Tuesday
13th September Fresh SE-E Thick fog - AM
Whinchat and willow warbler at Chalet first thing with
fog so thick one can't see more than fifty yards. The walk to North
Haven has the quiet blanket with occasional bird calls. On arrival
there is a young cormorant in the bay and a single each of goldcrest
and willow warbler in the harbour area shows migrants are arriving.
Confirming that the Bird Observatory garden has a pied flycatcher and
a redstart.
Breakfast ends and Cath Mendez rushes into the lounge.
“Lee has found a little bunting!” “Where?” No reply, Cath
runs out through the lobby and into the courtyard. Lee is there. The
rare bunting is just around the back of the nearby garage. Lee and I
creep forward and the bird suddenly flies past us calling. It
unfortunately lands behind some pallets near to the garden but out of
sight.
Then it flies behind the garden itself still giving no
grounded views. I am in my socks and I remove them to follow the bird
bare feet. The bird flies again, all the way down to the Haven where
it disappears never to be seen again. Untickable views, I am not
going to count that on the strength of flight views and a couple of
'tsit' calls.
A walk down the island sticking to the cliffs and geos,
occasional willow warbler on rocky beaches, occasional over-flying
lapland buntings.
Nick Riddiford has a few moths in his fridge from last
night's moth trap, a very large and spectacular convolvulous moth and
a micro species that I can't spell properly, Acteris effractcena;
well that's what it sounded like!
Outside and away once more a dozen lapland buntings fly
over Da Water, as does a very high grey heron and a curlew.
Thick fog has descended once more and Lee and Cairan
have had a very mobile citrine wagtail. I here that it is at Da
Water. Then it is at Kennaby. I search both areas but cannot find it.
I decide to sit and wait at Da Water and meet Sue, wife
of Kenny and we chat for a while. Sue tells me that she found a bird
new for Britain in their garden, a brown-headed cowbird. I later
found out that she phoned the Bird Observatory to say that she had a
bird in the garden that looked like a brown headed starling with a
hawfinch-like bill. That's Fair Isle.
Down to the south once more I search the crofts and
field, ditches and beaches.
A text......
possible
Lanceolated warbler – Field Ditch.
Ten minutes later the bird is seen sitting out in the
open with tail cocked. It stays there for a few minutes before diving
into a shallow ditch. From here Cairan, the finder, Lee, Cath Mendez
and I watch as it crawls amongst the grass not too far in front of
us. A real MEGA and it's on the list. Brilliant.
A group of people we are told are about to arrive on the
Good Shepherd, an RSPB group from Aberdeen. What a baptism to arrive
on the vomit bucket, be taken by minibus to see as their first bird
on Fair Isle a lanceolated warbler. The bird must realise how special
it is as it stays in one spot in the grass for fifteen minutes or so
so that even telescopes can be used to see all details. What an
absolute cracker.
Happy with the lancy, well over the Moon with the lancy,
I bird Pund and Setter.
No red flag Land Rover to tell of another rare bird,
another text . .
possible
citrine wagtail Da Water.
Cairan has found another rare bird. He is on a roll and
for the extraordinary effort he puts in every day he deserves it.
With Deryk Shaw, the ex-warden who still crofts on Fair
Ilse, Lee and Cairan we all venture out over the marshy Da Water bog.
The citrine is seen briefly amongst tall grassy tussocks but is it a
citrine. Maybe it is an Eastern yellow wagtail. No, citrine it is and
so bird numbers 283 and 284 are secured; a double Year tick day.
Things are going to get better!
Wednesday
14th September light N High cloud at 6:00AM but
turns foggy later.
The morning Heligoland Trap run catches a couple of
blackcaps and a whitethroat.
I head off for the north, once more following the cliff
edges and geos. Past the incredible structure of the guillemot
monitoring hide, it looks a Health & Safety disaster but it has
been in position on it's precarious ledge for longer than some
crofts.
Bracken in Wirvie Burn is thicker than I have seen
elsewhere on the island and single willow warbler is here following
the stream.
Fog descends and visibility goes down to a hundred yards
or so. Some duck are on Golden Water, three wigeon and a female
gadwall. The latter is a rare bird on Fair Isle.
The North Lighthouse is hazily seen but only just as I
approach in the thick fog. Staying there for an hour or so though and
going to the large foghorn area, the fog rolls away to the west
leaving blue, cloudless skies to the east and a bank of rolling fog
to the west. Beautiful light changes with gannets, fulmars and
bonxies gliding past close enough to almost touch. With the clearing
away of the fog Sumburgh Head can be seenon the horizon twenty five
miles or so to the north.
Past the gannet colony on the Stacks of Scroo, I descend
towards Dronger. A text.....
Rosefinch
in the enclosure at Muckle Uri.
It couldn't be any further away from where I am and
still be on Fair Isle but I need it for the Ye list so I jog/walk
back to the Bird Observatory and get my bike. Down the island with
the now fresh north wind behind me, I reach the South Lighthouse and
just put my bike against the wall when another text comes in, this
one in Capital letters.....
SHORT-TOED
LARK Water Towers.
Back
on the bike I cycle now into the wind and arrive at the water Towers
half way back up the island where Lee Gregory has found the bird. It,
together with a skylark flies off as soon as I arrive. Just like the
little bunting of yesterday it calls as it passes but flies off into
the distance. Lee and I search the heather along Hill Dyke. W search
the fields to the south and beside Setter but no good. Maybe it has
gone back to the water tower. It hasn't and Lee leaves for his
belated lunch.
I
cycle around to setter and search the Parks area first. No good. At
Setter the sheep must think that Ian, Setter's owner, has come out as
all of the sheep for some distance come running up to me. Surrounded
by them, some even allow patting and head stroking. They disturb a
skylark. With it another bird, smaller, takes off and both head back
to the water tower.
I
head back and after photographing a very tame yet shy Lapland
bunting, the short-toed lark is indeed back at the shed-like water
tower. UTB . . Under The Belt and a very good bird to get on the
Year list, bird number 285. The list is growing rapidly towards the
magic 300.
An
attempt is scheduled for 4:30pm to try and see whether a large snipe
seen at Da Water is actually a great snipe. A line of birders go
through the area but only two common snipe come out.
I
head for Lower Stoneybreak, Neil Thompson's garden, as the common
rosefinch was seen in the garden there. I think I see a locustella
but it turns out to be a complete mess up as two garden warblers come
out of the rose bushes where I thought the possibly rare bird had
gone. Then the rosefinch suddenly dives into some red current bushes
in the corner of Neil's garden. I can't see it, well actually I did
see it fly in. I see it fly out again and it heads off down the hill
to the nearby shop.
I
can't find it at the shop and return to have a chat with Neil. We
talk about the black-browed albatross seen from the Good Shepherd
boat that Neil is the Captain of back in the Summer. Neil's face,
when describing the moment and his actions to get views of the bird
as it circle the boat, is delightful, full of impish fun. Cairan is
standing by us and he says simply, “Gary, rosefinch.”
Rosefinch
onto the year list, bird number 286; the bird is sitting on a rose
stem low to the ground about ten yards away. Not the most inspiring
of birds it is though another expected Year tick and so greatly
appreciated.
Thursday
15th September Fresh E Very thick fog all morning
to hill fog and mist with drizzle in the afternoon with some the sun
breaking through the haze on occasions.
Birds are difficult to see, visibility is down to fifty
yards at best and the best place to see newly in migrant birds is in
the Bird Observatory garden.
Walking off southwards I reach Setter. Text comes in . .
.
YB
Warbler Gully
Thanks Lee. I get there as Lee and Chris Dodds try to
persuade the bird to come out of the small area of bushes at the
bottom of the gully and enter the nearby Gully Heligoland trap. It
doesn't. They leave and I stay, sit down and watch. A garden warbler
is in some bracken beneath me down the slope and then out comes the
spritely little bird, eye stripes, wing bars, white underparts and
green uppers; all in all a superbly lovely little bird and a
miraculous one too having come from Siberia. Not that much bigger
than a goldcrest it is incredible that such a tiny bird can get here
having travelled so far. Last year was a record year for them on Fair
Isle with 78 having been seen in one fantastic day. Indeed I saw 111
(Nelson!) whilst I was on Fair Isle.
So yellow-browed warbler UTB; five new birds for
the Green Year list in three magnificent days. Now at 287 I am only
three away from beating my own UK Green Year list record, 13 away
from reaching my first major target of the magic 300 and 18 away from
beating Ponc Feliu for the European Green record.
I need to increase my Karma with nature as it has been
so good to me over the last few days. With two large bin liners the
beach at the end of the gully takes two hours to be cleared of the
plastic rubbish that has arrived there from the sea. Polystyrene,
one-use plastic bottles and fishing equipment, ropes and pieces of an
old tyre; one bottle has a label saying that it originated from
Singapore, Malaysia. It hasn't floated here, one may imagine a cargo
ship from there passing and a bottle being thrown into the sea from
it.
The bin liners are pulled up the steep cliff where a starling leg is found with a Fair Isle ring on it. The ring is given to David
Parnaby, the Observatory warden and the bin liners I carry to the
Harbour and put in the skip.
