Buff-bellied Pipit, Fair Isle

Another cracking bird from Fair Isle – it took us three visits to North Light to see it, and a fourth in better weather to get half-decent pics, but it was well worth it. By contrast, the bird at Esha Ness showed first time, but the weather was pretty absymal!

It was surprisingly distinctive amongst Meadow and Rock Pipits – very plain, almost unstreaked, mantle; face pattern dominated by a strong eyering; dark legs; and (obviously) a buff belly! The call was also clearly different – an almost bunting like soft ‘sip’.

Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler, Fair Isle

Let’s start with my highlight of the trip – PGTips to its friends!

We arrived on Fair Isle a day late, after spending eight hours kicking our heels in Tingwall airport the day before. Regular updates of a Pallas’s Grasshopped Warbler showing well didn’t help our mood! So, when we finally touched down, there was no doubt about where to get dropped off – straight to Upper Leogh, please…

The warbler had been showing on and off in a small vegetable garden, and along the adjacent stone walls and ditches, including just ten minutes before we got there. However, it took 45 minutes of patient (and nerve-wracking) searching before it re-appeared. Initially, we only got the briefest of views as it pinged from place to place… until it ended up in a tiny walled enclosure, and showed superbly. Here’s the results.

This appears to be a rather worn individual, with the white tail tips entirely worn off, and those on the tertials heading the same way. Even so, the warm toned rump, yellow throat and creamy supercilium contrasting with a darker cap made the ID relatively obvious – and what a great way to see this much-wanted Fair Isle speciality!

Shetland Photos… coming soon!

Keep checking the blog over the next few days – there’s about 10GB of images downloading at the moment.

For the moment, here’s a very elusive, boring little bird from Shetland, showing poorly at great distance in terrible weather. Not.