Natural Selection

Pine Bunting x Yellowhammer by John Coutts

This blog is unpredictable in content and gaps between posts, but one constant is my review of the Out Skerries birding year.

Highlights

Firecrest

A Firecrest on 2nd November was only the second island record, following one in October 2017. Firecrest is a description species in Shetland and there is of course relatively little cover on Skerries. Both 2017 and particularly 2025 saw significant late autumn influxes of this species to the isles.

Hoopoe

The fourth Hoopoe for Skerries found the new bird crop to its liking and stayed for a week from 8th to 14th September. Previous records for the isles were in September 1976, October 1993 and October 2012. The bird this year was the only one on Shetland, where it is a very scarce migrant.

Pine Bunting x Yellowhammer

Although male Pine Buntings and Yellowhammers look very different the two species are closely related and regularly hybridise. The bird at the head of this article was photographed on 7 November. There is one record of a pure Pine Bunting on Skerries, a female on 22nd-23rd October 1994.

Eastern Subalpine Warbler

The bird of the spring was a male Subalpine Warbler on 14 May. The Subalpine Warbler group was split into three species. This is the fourth confirmed Eastern Subalpine Warbler, there have been 15 ‘Subalps’ in total and some of the earlier birds will also have been Easterns.

Shelduck

A Shelduck on the burn on 17 November was notable for the isles. Some probably haven’t featured in the Shetland Bird Report in the past, but known records consist only of singles in September 1984 and April 1996.

Other Birds Of Note

Following one on 24th October the largest known group of Northern Bullfinch for the isles occurred on 10th November, with four birds seen. There are not all that many records at all, apparently less than ten published but some may have gone unreported.

A Corncrake on 23rd September was around the twentieth confirmed record for the isles. The only Red-breasted Flycatcher of the year lingered from 27th September to 12th October. Perhaps just the one Little Stint was seen on 3rd and 18th August. A Hawfinch and a Blue-headed Wagtail were both seen in April.

There were a couple of highlights from the ferry crossing where it is not clear how close to the islands the birds were. A White-billed Diver was seen on 19th January. Two Pomarine Skuas were noted on 15th June.

Coverage

Coverage was about average for recent years. There were visiting birders in spring and for several weeks in the autumn. Shetland birders stayed over on many days in spring and several in autumn when there were no other birders staying on the isles. Edwin and Marina Tait continued to report birds from their garden and occasionally elsewhere on the isles viewable from the road.

Other Migration

It was a quieter year in both spring and autumn than some other recent seasons, particularly the spring that followed on from an exceptional equivalent period in 2024. If I get chance at some point I will pull out some of the peak numbers of more regular species.