First trip back to Shetland in 3 years. It was the usual crew with Andy Lawson, Paul Hawkins, Shaun Harvey and Tony Brown. The trip didn't start off too well getting stuck for 2 nights in Aberdeen after flights cancelled 2 days in a row, made even more stressful knowing on Shetland just 15 minutes drive from our digs was a mega rare Siberian Thrush, at Asta Loch, near Tingwall. Luckily for us the bird stayed until we got onto Shetland 2 days later than expected.
It was quite a tough week birding wise with strong winds and lots of rain, but we managed to see quite a bit of stuff. A surprise tick came in the form of a Western Subalpine Warbler at Levenwick, which I thought I didn't need, but, as it turns out my previous Subalpine Warbler had been re-classified as Moltoni's Warbler, so this was a new bird for me.
Another mega seen was our only yank of the trip, Blackpoll Warbler. A new bird for TB, so we made the long trip north, via 2 ferries, to Unst, to see it. After no sign at first it was relocated feeding on the beach and provided lovely views. Unbelievably this was mine, and Shaun's 4th Blackpoll Warbler in the UK after seeing 3 previously on Scilly.
Whilst on Unst we also had 3 Glossy Ibis, and dipped a Short Toed Lark.
Our no 1 target, along with everybody else on the trip was polar bear. After 4 days I had had a very brief distant glimpse. Julia didn't even see that. I was beginning to worry it wasn't going to happen.
Whenever we went ashore, guides would go out first to check the area to make sure there were no polar bears in sight. Once happy they would set up a perimeter of look outs all armed with flares and rifles. They were taking safety very seriously.
Our latest adventure to us about as far north as you can go, into the land of the midnight sun. We flew to Tromso, in northern Norway, via Helsinki, where we stayed overnight before boarding the SH Diana (Swan Hellenic).
The boat had a maximum guest capacity of 192 and our trip had 150. We were placed into groups in so trips off boat could be scheduled/rota'd. We were in the blue humpbacks.
It was 2 days cruising north until we reached Svarlbard. On route we had white beaked dolphins and a few distant whales, most probably minke. Birds included fulmar, kittiwake, puffin, brunnich's guillemot, black guillemot and pomarine skua.
#hardlife
Everybody loves a shrike, and I had never seen a Woodchat in London. This one showed very well and really nice to see locally.
Another long awaited tick, Little Crake, again not too far away. The bird had been giving people the run around, only viewable from a small hide, which as packed with twitchers. On positive news I picked up TB (@Cowboybirder) and we were on site early afternoon. Being November, it would only be light until 4pm. It was freezing cold and after 2.5 hours there had been no sign, but we'd agreed to stay until dark.
There was an old fella sitting next to us, he said he'd been there 5 hours, not see it and decided to leave. Literally 5 minutes after he left, there it was right in front of the hide! We watched it for 5 minutes or so until it disappeared into the reeds. Another successful mega twitch!
A much wanted bird and less than 1.5 hours away. Got it at the 2nd attempt, with Steve Bacon, after missing it by 5 minutes the previous day.
