It's time I gave an account of this year's mammals on Shetland. We boated on overnight 26/27 September and came off overnight 9/10 October, with no interesting mammal sightings in either direction despite calm seas.
Unable to take over our accommodation till afternoon, we passed the time digging out the Girlsta King Eider at long range, a fairly scabby individual with most of the views almost subliminal glimpses of an orange bill. The local Rabbits and Common Seals were much easier, with severe doubt about who was watching who between us and the seals.
Once we did move into the Sea Barn at Hillswick a quick scan of the bay immediately revealed a couple of Grey Seals and a dog Otter fishing in the bay - hard to remember now that on our first visit it took us all fortnight to see an Otter!
Presumably the same dog Otter was fishing again the following morning (28/9) before we set off to work our local patch, which didn't produce much apart from a Yellow-brow and a Snow Bunting over.
The 29th was Marion's and my 20th wedding anniversary so after an exchange of cards I left her to potter about Hillswick while Roy and I set off for the South with the Nurneys in tow in their car. Two more Otters, bitch and cub, were at Loch Spiggie, and the bay at the West end of the Sumburgh cross runway was stuffed with Harbour Porpoises. The other side of the bay, naturally. We all had a very fine meal at the St Magnus Bay Hotel after splitting a bottle of Veuve Clicquot in the evening, to celebrate Marion putting up with me for so long.
The last day of September didn't produce any mammal sightings though we started to note the usual carnage of Hedgehog and Ferret corpses on the roads. On the first of October we saw a live Hedgehog on the way back from fish and chips at the Nurneys' gaff - woo hoo! Another couple of blank days followed, not least because the weather went right off, to the point that the boat didn't run and the planes and choppers didn't fly. We didn't go out, just went slowly mad listening to the howl and moan of our front door's tiny gap doing an impression of Scott of the Antarctic for 24 hours.
4 October and again no mammals worth noting. Instead we dragged Maz kicking and screaming from the warm house and out to Easter Quarff for a Western Bonelli's Warbler. Actually it was still either/or when we arrived but called almost immediately. Western. A Semi-palmated Sandpiper at Virkie was easier to see but disappointingly distant after the approachable one at Grutness a couple of years ago: but none of us felt like being the one fingered for walking closer and flushing it, after all it was just a Semi-p. Four Shorelarks at Scatness obligingly walked towards us once we had figured out their feeding direction which was much nicer and gave us great views of these charismatic birds.
5 October and as we drove down the slope to start the stretch of road alongside Ronas Voe, an Otter swam in towards the bank. We pulled over and gave it a couple of machine-gun bursts from the roadside, which it blithely ignored, continuing its swim/dive, swim/dive progress along the shallow edge of the voe. Terrific views of an Olive-backed Pipit at Isbister added some birding colour to a principally mammal day with both Grey and Common Seals plus Rabbits pushing mammal numbers up (all right, a long mammal day list isn't really possible on Shetland) before news broke of a Humpback Whale heading slowly South at Fladdabister. We've dipped a few of those, but felt recklessly confident and pointed the nose of the Octavia South. Just like when we missed the White-tailed Eagle we tried to anticipate the whale's movement by going slightly beyond the sighting report to a high overlook above Sandwick. No sign of the Humpback (which was still loitering where it had been) but three pods of White-beaked Dolphins distantly viewed through scopes smashing through the waves and leaping from the water, their huge falcate dorsals and contrasting skins an ID giveaway. When they subsided into feeding mostly underwater we hopped back in the car and retraced our path to then skitter through minor roads out to Aithsetter where the Humpback Whale was still showing on and off, though not doing anything very exciting, just blowing, arching and diving - though I saw my first Humpback tail flukes in Britain, which was something!
After that we headed back North for a Radde's Warbler which was showing occasionally near Sullom, and at least managed to see it, though it wasn't exactly accommodating.
Later in the day we took part from the fringes in a bit of a gathering of birders admiring a full summer plumage White-billed Diver at South Nesting Bay, which was also stuffed with Harbour Porpoises. Seven mammal species in a day, great: the White-billed Diver was my 300th Scottish bird which was a milestone of sorts for a Hampshire lad.
Next day the otter was once more in the bay at Hillswick, but the mammal thrill of the day was a couple of Common Seals porpoising at North Collafirth, something I'd only seen once before, when staying at Rivendell. Honestly.
The weather was fairly duff again on 7th but the three males (me, Roy and Dave) ventured out to Sandgarth together in the afternoon to avoid going stir-crazy: what we got for our trouble was wet!
On the 8th the highlight was a Tundra Bean Goose at Twatt. We'd dipped it at Effirth a couple of days before, nice get-back. We had more of the bananabill and saw at least 30 Harbour Porpoises in South Nesting Bay, though a couple of Haworth's Minors were a tick and took the honours.
9th was quiet wildlife-wise without even a late show from the Otters. On the 10th we came off the ferry straight onto the roads South, noticing some Red Deer that were new for the year en route to New Swillington Ings and the Long-toed Stint (with bonus Bittern). Within five minutes of getting home in the evening - and while we were still bringing stuff in from the car - the first foxes were sitting watching us with a distinct look of "where the hell have you been?" about them. Nice to see you too, guys.
John
