A Black & White Shetland Christmas

There has not been that many good birds of note recently, except a White Tailed Eagle which has been seen a few times up on the hill at Sandwick.  My local patch, Sandsayre at Sandwick, has turned up three good birds in the past two weeks

Iceland Gull

The Iceland gull was present three days and only in the morning. It was always seen in a flock of gulls just off shore

Black Redstart

This very nice male Black Redstart stayed four days and spent all the time down on the beach or around the rocky outcrop to the north. It easily found enough insects to survive and was present after Storm Deirdre .

Today a Little Gull was present but too far away to take any photos

Purple Sandpiper

Around 30 Purple Sandpiper, 15 Turnstone, 2 Oystercatcher, 4 snipe and a couple of Curlew at Sandsayre

Mountain Hares in the North Mainland

Its always good to find Mountain Hares and during winter they are easily found on the moors , sitting out in their white coats. When we lived in Sheffield we had the only English colony near Ladybower in Derbyshire.

This individual allowed a close approach, first photographed from the car then approached on foot to within 30 feet

Not always in full view, three more sat further up the hill with only their heads showing

To everyone that reads this blog have a happy Christmas and I look forward to posting another blog very soon