Cosmic: Britain's first Siberian Accentor

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. And, on Sunday afternoon, after nine days on Shetland, we were just about that. Minutes away from checking in for our flight back to Aberdeen, we were sat outside the terminal when John's pager started wailing and his increasingly hysterical voice just about managed to squeeze our "Siberian Accentor ... Shetland ... at Scousburgh ..!"

There wasn't any need for thought. We piled back in to our hired minibus we were in the process of returning and bombed off in no time. Fifteen minutes later and we were watching Britain's first Siberian Accentor happily feeding away in an unsuspecting quarry on the western slopes of Mossy Hill. Oblivious of the carnage unfolding around it, the accentor performed to within a few metres, feeding with the voraciousness of a newly-arrived migrant. I was utterly thrilled to simply be part of the crowd that evening - I can only image what Judd Hunt must have thought when he first clapped eyes on this perfect rarity.

I'll update the blog in the coming days with a more general Shetland review - for the meantime here's a few shots of the accentor.

 Siberian Accentor, Mossy Hill, Shetland, 9 October 2016

 The bird's favoured quarry complete with appreciative crowd.

Reflecting on Shetland

Though it was my first time on Shetland, I haven't come back feeling particularly put out after eight fairly challenging days. Despite conditions being sub-optimal at best our team still managed to unearth a decent selection of scarce between us: Arctic and Blyth's Reed warblers, Bluethroat, Nightingale, Common Rosefinch and four Barred Warblers. A decent result and reward for the effort put in by the team, particularly Dan and Guernsey Dave who were unrelenting!

There's no denying that working the iris beds, gardens and fields all day is tiring but in my mind the challenge doesn't compare to that in the Azores, where steep slopes, subtropical forest and dense scrub dominate. Therefore the next person to suggest birding on Corvo is easy will feel the full force of my wrath! :-)

The good thing about Shetland (unlike the Azores) is that there is always something to look at in late September. Common migrants - particularly the endearing Yellow-browed Warblers - keep you going, even during the slowest periods. Their presence encourages you to keep plugging away - if they're there, then theoretically something much rarer could be too. Early in the week it seemed that just about every garden with sycamores had this species, though they were sometimes found in the burns and in weedy areas, too. I had a ringed bird at Easter Quarff on our penultimate day, which I only realised when reviewing photos.

Here's a selection of other pics taken throughout the week.

Olive-backed Pipit, Lerwick, 3 October

Red-breasted Flycatcher, Bigton, 3 October

Bluethroat, Quendale, 4 October

Hard work in westerlies

A couple of days plugging away in brisk westerlies has resulted in Guernsey Dave pull out a tail-less Arctic Warbler at Cott, on the west side of Weisdale Voe, and today I inadvertently disturbed a juvenile Common Rosefinch from a patch of nettles by the road at Easter Skeld.

This has been interspersed with tens of Yellow-browed Warblers. Today we've seen a minimum of 46 and yesterday around 40 - they're in most gardens you check, sometimes in amazing numbers. Easter Skeld, a small village in West Mainland, had 16 this morning!

Other than that, it's pretty quiet. New birds keep getting found but they're evidently not new in and we won't be graced by fresh arrivals from the east before we leave on Sunday. Yank or bust!

Arctic Warbler, Cott

Grotpic

Update from Shetland

A brief update. No spectacular discoveries yet but John's Blyth's Reed Warbler was rewarding and the team has also unearthed Bluethroat and a couple of Barred Warblers. Lanceolated Warbler was an entertaining tick and the Pechora Pipit today was good despite the crowd. Two Grasshopper Warblers have both been claimed by others as Pallas's. Yellow-browed Warblers are literally everywhere. It seems every sycamore patch has them in - today we had 47 and yesterday well over 30. There must be hundreds on the isles.

Yellow-browed Warblers at Collafirth (top) and Scousburgh

Blyth's Reed Warbler at Bardister - stupidly elusive but pretty vocal, great find for John

Nightingale looking stupidly rare just north of Ollaberry

Guernsey Dave's Bluethroat at Culsetter

Juvenile American Golden Plover at Sandwick

Pied Flycatcher at Scousburgh

Hit and run

First-winter Cape May Warbler, Baltasound (Unst), 24th October 2013

One hour on Unst yesterday, perfect timing with the Cape May Warbler refound as we arrived. Half an hour of blinding views as it hopped about on the ground just a few metres away. Great pilot, great team. Twitching in Britain at its best!