Shetland 2023

We have just come back from two weeks in Shetland, this is our sixth or seventh visit since our honeymoon there 35 years ago! A fabulous trip as ever. We stayed again in The Taing at Reawick with the sea literally at the bottom of the garden…

So the garden list was quite impressive…

plus regular sightings of Black Guillemot, Merlin, Arctic Skua etc.

We also had a fantastic trip out to see the gannetry at Noss...

with spectacularly close birds diving within inches of the boat

There is always a sense of anticipation here as birds can turn up anywhere, so I had Greenish Warbler in a cattle feeder…

Barred Warbler on an old tyre dump…

And Wood Warbler on a garden fence…

But the rarest bird was the long-staying Hudsonian Godwit. It was very poor light the day I saw it so not great pictures but it was rather nostalgic as this species was the first real rarity I ever saw (more than 40 years ago!)…

Some nice plants too with Bog and Frog Orchid, roadside Field Gentians, Oysterplant but the star being Edmonston’s Chickweed…

We were very late for this species but managed to find a single plant in bloom, by definition this would be the only one in flower on the planet as its world distribution is restricted to the tiny Keen of Hamar reserve on Unst.

Mammals too with good views of Otter and Mountain Hare. The one disappointment was cetaceans, it has been a really poor summer for them in Shetland, nevertheless we had views of Risso’s dolphin and Harbour Porpoise and some of the family saw a pod of Orca on the ferry back to Aberdeen (it didn’t include me as I had just gone to have my tea in the restaurant!)

Another memorable experience was seeing the Mareel, this word comes from the old Norse for ‘fiery sea’ and is a marine phosphorescence. Swimming (or in my case paddling!) in the nighttime sea was like stirring up a miniature firework display, magical!

6th August 2023

I managed to add three new species to my parish year list in July, Tawny Owl, Hobby (flying over the Bottom Fields in Ainderby) and Greenshank. The latter bird was only picked up as I photographed a group of six Little Egrets and spotted the ‘shank swimming across the river in the corner of the picture.

Today I walked with Sam along the river, given the recent rains it was, unsurprisingly, quiet with no mud edge to attract waders. We did count at least six Little Egrets along the way, though, and then on Big Bend I spotted a couple of young Yellow Wagtail. Another two flew up on to the fence line and then I spotted another on the gate…

As I walked closer to get a better shot a group came up out of the stubble and we counted a remarkable 21 birds, by some way the best ever count in the parish. I assume these were migrants rather than local but but they were mainly young birds which was encouraging.

Otherwise, it was insects providing most of the interest. My first Migrant Hawker of the year was down Warlaby Lane…

And I had two Purple Hairstreaks on Vicarage Lane, the first time I have ever seen them away from their stronghold on Greenhills Lane.

One of the local farmers has planted an area of rough grazing with wildflowers and I did the Big Butterfly Count there the other evening. I had a good count of 44 Large Whites, 10 Small Whites, three Green-veined Whites, Red Admiral, three Speckled Woods and three Silver-Y moths.

The moth highlight was a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in the garden, this might be the first time I have seen one ‘perched’!

I also photographed a leafcutter bee species, Megachile ligniseca …

This was the first record for North-west Yorkshire (VC65) as was the Psychocephala rufipes fly I included in my last post. This is undoubtedly more to do with lack of observers in this very under-watched Vice-county than actual rarity but it’s still nice to add something to the record books…