And again today . . . 

At the feeding station . . .

A few Suffolk garden bird shots taken this morning before the darkness and rain set in again and the temperature plummeted!  A Tawny Owl was very vocal around 13.00, a female Blackcap which has been present in our Woodbridge garden for several days now continues to eat apples and attack any other birds who try to feed and a Peregrine flew over my car and headed off down the river at Melton.

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!