soaked by the wet needles and pricked by their sharpness. It was attritional as I forced my way into the unyielding density of the tightly packed trees only to stagger out with nothing to show for it but an alarmed Blackbird. My spirits could not have been any lower than now.

I was in a grassy area on a track adjacent to a small wet field which Mike was checking, the two of us separated by a line of small bare trees. I could see Mike, just fifty metres away, through the bare branches standing in the middle of the field. I heard him give a whistle, low and urgent. I acknowledged his alert and went round into the field and up to where he was standing and looking towards a line of pine trees that marked the nearby boundary of the field.

He pointed to the pines and after some confusion about which pine he was indicating I saw what he was pointing to. It looked like a dark lump protruding from the slender trunk of the pine. Quite high up but distinctive against the pale background of sky.

The Owl was in the top of the pine next to the
deciduous tree and just left of the first fence post

I looked in my bins and saw 'the lump'  was a roosting owl with its back to us. A small owl with a large head and fluffed up greyish brown plumage with white spots liberally sprinkled over it.

It was the TENGMALM'S OWL !!! 

It could be nothing else. Unbelievable. Totally unreal. At the very last opportunity it had been found and from the very depths of despair my spirits soared to unknown heights of ecstacy. Mike asked where Kris and John were and I said I thought they had gone further on, beyond this field but not very far.

He asked me to wait here with the owl while he went in search of Kris and John. I said 'Of course' and jokingly added 'I don't think it will be a problem'. Let's face it I was going nowhere, certainly not after all the trials and tribulations that I had endured up to now!

Tengmalm;s Owl

For five minutes, maybe slightly more I stood alone in the middle of the field watching the sleeping owl which had not moved. Soon the others came running and joined me, gasping, and they too hit heights of unknown joy as they saw for the first time the Tengmalm's Owl. It was maybe another fifteen minutes before any other birders came running up the track and into the field. Mike had put out a message and apparently most of the birders from this morning were still standing around at Jackie's house at Bixter hoping some miracle might occur. Well it had now.

Eventually there were around twenty people in the field all watching and admiring the owl which carried on dozing, totally unaware of its escalating celebrity

Rosa in the brown coat looking at the owl while others stand by to give advice

Kris Gibb scoping the Tengmalm's Owl

Jim Nicolson and Rebecca Nason behind the camera

Kris in blue jacket, John with green hat and yours truly between. Cheers!

Shetland Celebs!
Hugh Harrop in the brown jacket next to Dave Parnaby
warden of Fair Isle Bird Observatory both standing behind 
Kris in the blue jacket
Rebecca Nason talking to Jim Nicolson beyond John in the
green hat

I had not bothered to bring my camera from the car but now ran back to get it. As I got to the car I  noticed a lady just getting out of her car. She had bins around her neck. I had no idea how serious a birder she was but everyone on the island had surely heard of the owl by now.

'Are you looking for the owl?' I enquired

'Yes but hasn't it gone?' she replied

'No it hasn't. Follow me, its just up the track opposite and in a pine tree'  

We raced back to the field and she saw the owl.

She then went back for her camera!

An anguished cry came from the track as Rosa one of the owners of Lea Gardens came down it with two collie dogs. 'What are you all doing? You must leave the field it is full of wild flower bulbs' she shouted to us

Consternation and confusion reigned for a  brief moment as we all made to leave the field but when she asked why we were all here and we told her about the owl her attitude changed completely and she insisted we remain but should be careful where we trod. Apparently she had planted lots of bulbs in the field and was concerned for their welfare.

We showed Rosa the owl through a telescope, explained about its great rarity and she was delighted to see it. A donation bucket was quickly produced and I gave her £10 and others followed suit. Harmony and goodwill reigned once more.

For a while we all just enjoyed watching the owl. When one of the collie dogs approached the fence under the tree it was roosting in the owl opened its yellow eyes wide and watched the dog intently but otherwise it slept with its bill tucked either into its soft breast feathers or snuggled in the feathers of its back.

Rosa's two Border Collie dogs

I noticed a small dead bird cached in the twigs just to the left of the owl which I  presumed was something it had preyed upon earlier. At first I thought it was a Robin but it was too big and others suggested a wader. Maybe a Common Snipe but there was no long bill. Someone then ventured a Turnstone but in the end we agreed it was a Ringed Plover. Possibly the owl had caught it on the nearby seashore last night. The main prey of Tengmalm's Owl is voles and birds are said to be rarely taken outside of the breeding season so this unfortunate Ringed Plover was an exception.

The dead Ringed Plover is clearly visible to the left of the Tengmalm's Owl

Kris told me that while searching for the owl he had found beyond this field another small ornamental area with a large pond crammed with breeding frogs. I decided to take the opportunity to go and have a look as the owl was obviously not going anywhere.

When I got there I was amazed at the number of frogs.They were here in their hundreds leaping from under my feet and making me take great care not to tread on any so well camouflaged were they in the wet grass and dead leaves as they made their way to the pond, some of them actually climbing the stone steps up to the pond's perimeter. Looking at the pond I could see mounds of frog spawn had already been laid in one corner.

The steps leading up to Frog Central

Frog Central!

The pond was full of tiny buggle eyed heads poking just above the surface and croaking loudly but make a sudden move and immediately there was silence and all the heads disappeared with a resounding plop below the surface of the pond. Sit quietly for a few minutes and heads would slowly emerge and the croaking frog chorus recommenced. All it needed was Paul McCartney!

Common Frogs

We had found the owl at around 2pm and we watched it until 5.30pm when we had to leave to catch the ferry. For the most part it remained roosting by the trunk but at around 5pm it stirred, stretching a wing and, turning on its perch, sidled up to the dead plover and commenced eating it, tearing at the flesh, bones and feathers with its bill, whilst firmly holding it down with its foot. Some of the plover's plucked feathers blew on the wind towards us and we collected one or two as a souvenir, whilst other feathers were swallowed by the owl along with both bone and tissue.

The mist rolled in once more obscuring the surrounding hills and it became very dull. A Sparrowhawk flew over the field and the owl watched it intently before the hawk disappeared into the mist and the owl recommenced its meal.

The last I saw of the Tengmalm's Owl was of it staring intently out towards us whilst stood on the remains of the plover.

We drove back to Lerwick in thick mist. It was hazardous and slow going but we got to the ferry terminal unscathed.

Sitting in the car waiting to board the ferry I recounted in my head what I had seen on this roller coaster of a birding odyssey, and for this time of year on Shetland I had done pretty well, with a Pied billed Grebe, a Common Rosefinch, two Tundra Bean Geese, a Glaucous Gull, at least three Iceland Gulls, Long tailed Ducks and of course the star attraction - Tengmalm's Owl.

Nothing was going to keep me from celebrating this remarkable twitch. The twelve hour ferry journey would now be one of immense  delight as I savoured the events of the last four days over a large malt whisky nightcap.

Satisfied. You bet!

Postscript

The Tengmalm's Owl remained at Lea Gardens, Tresta and was last seen there on Saturday 2nd March.

There was no sign of it the next day - Sunday.