Natural Selection

After I booked the flights for my autumn birding trip to Skerries the inter-island ferry timetable unexpectedly changed. The upshot was I had a day to kill, and as there had been a King Eider at Scalloway I decided to go there.

I’ve only visited Scalloway, the ancient capital of Shetland, very briefly in the past. A more in depth visit showed there are clearly some characters living there.

Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2

I viewed from the College where the King Eider had been seen recently without success. There were some birds of interest, including a few Red-throated Divers, Black Guillemots and a half a dozen Goosander on the opposite island of Trondra.

There was also this statue based on the visiting terns where I was viewing from. Tirricks is the term used in Shetland for both the Arctic and Common Terns that visit in summer.

I decided to walk round to Trondra for a different vantage point, covering a few pockets of trees on the way round. Scalloway is well vegetated for Shetland and can hold migrant small birds. I saw several Blackcaps but not too much else. I didn’t see the any more Eider from Trondra, but there was a Shoveler on a roadside flood near the bridge onto the isle. I think before today my totals on Shetland were 1 King Eider and 1 Shoveler!

Getting the bus back to Lerwick I checked the larger Clickimin Loch and smaller Pullars Loch. The latter was more rewarding, with a couple of Purple Sandpipers nearby and a pair of juvenile Long-tailed Ducks on the loch itself. I’d left the camera at the digs at this point so this is a phone pic:

And to finish, so is this…