A Western Bonelli's Warbler at Ocraquoy Shetland - 23rd September 2026

One early morning whilst waiting for a Kingfisher (a very rare bird on Shetland) to appear at Clickimin Loch on the outskirts of Lerwick, we were talking to Jim Nicolson, a well known Shetland birder. Mid conversation his phone rang and he received a message about a suspected Western Bonelli's Warbler having just been found at a place called Ocraquoy not many miles south of our current location

Jim imparted the news to us and told us he was going to drive there immediately and if we wished we could follow him in our car which we did at a fair speed and arriving some twenty minutes later at the location, were lucky to find somewhere to park virtually by the trees the bird was in.While I parked the car Mark walked the few metres to a small cul de sac containing two holiday homes to view a plantation of conifer and sycamore that lined one side of the cul de sac.

Mark saw the warbler almost immediately while I was still making my way from the car and so added a lifer to his Britsih List.Currently it was still open to conjecture if the bird was a Western or Eastern Bonelli's Warbler.The latter being much the rarer and more relevant, one I still had not seen in Britain.

After a little wait the warbler showed itself briefly to me at the top of a conifer. 

A tape was played of both species calls and the bird responded to the call of the Western species so that was that. Mark had his lifer and I had seen my second Western Bonelli's Warbler on Shetland Slowly the numbers of birders built up, swelled by one of the bird tour groups currently on Shetland but the numbers were never large enough to be disruptive.

The warbler was initially elusive, disappearing out of the plantation to wander between other scattered bushes but eventually settled in the plantation where, rather than waste time and energy chasing it around we stood and waited for it to occasionally show itself.

In typical leaf warbler fashion it slipped unobtrusively amongst the tangles of twigs and wind tossed leaves, rarely exposing itself fully to my and others cameras but eventually after a few hours I had managed to see it well on a number of occasions and get some passable photos. A Willow Warbler and Goldcrest were also present in the plantation and on more than one occasion set pulses racing until their true identity was confirmed.

It even gave its diagnostic call late in the morning to confirm it really was a Western Bonelli's Warbler, my second on Shetland and my fourth for Britain.

There was no sign of the bird the next day.