A Locustella Day on Shetland 24th September 2024

Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler c Dennis Morrison

Locustella Warblers are arguably one of the main attractions for birders coming to Shetland in September and October. Locustella is the generic name for a group of warblers that creep mouse like through rank vegetation and are usually very hard to locate let alone see.

Britain has one Locustella species, the Grasshopper Warbler that comes from Africa to breed here every year

The two Locustella species that cause such excitement on Shetland are the Lanceolated and Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers, both very rare vagrants from Siberia and are highly prized. Most birders will make a supreme effort to see either.

On Shetland it is usually by walking through iris beds and such like damp rank vegetation that you occasionally can flush one but it is attritional work and only rarely succeeds but when it does ................

We were driving south from our house in Scalloway to Grutness as Mark wanted to take more images of the Red breasted Flycatcher, when news broke of a Lanceolated Warbler, referred to by one and all as a Lancy, being flushed by three young birders from a clump of willows by a stream at Levenwick which was fortunately on our route south

There was now no question where we were going. A Lancy trumps everything.Twenty minutes later we descended into Levenwick, which is by the sea and into the customary chaos of cars and birders trying to not park over residents drives or block the road in a small village not designed to accommodate a mass invasion of anxious birders

We finally found a place to park and joined about fifty birders standing around not looking at anything in particular. Never a good sign.The bird had last been seen flying into a garden but for the last half hour no one quite knew where it was.

As usually happens people got bored and started wandering around and one birder re-examining the small copse of willow where it had been first found  managed to flush it once again.How had it got back there from the garden unseen?

It's here he cried but as he did it flew out of the copse into an adjacent iris bed.Some saw it, others including me did not, it happened so quickly.

Now we knew where it was and everyone convinced of its location surrounded the iris bed. It was obvious that everyone wanted someone to walk through the bed to flush the bird out but no one initially had the courage to do so but eventually after half an hour, patience ran out and three birders walked the bed.We watched as they approached where it had been seen to land. Any second now.

The result was predictably nothing

It definitely landed there said those who had seen it fly into the irises

The warbler was then seen minutes later, very briefly scuttling up a grass bank by the burn well away from the iris bed and it was obvious that it was highly mobile, moving fast and unseen under the long grass and vegetation.It might land somewhere and you marked the spot but it was highly unlikely it would remain there.

And so it went on with the bird occasionally showing itself for a second but to only a lucky few looking in the right direction.

I grew frustrated and downcast at never being in the right place at the right time but it was a lottery.It could be right under my feet but I would never know it unless it flew up.

Many by now had given up on it and left but we persisted

Eventually the bird was re-located back by the small burn, no more than a ditch really, that ran by the copse but as per  usual only one person saw it and it  promptly disappeared. Twenty minutes later despite people having walked through the small copse it remained unlocated. It could be anywhere.

Bored, I too ventured into the copse after everyone had moved to another area, walking through the rank grass below the trees and the Lancy flew from my feet to further along the edge of the burn and then it flew once more only to disappear and not be re-located

In the brief views I had I saw a small, round winged, heavily streaked, dark brown warbler, almost wren like, flying low into the grass.

It was obvious this was as good as it was going to get and the elusive Lancy was not going to be seen in the open so we decided to leave it there. Sometimes Lancys can be ridiculously confiding but not this one and you just have to accept the situation for what it is. We had seen it but somehow it all felt unsatisfactory

We carried on towards our original destination of Grutness where I left Mark and walked on a short way to Sumburgh Farm to try and see a scarce migrant in the form of a Lapland Bunting that had been reported from there for the last few days

I met Hugh Harrop a well known birding figure on Shetland who told me it was usually to be found on the track that ran from the road to the farm but on a first scan we could not locate it.

Then it flew over us calling and following it in the sky we saw it land on the track ahead of us but at some distance. Slowly we approached it and got within acceptable range as it fed on the track.

They are a subtly attractive bird, a mixture of various browns, buff, black and white with a striking chestnut panel on the closed wing. We watched as it shuffled over the sparse grass and stones searching for seeds. For ten minutes or so it fed contentedly but then flew up onto a post before flying off into the distance

I rejoined Mark at Grutness and gave him the news about the bunting but when we returned to look for it there was no sign of it anywhere.

We headed back towards Scalloway but as we did yet another rare bird alert came via the Shetland Rare Birds WhatsApp. A Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, known to birders as a PG Tips (on account of the white tips to its tail feathers) had been located at Maywick which was on our route home.Remarkably it had been found by the same three young birders who had found the Lancy this morning.

Again there was no question where we were going now and being close to Maywick we might even beat the inevitable crowd and manage to park near to where it was. Maywick, like many Shetland locations, does not have much room for cars so spaces are at a premium unless you are willing to walk considerable distances.

The PG Tips was in iris beds alongside Maywick Burn which runs down a shallow valley into the Loch of Vatsetter and on getting there we were surprised at how many people had got there before us. Parking was difficult so Mark told me to go ahead and he would endeavour to find somewhere to park the car. I could see birders clustered along the side of the burn obviously following the birds progress. I walked down the road, through a gate and descended a wet soggy track to where the birders were watching it as it fed by the burn.

Birders at the Maywick Burn and iris beds

By the time I got to them the warbler had reached and just passed under a small flat wooden bridge on which everyone was now standing. It was very congested.The PG Tips had just wandered out of sight but then it re-appeared

There it is! cried those on the front of the bridge

Where specifically came a chorus of replies

The usual hopeless directions that followed were interspersed with other cries of triumph as some found it independently.

It came into view for me as I looked between two heads in front of me on the bridge. A typical, small skulking locustella, greyish brown, streaked on its upperparts and with a noticeable white eyebrow. I raised my camera but just as I did  someone in front of me obscured my view and at that same moment the warbler flew from the burn into the surrounding iris beds.

Rage, frustration, you name it, passed through me but in the end you have to be philosophical about such things and remain outwardly calm.It was no one's fault and this kind of occurrence is now almost the norm with rare birding  on Shetland these days. You are always in a crowd but sometimes I find it a little difficult to cope with.

So no photos but Dennis Morrison was more fortunate and has kindly agreed for me to use his images for which I am very grateful. I had at the very least good views of this PG Tips and much better than the only other one I have seen in Britain  that was in Norfolk on the 17th of September 2017.

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler c Dennis Morrison

I was quite happy. Content even. Although you always want more.

Mark finally joined me and I gave him the news the bird had flown into the irises

He wasn't happy.

Calm down Mark. I think it flew over there.Follow me and we can probably coax it out of the irises 

We went through the irises and it flew as predicted right from my feet.I saw a rusty rump and graduated tail and noted how much larger it was than the Lancy we saw this morning, before it dived back into the irises

Mark got to see it too so in the end all was well

It later returned to the burn and we waited as it approached the bridge from the other side but just about to come into view it decided to fly back into the irises.

We decided to leave then but others remained in the hope it might show itself one more time but it didn't.

There was no sign of it the next day.

to be continued