Benign neglect 
A ridiculously close singing Chiffchaff
and great views of a pale phase Arctic Skua
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One of our breeding Dunlin
and a northern race altifrons Golden Plover
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A couple more of the Skua
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The Chiffy was too close to focus, at times.
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As was the Dunlin
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Wonderful.photoa of the Skua!
The Chiffchaff is beautiful too
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I’m assuming this is a cormorant, but not 100% sure. Also got a lovely little video of one of them diving later on.
Yes, Cormorant.
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Phalarope reflections this morning.
Spotted Flycatcher
and one of our (now breeding) Barn Swallows
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There are a couple of places on the island where you can often see Red-necked Phalaropes on the sea.
They feed in the shallows, very near the shoreline. They have little or no fear of humans so can be approached without flushing them and they will carry on feeding, totally unconcerned by your presence.
Female
Male
They were close together at all times but I couldn’t use an aperture small enough to get them both in focus 
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For anyone remotely interested 
in reading my Fetlar birding report for May 2024, an exceptional month for passage migrants, should be able to access it using the following link:
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Great write up Paul
I saw on Springwatch this evening they had a feature on a pair of Red Throated Divers and their chicks.
They very carefully said that they were filmed in ‘Shetland’ but gave no more specific location, presumably to protect the birds. A bonxie made an appearance too!
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Thank you Kev.
They’re Schedule 1 breeding birds so the specific location of their nests would never be revealed by any responsible programme makers. You need a special license just to photograph or film them on their nests, or breeding grounds.
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Excellent Paul, what an amazing array of sightings over such a short time and some lovely shots to boot.
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Read that from start to finish. Had to imagine some of the birds I don’t know. Nice work, thanks.
Your technical writing is better than many who get paid to do it.
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Thanks Paul.
It was originally only intended as a personal record until a few birding friends asked to see my Autumn 2023 log. It seemed to be pretty well received so I decided to continue it this year, but only for the (hopefully) prolific spring and autumn migration periods with maybe a summer breeding birds, surveys and suchlike version. It wouldn’t work too well in the winter when at least 29 days a month (and that’s being optimistic) would say - seen nowt, seen nowt, seen nowt… but I’m happy to share the interesting ones.
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With the airflow coming from the West in the last few days (and set to continue for another week) it is no surprise that the flow of migrants has come to a (hopefully temporary) halt.
Still there’s plenty to keep the interest going with the summer breeding birds. 4 years ago, I discovered a bay that Phalaropes used for feeding on the sea, with up to 14 seen there at one time. Strangely they haven’t been seen there this season, until today when 2 males and 2 females were close to the shore.
Male
Female
They could be new arrivals, though it’s impossible to say with any certainty.
A few Dunlin were foraging for food in the seaweed, on the same stretch of beach
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Westerly winds give little hope of scarce migrants turning up here. But hang on, this is Shetland and anything can turn up. And it did…
The stand of willows at Funzie contained only one bird, a Savi’s Warbler. First record for Fetlar and an extremely rare bird anywhere on the archipelago. Between 5 and 10 pairs are known to breed on the British mainland.
Notorious skulkers, they rarely come out into the open. This was not quite as bad as some I’ve seen elsewhere but it was still tricky to pin down.
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