Shetland Rock Doves

Shetland along with St Kilda may be the only places that you find true Rock Doves

                                in other places they have interbred with feral or racing pigeons

In Shetland we often see 50-100 birds in favoured places such as Sandwick and Quendale

The lack of Peregrines in Shetland means they have few predators

 

Gt Skua- Shetland

Not seen many Gt Skua this year and its all down to bird flu. Many died last year and it will take many years to recover although a few young have been recorded

Some people are happy with this reduction as they can take lambs

 

Shetland Shelducks

These two young may have come down from Virkie, again only a few surviving predation

 

Mallard seem to have three brood but only 6 young survived in total

Shetland Hudsonian Godwit still present

The Godwit is still present down at Grutness today after a brief spell on the beach at the end of the runway and on the Pool of Virkie

I was surprised that no one else was present when i was down, at least for an hour. Then two locals turned up. If this occurred down south there would have been 100's watching

It was good to see the black underwing, another ID feature of this wader

It flew closer than the previous day and fed quite close not disturbed by a skip lorry

once it started to feed it was difficult to capture its head out of the water

              It has now been present for nine days, having arrived a week  last Sunday. Its has been more mobile recently and today has been seen on Grutness beach and on the Pool of Virkie