The Big One - 5th October 2026

c Hugh Harrop

I was casually chatting to Pauline late in the morning whilst waiting to catch a glimpse of an elusive Firecrest at Wester Quarff on Mainland.

The time was approximately 1125. Glancing to my right I noticed the couple who had been standing by the roadside suddenly become energised and then walking at a brisk pace, well almost running to be honest, up the road to where their car was parked.Seconds later another car  came from further down the road, stopped briefly beside me and its passenger yelled out of the window.........

Ewan! Sibe Blue Robin at Hillwell and before I could reply drove off at high speed. 

With shaking fingers I consulted my phone, absent mindedly still set to silent from the night before and there was a message on the Shetland Rare Bird News WhatsApp, timed at 1120 from Hugh Harrop that served to add to the shock waves of adrenalin now pulsing through my body

SIBERIAN BLUE ROBIN in our garden at Hillwell.Parking ONLY at Quendale Mill or Mainlands and NOT at Hillwell or approach road.This is a very sensitive area so please stay out of fields and follow on site instructions.Pin to follow from DP (Dan Pointon)

This was the big one everyone had been hoping for. The event that every birder who travels in hope to Shetland dreams of. A bird fabled for its rarity and extreme difficulty to see in Britain, usually present for only one day and never to be seen again.This was only the second Siberian Blue Robin to be seen in Shetland (the first was found dead, having been killed by a cat, on Foula in 2011), only the fifth in Britain and seventh in Europe.A bird of vast Siberian forests that should be spending its winter in  southeast Asia.

My car was parked just yards away and it was less than two minutes before I had set Birdguides route directions on my Satnav and was turning the car in the narrow road and hurtling up the hill, waving farewell to Pauline, then turning right and shooting  along the narrow road to join the A970 south.It would take me half an hour to get to the turn off to Mainlands.

Wave upon wave of anxiety enveloped me as I drove.

What would the situation be like at Hillwell with all the cars and birders arriving en masse? How close could I get to Hillwell before having to abandon my a car and walk? Would the bird even still be there? I had no answers of course, no idea, but knowing the area as I do I doubted I would be able to get a parking space anywhere near  Hillwell and Hugh's garden. I told myself to concentrate on my driving and deal with the rest when I got there.If I ended up in a ditch or worse I would never forgive myself.

The miles whizzed by but seemed never quick enough. Signs for Fladdabister, Cunningsburgh and Boddam flashed past. I came to the turning to Mainlands and further on the same road lay Hillwell.Now what do I do? I could play it safe and park at the Mainlands store, almost two miles away and then walk, or  I could drive further and hope to find a place to park closer that would save time and not upset the locals but that was going to be highly unlikely.

I drove another several hundred metres past Mainlands store and found a small road and some private houses beyond the church and parked there behind another car disgorging three birders and we set off in company down the road that lay in front of us, a road winding downhill and then uphill towards Hugh's very distant large white  house and garden. It was a beautiful day, sunny but windy. Other birders, singly or in groups were already yomping down the road, scattered in the distance like matchstick men, wending their way towards Hillwell and the holy grail of a Siberian Blue Robin. My bootlace came undone. I resented the time wasted doing it up. In my heightened anxiety this became an issue. What if this minor delay meant the difference between seeing the bird or not. Ridiculous but this is what stress can do. Stopping to do up a bootlace was hardly going to make any difference. Surely if it was in the garden it would stick and there was every chance it would still be present when I finally got there.

Hillwell still looked no nearer despite my power walking towards its distant presence but I could see my decision to park where I did had proved right as every possible parking space I walked by was occupied by presumably birders cars 

I trudged ever onwards 

Two thirds of the way there a familiar car stopped beside me. It was Pauline who I had abandoned so  abruptly at Wester Quarff. 

Jump in  Ewan!

There will be nowhere for me to park but I can drop you at the entrance to Hugh's drive. She added

A gamechanger. Time being of the essence.

On arriving at Hugh's I thanked Pauline profusely, leapt from the car and headed up the track to Hugh's garden.

On getting to the garden my heart sank. My relatively late arrival meant I was now contemplating a crowd of in excess of a hundred who had got there before me and were now ranged across the large garden viewing a hedge of rosa that marked the eastern boundary of the large garden.

Really there were far too many birders to fit comfortably into the garden hence a good number failing to see the bird but what can you do in such a situation. At this time of year Shetland is inundated with so many visiting birders that one can hardly suppress such a record. Everyone has to be given a chance to see it.

I joined the throng at one end but decided that was unsatisfactory so went to the other end which would allow me a view across the lawn to a good length of the rosa hedge and under which the robin was apparently prone to skulk and would periodically give very brief views.

My view of the rosa hedge

The crowd awaiting an appearance of the Siberian Blue Robin which
sadly failed to materialise

Every so often someone would say they could see it but it rarely amounted to anything conclusive.Bodies would tense, bins would be  raised and cameras pointed, then be reluctantly lowered when it became clear it was a false alarm   

I and a hundred others waited in tense  anticipation for the next sighting but the bird failed to show itself possibly deterred by the large crowd.Occasional indistinct movements in the gloom under the hedge could be anything and more often than not were nothing more than a Wren.

Then suddenly from my right the Siberian Blue Robin flew in and disappeared into the base of the hedge 

Cries of excitement came from the crowd

That's it!

It was a seconds only view but I managed to see a robin sized bird with a noticeably short tail,  grey brown upperparts with a hint of blue and off white underparts.That was it but that would do for now.

I relaxed slightly, having now  seen the bird, although wishing for better. A number of people around me missed it. Distracted or looking the wrong way it was gone before they could register what was happening.

Unseen by me the bird then moved to the other side of the garden, hassled regularly by the local Robin.It began to show itself under a fuschia but there was no way I could get to see it due to the density of the crowd, the unwillingness of anyone to concede an inch of space and my current line of sight being too far to the right to see the fuschia. A running commentary of its movements from the minority who could see it was both exciting and excruciating in equal measure.

c Hugh Harrop

I just had to accept the situation for what it was and hope something would change.

I stood to one side of the crowd with others hoping the bird would move right and the crowd duly confirmed it was heading in my direction. Then it went quiet before suddenly there was the bird, again flying low past me and affording similar views to the last time before disappearing into the same rosa hedge as before

c Hugh Harrop

I never got to see the Siberian Blue Robin on the ground and it was never seen again after flying past me and several other astonished birders. We all waited as Hugh did two walks along the hedge trying to flush it but it became obvious that wherever it had gone it was not in the garden. Eventually I accepted the inevitable that the bird was gone but everyone hoped it might return, if not during the day then maybe to roost at night 

Hugh put down two trail cameras so if the bid did slip back unnoticed during the day it would be discovered.

The garden slowly emptied and birders either disconsolate or euphoric depending on whether they had seen the Siberian Blue Robin or not, made their way back to their cars scattered far and wide or went to Quendale Mill,a couple of  hundred metres down the road where another very rare bird, a Two barred Greenish Warbler was to be found later in the afternoon.

What a day.

Inevitably a large number of birders already on Shetland were disappointed, either failing to see the bird even though they were in the garden or getting there too late. Many well known and top listers travelled from all over Britain on hearing the news, such is the lure and desirability of a Siberean Blue Robin, convinced that as it was in a garden it would at the very least remain all day and if they spent large amounts of money on flights (I heard up to £1800.00) to get them to Shetland that same day they would see it. Sadly the robin's premature and un-anticipated departure meant all such plans were doomed to failure.Enigmatic as ever the robin had gone and as the hours passed a reluctant acceptance came about that it was not going to be re-found although some persisted in looking for it on surrounding properties for the rest of the day.

As a last gasp chance, no more than straw clutching to be honest, Hugh made two sweeps of his garden  the next day at 10am and 1030am to which anyone was invited.No one was surprised when there was  still no sign of the bird.

And thus ended one of the most remarkable twitches of my life

I wish to express my grateful thanks to Hugh Harrop for granting me permission to use his excellent images of the Siberian Blue Robin to illustrate my blog