Not Fair! Isle try again tomorrow...

What a dismal and depressing day! We spent EIGHT hours at Tingwall airport waiting for the go ahead for a flight onto Fair Isle... Most of it made worse by news of a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler showing well, the continued presence of the Buff-bellied Pipit, and a freshly arrived Citrine Wag.

It would've been better had the weather been so bad there was no chance of a flight.. at least we could've gone birding then. But no, the cloudbase on Mainland and Fair Isle oscillated gently up and down around the minimum acceptable. It was OK at Tingwall for much of the afternoon, but not on the Isle. At one point, we were all set to go... "we can take eight people, no luggage, we'll bring the rest tomorrow, but let's go as soon as we can". Cue frantic repacking, weighing people, paying for flights etc... And then a final check put paid to that, so we went back to reading crappy novels, watching clouds and kicking stones. By 5pm, we were officially rained off for the day, and agreed to be back there for 8.30am tomorrow. Grrrr...

Frustrated, I went out for some last gasp birding around Lerwick. Checked helendale and seafield, but nothing doing in the rain. I considered going  down to Quarff or Sumburgh, but reckoned it was too far.

Midway through fish and chips back at base, the mega alert goes off. "BROWN FLYCATCHER SUMBURGH". There was some swearing.

Can't remember if I blogged the fact previously, but I've dipped both the last two brown flycatchers in Yorkshire, (ie including one a few weeks ago) so they're not going down very well.

I'm setting an early alarm now, to give us an hour after dawn tomorrow. Cross everything!