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 for long.

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 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 and 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 around 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 in to 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 further 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

A Red breasted Flycatcher at Grutness 20th September 2024

We hit the ground running on our arrival in a typically grey Lerwick morning.There is always a thrill that courses through you at the realisation that anything can turn up birdwise here although it looks so bleak.The promise of rarities and of birds I  would never see in Oxfordshire engenders a potent mixture of anticipation and excitement.What greater incentive to get out there and start looking.

We headed further south towards virtually the end of the main island, Mainland and to a very well known  birding location, a garden  that you can overlook from the road at a place called Grutness which is near to Sumburgh Head, the southernmost tip of Shetland.

Looking over the garden wall, a line of sycamores hunker along the opposite wall, their limbs twisted and contorted, the trees stunted by the strong winds that blow in off the nearby sea and the spent leaves curled like burnt paper until they too can resist the wind's attentions for no longer. These trees have provided sanctuary for many rare and not so rare migrants over the years and most birders stop here to check the trees as the birds can change almost daily in the right weather conditions.

This morning, via the various birding WhatsApp groups one joins on arriving on Shetland we learnt  that a Red breasted Flycatcher had been seen in the sycamores but was noted as being very elusive. There was also a Lesser Whitethroat, a Willow Warbler and a couple each of Common Chiffchaff and Goldcrest keeping it company.

These tiny, sprite like will o' the wisp flycatchers are a scarce but regular vagrant to Shetland and there is never a year when they are not found.They are very small, move incredibly fast and rarely are they still for more than a second or two, as they flick and whizz through the boughs and twigs  to catch the tiny insects they feed on.

When you see one up close and in a rare moment of inactivity it is impossible not to be charmed by their endearing persona. Robin like but without the truculence is how I would describe them. Most are young birds in a dull plumage of pale buff underparts and brown upperparts with a black tail that shows white flashes when they fly.

I caught a flash of white today as it dived into the shelter of a sycamore. then there it was again no more than a blur of buff as it shot into another tree.Would it ever settle?

A birder stood next to me said

There it is on that branch, right in the open

I could not find it

A familiar situation but then there it was again

It's back  he said. Same branch

I looked and found it 

Hurrah!

I carried on and discovered it had favoured perches that it invariably returned to.Sheltered branches that were low to the ground where the wind was less forceful due to the wall. For long periods it disappeared, so small amongst the wind flickering leaves it was at times impossible to make it out. Its plumage, the shade of the dead leaves, also aided in keeping its presence secret, only for it to reveal itself when it flew out after an insect.

I embarked on a rollercoaster of frustration and triumph as I pitted myself against this most difficult and elusive of subjects to watch and photograph

We decided to come back on another day to try and see it better but when we did found it had been joined by a Spotted Flycatcher, the larger bird not unnaturally in the ascendancy and causing the smaller bird to absent itself. However when the flycatchers were at opposite ends of the line of trees it worked well enough.

The Spotted Flycatcher followed a similar feeding pattern to the Red breasted Flycatcher, hunting insects low down where the wind was less fierce, sitting in the lee of a bough for shelter before flying out to snatch a passing insect. Both birds would occasionally settle in the grass to seize something  not what you would expect to see in their normal habitat but these are vagrants well outside their comfort zone and clinging onto an existence that has become even more precarious.

I often wonder if these birds do indeed succumb or do they re-orientate successfully and make it to their true winter homes. Many young birds die in the first months of life and maybe these are part of that unfortunate but entirely natural statistic.

In a flight of whimsy I looked at them as my mind recalled our recent overnight journey to Lerwick and looking out of our cabin window in the middle of a sleepless night at the passing white crests of the stormy sea and I wonder at these  scraps of life making their perilous journeys across the vastness of sea in the dark, as they must.

to be continued

Steppe Grey Shrike at Dunbar 19th September 2024

Myself and my twitching pal Mark (R) go to Shetland every year in the autumn on a quest for rare and unusual birds.Thus it came about that I headed north from Oxfordshire to Mark's home in North Yorkshire to spend the night there before we set off for Aberdeen, the next day, to catch the overnight ferry to Lerwick in Shetland.

Good fortune favoured us as a very confiding Steppe Grey Shrike had chosen to take up temporary residence on the manicured greens of Winterfield Golf Course and the surrounding Recreational Park in the pleasant East Lothian coastal town of Dunbar and since its discovery on the 10th of September was entertaining birders, photographers and public alike with its exotic presence

Steppe Grey Shrikes are a rare visitor to British shores only 28 having been recorded before this one.They are native to central Asia, parts of northern China. Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.They migrate south in winter but occasionally one goes badly off course and ends up in an unlikely destination such as Dunbar, much to the delight of us birders.They were once considered a separate species to the very similar Great Grey Shrike that is a regular winter visitor in small numbers to Britain but ultimately were reclassified as a subspecies of their more well known cousin. The Steppe Grey Shrike's longer wings and shorter tail with more white showing on the primaries are subtle differences and now considered not enough to give them full species status.

Personally it makes no odds to me as any Great or Steppe Grey Shrike is a delight to see whatever its taxonomic status

This individual having been present for a number of days prior to our departure was a cause for some mild anxiety as we counted the days until we would be passing Dunbar on our way to Aberdeen, hoping the shrike would remain long enough to coincide with our journey north. Fortunately it did.  

On a gentle autumnal day of sunshine we arrived in Dunbar at around noon and parked in a small car park that doubled up as a place for those seeking either recreation or a round of golf on immaculately mown golf greens right by the sea. One could almost call it idyllic with the Bass Rock looming in the middle distance and the North Sea for once pleasantly blue rather than its more accustomed grey..

The shrike had already been reported as still around today so we were relaxed in the knowledge it was  present but we still had to locate it on the golf greens and by employing the well known maxim of 'find  the birders' we soon had a good idea where it was.

Waiting for four golfers to tee off we then walked to almost  the seaward edge of the golf course and joined a dozen or so birders looking at the shrike, perched and posing jauntily on a drystone wall that marked the boundary of the golf course from the coast's edge. It was as easy as that

The bird itself was fearless of human beings and used the wall to sit safe and secure before dropping down almost at our feet to hunt for invertebrates in the rank grass and lawn cuttings discarded under the wall. 

A mix of grey, black and white feathering is always an attractive combination on a bird and on this shrike it certainly did not disappoint. Shrikes also invariably ooze chutzpah and again this individual possessed it in abundance. Perched on the wall it stood proud, bulky of body, its large head rotating as it looked around for suitable prey. Very much the master of its situation

We clustered around, like acolytes, taking its image from all points but in the end I grew tired as every image I took was so good due to its willingness to tolerate our close presence. Instead I just watched it on its wall, its presence a freak of nature and circumstance, a one off that is unlikely to be repeated here as really it should be enjoying life thousands of miles to the east.

It seemed to be seeking any medium to large invertebrate to satisfy its hunger, Bees,wasps, beetles and even large flies fed its appetite, the bird often pursuing its victim at ground level through the grass where it often tarried for long periods.Something I am not used to seeing shrikes do.

Darren Woodhead, an exceptional bird artist, some of whose paintings adorn my wall, was drawing and painting the bird from life. I always marvel at the skill and sheer brilliance that such people possess to be able to replicate on paper, with apparently little effort, their subject of choice. We chatted and exchanged news and gossip but time was wearing on and we had another four hours to go to Aberdeen and the Northlink ferry that would take us onwards for our three week stay on Shetland

The shrike meanwhile had flown to a more distant golf green and was pursuing bees and wasps across the short cropped grass.It was the appropriate time to say farewell.

So onwards to the Granite City and with little delay we were on the huge Northlink ferry at just before 5pm.The sun had followed us north and the Aberdeen skyline was looking rather splendid as the huge ship slowly negotiated its way out past the piers and the oil support vessels moored alongside.

Beyond the outer harbour walls the wind was strong and from the northwest as I gazed in an almost rhapsodic trance across the mighty ocean that stretched away to the horizon. Gannets, mainly brown juveniles with the occasional dazzling white adult cruised over the waves with little apparent effort, heading to destinations known only to them, My interlude of reflection was interrupted as a juvenile Arctic Skua pursued a Kittiwake, forcing the terrified bird to disgorge the contents of its stomach which the skua caught on the wing and swallowed.

There was however more excitement to come as we were asked to descend from the upper deck to the lower aft deck to do our sightseeing. On enquiring why such an unusual request we were told the Coastguard  helicopter was at this moment flying out to practice life saving airborne manoeuvres from off the stern of the ship.

Soon enough a red and white helicopter arrived from the sky and hovered like some giant mechanical and very noisy dragonfly at various heights above us..The clatter of the rotor blades made conversation nigh on impossible and we watched as a man was slowly winched down from the helicopter to swing in the capricious air currents, a human pendulum, first above the ship's stern and then over the  sea. They remained practicing for forty or so minutes, causing much exitement and one has to say admiration.

Eventually with a wave from one of the crew at the open door they swung away back towards the receding land and we headed further out into the North Sea and towards a distant Shetland.

to be continued