Birds at West Voe, Shetland

I always find something interesting to photograph at West Voe, Sumburgh

A flight of three Gannet flew in from the east and straight out of the bay towards deeper water at the mouth of the voe

Lots of Starlings collected food from the beach and carried it to their nests, many of which could be found in the stone wall running along side the single track road to the hotel

A willow warbler had dropped into some vegetation close to the beach and showed close up

It seem to find a plantiful supply of insects and it seem to draw the attenion of a Lesser Whitethroat and male Blackcap

 

Shetland comes good- RB Fly and Bluethroat

With easterly winds over the past few days you just knew something special was going to happen

After a day of common migrants , yesterday produced a Red Breasted Flycatcher at Grutness. It was very flighty

It dshed through the bushes a few times before dropping to the ground to feed

With better light it perched for a few seconds on a wall 

Today news came in that five Bluethroats had arrived, one just a few mins away in a garden.

It showed straight away down at the bottom of the garden but then disappeared only to show at the other side of the garden.

It returned to its original spot and came out to feed, collecting several insects and showing well

Its was a cracking bird. The Red Spot Bluethroats are found to the eastern side of Europe, with the White Spot over on the western side of France

This bird may well be heading over to Scandinavia after this brief visit to Shetland

We tend to see more in Autumn but this spring has started well.

 

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipits are common birds in Shetland and spring is great to hear their song as they parachute down to their nest

I was lucky with this bird as it allowed a close approach and didn't fly off until i had taken a good number of photos

It seemed more concerned with the Ravens flying over

I do love their plumage, especially when you get close up