Mainland Magic . . .After a suprisingly smooth flight from Fair Isle back to mainland Shetland, we went on a twitching spree! First was Sandgarth for a very active Coal Tit which was busy removing peanuts from a bird table & stashing them in nearby vegetation before returning for more. This was our first Coal Tit for Shetland - a rare bird here! We then drove to Kirkabister where, after some searching & false alarms (Great Northern Divers), we located the White-billed Diver which has returned to winter here again & was a British tick for me. Our next stop was a very good fish & chip shop in Lerwick, followed by a visit to Clickimin Loch where we dipped the Ring-necked Duck (& the one at Tingwall Loch). However we found 8 Waxwings in Lerwick, in beautiful late afternoon light, gorging themselves on ripe rosehip fruits. Our last twitch of the day was to Fladdabister for another rare Shetland bird, a Blue Tit! - which showed well & again added another good bird to our Shetland lists!
Catkin Action . . .more stock images taken at my Suffolk feeding station today before lunch when the rain and mist set in. 12+ Lesser Redpoll present still (several unringed and a very interesting control!) along with the usual suspects, Blue, Great and Coal Tit. I really love photographing these Redpoll's. Can't wait to get back up to Shetland in 2010 for some Mealy's to add to my growing Redpoll image collection . . . .
