Twitchers Revisited

Great picture and what a gorgeous bird.

A Common Rosefinch was in a garden at Tresta this morning

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Still just the one Red-necked Phal but getting slightly closer

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Back at the Rosefinch garden and there were 2 Rosefinches!

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Another long day but lots of common migrants new in today. Finally got home at 7:30 and a Spotted Flycatcher was in my garden.

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I also had 2 Marsh Warblers but they were very elusive and didn’t get a photograph worth sharing.

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Awesome !

Amazing shot of the Spotted Flycatcher!

What camera and lens are you using ?

Beautiful creatures…love these pics …thank you …

Sony A1
200-600 zoom
1.4x t/c

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Red-backed Shrike at Tresta this morning

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Another day of migrant passage. 3 Male Red-backed Shrikes, 1 female. Also, Common Rosefinch, 2 Marsh Warblers, 6 Lesser Redpolls, Hawfinch, Spotted Flycatcher and a host of other common migrants.

The female RBShrike was very distant, hence the hugely cropped record shot.

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One of the Lesser Redpolls had been ringed but I haven’t got enough information from it to determine where.

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Also had great views of Whimbrel at close quarters.

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LOVE that Whimbrel shot! :heart_eyes:

Presumably Fetlar (and surrounding Islands) act as a bit of ‘funnel’ for migrants, somewhat in the way that - say - Gibraltar does?

Whimbrel are a rare breeding bird in UK with the vast majority of them in Shetland.

The archipelago is a migrant hot-spot, presumably because if you’re heading north it is pretty much last-chance-saloon. (the reverse applies in Autumn)

Gibraltar is particularly famous for migrating raptors due to being the shortest crossing to Africa

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Makes sense :+1:

Gib is also a concentration point (I discovered while there for other reasons) for dragonflies in autumn: never seen so many, nor so many different kinds, presumably for similar reasons.

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There’s been an unprecedented arrival of Red-backed Shrikes across Shetland. Unbelievable numbers yesterday - conservative totals are 64 (+ 32 on Fair Isle, who keeps their own records) so 96 in total which is, by any measure, an incredible fall!

No visiting birders today on Fetlar meant I was the only person recording them. 5 males and 3 females, a number I never expected to see, in one day, in the UK.

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My guess at an explanation is that these are birds that have been migrating north, to southern Scandinavian breeding grounds, and with the recent (constant) SE winds have drifted off course.

They all seem to feeding very well and I would expect most of them to head off soon and get to their intended destination.

edit:
When I say unprecedented, there have been totals of over 200 recorded but they are numbers for the entire spring, not for a single day.

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Lovely and a fantastic last image :heart_eyes:

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That’s not to say there won’t be a pair or two that attempt to *breed here…

*A pair raised four chicks on Fair Isle in 2015

It is fair to say that this female Red-necked Phalarope was showing rather well today…

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@pmac I am sure you are aware of the Indigo Bunting seen in Whitburn over the last few days? Only 2 miles from me but not seen it yet. I might get a chance when out for a run, if I can get through the hoards of twitchers that have turned up.
I am not sure how it has ended up so far off course? It is usually a migrant between North and South America?

[Credit on the pic, Hanningfield, Essex, yesterday.]

Heard the usual solitary bird calling as he passes thru our agridesert looking forlornly for a mate, but they never stay.

Yeah, a few of my mates have seen it. Rare vagrant, if accepted…

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First male RNPhal of the season along with 3 females on a known breeding site. The male attempted to mount one of the females a couple of times, bit early for that, they haven’t even had the chance to check out potential nesting sites yet.

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So is there a reason why it might not be accepted?
What would cause it to turn up on the east coast when it is an American migrant? Hopped a lift on a ship?