Friday
21st
October very light SE sunny and warm
I
have been to Fair Isle on three occasions including this visit. My
first time was back in 2010 whilst on my first cycling-birding
adventure. That was for a week when I stayed at the South Lighthouse.
Last
year I came for almost five weeks with a gap of a couple of weeks
when I returned to Shetland in order to see friends from The
Midlands, The Birding Clams (Clear Lunacy & Madness Society),
visit the RSPB nature reserves on the islands, that is Fetlar, Yell,
Spiggie and Sumburgh Head, Mousa. Ramna Stacks I had to view over the
sea from the Mainland and Yell. I also saw some excellent birds. The
birds included Eastern subalpine warbler, olive-backed pipit and
American golden plover.
This
year's visit is coming to its conclusion. The weather forecast for
the next ten days tells me that there is an 'escape window' on
Tuesday next when the wind is a light south-easterly. This compares
to the following Tuesday when a strong north-westerly will make my
suffering horrible sea sickness more likely. The Good Shepherd is my
only option yet how I would love to fly away!
I
have been here since the penultimate day of August with a break of a
week when I dipped on the First for Britain, Siberian accentor; a
bird that Fair Isle gave to me yesterday. Thanks Lee Gregory!
In
all that time I didn't realise that there was a Village Hall! Sure I
had seen the biggest building on the Island apart from the World
famous Fair Isle Bird Observatory but I just thought it was a
gymnasium for the Primary school children. It is attached to that and
part of the school complex.
This
morning I need the loo. Desperately.
I
know that there is a toilet next to the 'gym.' On going to it I don't
see the toilet to the right, one that I have seen every time I have
used the left hand toilets. There is a door. It is open. With a
curious streak I peak in through it after going through two glass
doors between the entrance and the open door. There are two people in
there setting up a cinema and an animation is showing as they check
sound levels and connections. The presumed gymnasium has been
transformed into a Villa Hall and cinema for an event, I am told, for
the next evening.
What
I had always thought of as another toilet is just the reflection of
the one toilet in the glass doors!
Yet
wait, there's more.
There
are more toilets; one set for Ladies and another for men. Using the
latter I find hot water! Luxury.
By
the Mens there is another open door leading to another room. It is
open and inside I can see a Pool table!
There
is not just a Village Hall but also a Social room with a pool table
and two dart boards. I'm flabbergasted.
How
fantastic it would be to see the room used as a meeting place for
birders and islanders. Maybe a dart's night with teams of each; a
pool tournament. Who knows? Next year.
A
couple, Trudi and Len are walking down the road towards the Kirk and
they stop me to show a photograph of a redpoll species. On the
photograph the rump looks very white but that could be ue to the
image quality from using a bridge camera. I remember how it was
difficult to ascertain the flycatcher in Grey Geo species a couple of
weeks ago because of flare.
I
find the redpolls where they say and settle down to try to get good
views of one that is obviously paler than the other mealies and
l;esser redpolls.
There
seems to be a conspiracy against me today for every time I try to get
a look at the pale bird a vehicle goes past disturbing them all and
sending them away to Da Water.
They
always soon return, bless them but the final straw is when Florrie, a
lady who has been on Fair Isle with her husband Jimmie for all of her
life, drives past. Jokingly I throw my arms up in desperation and we
both laugh as she passes.
Jimmie
and Florrie are two of my favourite people on the island. Always
happy, it is a privilege to think of them as friends.
Eventually
I get the view I want and with bill too large, streaking on a pale
rump and overall shape I put the bird down as a pale mealy.
Interesting bird though.
The
weather is unbelievable for October, very warm and very sunny.
Another
couple are looking at some nearby Lapand buntings. Bernard and Carole
from Cambridge have a now famous tripod. The Siberian accentor, still
the talk of the island amongst the birders, actually sat on one of
the legs. I joke that they should sell the tripod immediately. It
would raise enough funds to come back to Fair Isle next year!
Saturday
22nd
October Very light SE-E Sunny, warm
Down
to Fair Isle's wonderful shop for a few provisions and a chat with
Fiona, a Director of The Fair Isle Bird Observatory. As a focal place
for islanders to meet it has no equal and a few of them are inside
the shop when I enter. Their friendliness towards strangers such as I
and each other is inspiring.
Sheep that like standing on a dry stone wall in front of Sheep Rock. Cool!
The
great grey shrike is down by the Kirk but I don't get a good view of
it as it is directly in line with the bright sun sitting on a fence.
In
the field immediately west of Lower Stoneybrek there feed my
favourite group of birds on Fair Isle at the moment. There may be a
pine bunting, a new one from the other day, at Parks. There is still
the possible Stejneger's stonechat on South Harbour beach yet the
small flock of grey geese that have been here for a few days holds my
attention the most. Where else but Fair Isle would one have five
species of geese together and less than fifty yards away. Yes the
watch you as you watch them, the sentinels aware of you and of their
role as protectors of the flock. Yet I can sit and watch, photograph
and video each species; bean geese, Greenland whitefronts, greylags
and pink-footed geese and a lone barnacle goose.
I
sit and remember the flocks of hundreds of Eureopean white-fronted
geese that used to frequent the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetland Trust)
reserve and headquarters at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire. From the
high vantage point afforded over the Dumbles from Holden Tower, one
would, back in the 1970s and 80s, looking for maybe a stray
pink-footed goose, bean or with real luck a lesser white-fronted
goose, usually a 1st year bird. Nowadays at Slimbridge there is a
feral flock of barnacle geese and greylags, canadas and the
occasional stray but there isn't the wintering European white-fronted
goose flock. They have decided to stay over in The Netherlands.
At
this range each feature that denotes each species is easy to view.
The bean geese are having a small band of orange
on their bills that have just a slight bulge along the baseline.
Pink-feets have shorter necks; obvious when they stand next to a
bean.
I
want to look at the redpolls again and head in that direction puching
my bike along the marshy path beside Buini Mere.
I
walk up the hill along the road by the school when a small bunting
starts to fly towards me. It is small too for as it lands just the
other side of the barbed wire fence in the grass just a few feet away
I see that it is a spanking little bunting. That's Fair Isle, they
come to you.
The
evening is spent in the company of many islanders and Bird
Observatory staff at the newly found by me Village hall. A couple
from Shetland Mainland have brought over a selection of superb films.
For two hours all present are treated to locally made films showing a
wide variety of aspects of life on Shetland. The mini fim festival
starts with a well constructed and powerful film about the problem of
depression amongst men. With humour and a huge nod to the islands'
Viking heritage, Ragnar,
shows the relationship between father and son, friends and landscape.
It hits home without being maudling and the end shows a possible
light at the end of the tunnel.
There
followed eight short films with a wide variety of styles. Sometimes I
couldn't understand the strong Gaelic brogue but then again if I
'spake wid me owen axunt' would they understand me? No matter, the
detail and content was plain to see despite language differences.
From
a mackerel fisherman of old to the avant-garde of a man who couldn't
put his jacket on, comic Dance, Dance heroes to The Curse of the
Wereduck cartoon, all were excellent in their own way and thoroughly
enjoyable.
One
memorable scene was when a toddler is tied to a rope just like a
sheep would be, to allow tha 'wee laddie' to wonder safely in the
fields. No cruelty here just fun and love and a child enjoying the
intensity of his parents' affection.
No
intermission meant cramp in the backside but one couldn't look away
from the last film; a forty-five minute feature about the history of
the island of Havera until the departure of its last inhabitants in
the early 1920s.
Coffee
and biscuit at the end, I had been sitting with the most sunshine
personality on the island Dave of South Lighthouse. Dave's whole
manner is one of excited geniality and to spend time with him is a
pleasure that lifts spirits. His sunbeams are infectious.
How
wonderful to sit with Britain's most remote community and know the
names of each person present. The wonder of Fair Isle is its people.
Sunday
23rd
October very light NE-E bit more cloud, still mainly sunny
though, cooler
I
feel like being a bit of a lister today and make myself a target of
50 bird species. Pink-footed goose and hooded crow are on the list
whilst I lie in my sleeping bag at 5:00AM; they call and caw.
It
is still dark at that time yet I decide to get up and have a walk,
sleep being very hard to come by at the moment and my asthma is
playing up a bit. Fresh, cool air will do it good and I walk down the
island with Orion ahead of me again.
Silhouetted
on Da Water's pool are a number of duck and by the light of the Moon
I can see lapwings, five of them.
Sunrise
around 7:30AM and Lapland buntings are in the field by the Kirk. Two
grey heron cronk their way south flying high and a black-headed gull
that sadly doesn't look too well is sitting in a marshy area.
The
day list is on twenty five by the time I reach Springfield. Here,
after seeing chaffinch and brambling together, I change my mind. I
was going to take the short route along the iris bed stream to the
Haa but I think I will go around the Moeness cliffs instead.
Finding
a sheep dug seat on a finger of rock jutting out into a geo, I sit
and watch. A seal is fast asleep, kettling in the calm sea at the
base of the cliff where I am sitting. He is 'solid gone man!' I film
him and photograph him, watching him for around twenty minutes with
all thought of the day list dispelled. How often can one's sleeping
companion be a sleeping seal? I feel like a speed nap myself.
He,
I think of the seal as a he but it might be a she, wakes up and sees
me watching from above. Unperturbed and probably with a it's Sunday,
I'll have a lie in attitude, the seal carries on sleeping.
Leaving
him to his dreams of fish and kelp, I walk around the cliffs and
marvel at what I can see. The early morning sun makes for superb,
magnificent even scenery.
The South Lighthouse stands out in its
whiteness against the greens, greys and blues. The Skerries are being
washed over by a gentle swell. There are large and deep caves to be
seen that I would love to explore but have no way of reaching.
A
chiif chaff is on a cliff top making ready for the immense fly south,
the thrill of witnessing migration. Eider drakes are head tossing and
Frankie Howard “Oww” calling in display to the attendent female
eider. A stunningly white full adult male long-tailed drake flies
past. Two purple sandpipers are feeding in their usual habitat and I
start daydreaming again as I approach South Harbour.
News
of yet another Siberian accentor for Britain and Fair Isle comesin.
This one has been found by David Parnaby, Fair Isle Bird Observatory warden, up near the North Lighthouse. Only five miles away yet I choose to
carry one exploring the south. I am thrilled for David. He deserves
to find this mega and hot on the heels of Lee Gregory's different
Siberian accentor too; a sixth and a seventh for Britain in this
incredible, totally unprecedented Autumn for the species.
Siberian
accentor, never before seen in Britain. Now there have been seven, no
eight. One has just been found on Unst. And as for Europe, the last
time I heard there had been over 120!
I
walk along above South harbour beach but to be honest I don't give it
the once over grilling I should and don't see the special stonechat.
Instead I sit and marvel at the chiff chaffs on the seaweed.
More
chaffinch and brambling at Utra, nine wood pigeons are in the field
there. The geese here include eight white-fronts, six greylags and
two bean geese.
Just
below Shirva I meet the teenage ram pair who are engaged in a bout of
head banging. A short charge then head down . . . bonk. They are
bonkers too but come to my call for a scratch of their oily fleeces.
Around
fifteen bramblings, surely one of many people's favourite finches,
are in amongst the thistles at North Shirva. A male stands out
amongst the first year and female birds. Not as gaudy as a male
bullfinch maybe, bramblings to me have a charm all of their own and
the variety of orange tones is a delight to see.
I
take another good look at the mixed geese flock and head for the
Parks oat field to look at the new pine bunting.
Now
here I must say how I feel about getting the new european Green Year
list record back on the 18th.
Yes,
as you may have seen from the photograph, I was more than thrilled to
bits to see the three birds I needed for the record on that day. Yet
I was unhappy over seeing them on a day when I had used carbon
transport, namely the boat, The Good Shepherd.
I
feel that a purer 'Green' record is when the birds are seen when no
carbon transport is used. With that in mind since that wonderful day
I had endeavoured to see each of the species involved on carbon-free
days. Bean geese were easy and what a thrill to think I wouldn't have
to search around the west of Falkirk area in November for beanies.
Last year it took all of a snoy day to find them. Of course, as
usual, I enjoy the search and adventure, the challenge and the
elation of finding them but having some fifty yards away,.... I'll go
for that in my dotage of being a sixty year old.
The
possible Stejneger's Siberian stonechat I watched for a couple of
hours absorbing it's jizz (behaviour) and plumage. A subtle bird, I
hear both poo and a feather have been sent off for DNA analysis to
ascertain the race.
So
with two of the three covered I make my way to the third, the pine
bunting.
I
search each croft garden on the way there, say hello to the 'lads',
rams in pairs in fields on the way and walk the edge of the oat
field. Two birds come out. The first of the two is bright yellow.
Yellowhammer onto the day list. The other is a paler bird with quite
well head markings; pine bunting goes officially onto the Green year
list and Ponc can now
be informed of a new record.
Great
views of this pine bunting, a more interestingly marked bird than the
Quoy bird.
There's
a waxwing been seen at the Bird Observatory. On the way there I stop
for a chat with a birder, Andrew. His eyes suddenly expand. He has
seen a cracking male black redstart on the wall behind him. Gorgeous
bird. Thanks Andrew.
Waxwing
onto the day list.
Down
to The Havens, goldcrest and wheatear put down in the notebook.
Heading
back to my little abode a flock of golden plover fly around Setter,
bird number 53 for the day.
