Monday 11 October 2010

Shetland - October 2010
Our annual and long awaited Autumn trip to Shetland is now underway! After 3 hours sleep in a Luton airport hotel and 2 flights we were at Sumburgh breathing in the sea air and heading off to see our first rarity of the Autumn - the Syke's Warbler at Channerwick. This was a tick for me and although a very elusive individual, good views were eventually obtained. A great start! We stayed with Paul Harvey & were soon back in the Sumburgh Hotel catching up with Helen, Newton, Rob Fray & Mark Reeder.
We spent the 7th and 8th on Unst staying with Brydon, Vaila & little Casey in their new home. I really loved Unst, a place Phil used to live, and the birding was fine with good numbers of common migrants & a few rares. An unexpected encounter with a big male Otter at Haroldswick one evening was just magic! Birds of note included 2 Little Bunting, 1 Lanceolated Warbler, 1 Richard's Pipit, 1 Arctic Redpoll, 1 Pallas's Warbler & our first Yellow-browed warblers of the Autumn.
We left our Unst friends on Saturday morning to catch our Sumburgh flight to Fair Isle - where we are to be until the end of the Obs season :-) superb . . . . .










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