Natural Selection

The new ‘Golden Retriever’ weather vane at Rocklea showed the winds coming from the south east as forecast. Whilst the ‘fetch’ on these may not have been that great it always augurs well for a day’s birding on here.

There were a few thrushes dotted about. These mostly comprised Blackbirds and Redwings, with a few Fieldfares and perhaps only a couple of Song Thrushes. It remains to be seen whether any bigger numbers will materialise, as ironically a huge movement across England earlier in the week seemed to have its peak over my home county of Lancashire.

Bird of the day was a Little Bunting. I’m not sure how many I’ve found on here in the past, maybe only a couple but it certainly adhered to type and beggared off within seconds of dropping randomly in front of me ticking furiously away. So unfortunately no pictures.

I am able to give a couple of pictures of migrants though. Here is a Stonechat which posed nicely as they often do. Stonechats do nest elsewhere on Shetland, but it’s definitely a migrant on here.

And here is a Goldcrest in the garden of Nampara. I thought there might be a few about today, but even after checking the geos this was the only one I saw. There’s a pine cone behind its head. it isn’t really that shape.

With stuff in Shetland today including a hallowed Siberian Rubythroat and the winds set to stay in the east perhaps there will be more to come in the next couple of days. Fingers crossed.