Earlier last week (Wednesday 16th of January), I headed down to Girdleness (Torry, Aberdeen) to try and get some Shag rings on the outer breakwater. Safe to say after 2 hours I was pretty unsuccessful with virtually no Shags since and no rings read so I packed it in and headed off back into the centre of Aberdeen. On my way back I happened to stop and check a few of the Gulls around a local Salmon smokers and safe to say it was a good idea! I managed to spot a metal-ringed Black-headed Gull waiting around for a chance at some grub so I decided to try nab the numbers of it. After many photos a ..read more

A quick piece here that I did for the Grampian Ringing Group after a day out on the 11th of November 2018 ringing finches, tits and chasing Waxwings in Aberdeen. Link to their website and the post can be found here: http://grampianringing.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-day-in-life-of-trainee_2.html Original Post Below On an unseasonably warm November morning, several members of the group braved the darkness to head out to the finch ringing site at Girdleness, Aberdeen City for the final finch catching of the autumn. After setting up both the finch net and starling net, with different foods, the usu ..read more

These last few days have been pretty hectic, I am in the middle of my final exams for school before I venture into the big wide world, on the other hand Shetland has just been bombarded with rarities of extreme proportion that has every lister and twitcher scrambling for. First news broke of a Mamora's Warbler in Unst found by Dave Cooper on 14th May 2018, a first for Shetland and an incredibly rare bird in this country followed shortly by a Black-faced Bunting found by Mark Warren, also in Unst and another big British rarity. Both were found around 6pm and I was sleeping ……. typically, with ..read more

On Thursday 5th April, a Bewick's Swan was found by friends Dave Okill and Pete Ellis at Hillwell. This big white blob was the first in Shetland since 2011 when a bird was at Northdale, Unst for a few weeks. This was a potential tick for us so Tommy and I decided to have a twitch the following day for it. Arriving at its last known site of a park west of Ringasta, we were greeted by a group of about 15 Whooper Swans, we were a good distance away from the birds and even a scope would of struggled with the distance so we were stumped on trying to get an ID. After 30 minutes we gave up and hoped ..read more

My first post for 2018, though my round up for 2017 is still to come and a few other interesting sightings from the last two months. 21/02/2018 It was around 1130am and my phone went off with the familiar and always exciting 'bleep' of the WhatsApp bird groups, looking at the message, Paul Harvey had re-found the Red-necked Grebe in Nesting. Red-necked Grebe, within the last few years, has been updated to a local rarity and during my birding years it hasn't been a bird I've been able to see. The day was gorgeous and still, perfect for searching for Grebes on the water, I phoned up Tommy who ..read more

In Shetland November is a special time for us birders where we leave the comfort of our warm homes to drive around in every backroad known to man on the hunt for Swans. On the 12th of November, my area to count would be Fetlar (though I usually help out Dave around Tingwall or Mark Chapman with the North Mainland) as Andy Cook was working. I set out early on the 12th, aiming to make the 0725 ferry from Gutcher so I could get into the Isle early and make the most of the light, with a warm flask and some food I went off on my adventure. On the journey across I decided to brave the freezing wea ..read more

After a successful birdrace last November I once again joined the Shetland Ladybirders in their now annual winter birdrace to raise money for Shetland charities. Though this time there was a twist, I decided to sheath my own team instead of being assigned to a Ladybirder team, so I reached out to a few bird-racing veterans and friends to help me out. My key choices were Paula Moss and Karen Mackelvie, Paula being on my team on the last winter bird race and Karen being a team member for my first bird race in October 2015 and the more recent one in May. Things looked to be good, I stayed at Pa ..read more

Its been a year a full year since I've been into Fair Isle, and it was a long overdue trip this autumn to head to the magical island. Thursday 19th October After a check with Stewart & Triona a few days before I headed into the island on Thursday the 19th to begin a 5 day adventure (hopefully filled with a few good birds). The day looked promising on the isle as the day before there had been both RF Bluetail and a long staying Black-headed Bunting (the latter being a potential lifer) so I had a lot of hope, after some food at Quoy I headed down to their crop strip and began my day huntin ..read more

So after having been on Fair Isle for the last 6 days (19th-24th), (it was meant to be 5 days but weather kept me in, I didn't complain I got a Treecreeper!) It was time for another adventure. After having missed the White-winged Scoter on Yell/Unst last week, I wanted to head up and give it another shot (even though it hadn't been reported for 3 days), so on Wednesday 25th October I headed up to hunt for it with James Bloor, who had also been on Fair Isle during my stay. Meeting at Ulsta at 0930 we headed up to north Yell to look at the duck's original site, a quick look at Basta Voe on the ..read more

After having come back from Edinburgh on the 17th of October there was a few birds around Shetland that I was interested in seeing, first of all was a Thrush Nightingale at Sandgarth near Voe and a Steppe Grey Shrike at Whalsay. Tuesday 17th October Arriving off the ferry early morning I met up with my granddad and we decided to go try get one of the birds, the nearest and easiest to see bird was hopefully the Thrush Nightingale at Sandgarth, a fairly new woodland in Shetland terms and fast becoming one of the best spots in the North Mainland to visit for migrants. The weather was pretty bad ..read more