Shetland bucks the trend for waders

I was very interested to read that Scotland's woodland birds have increased by 67% between 1994 - 2016, while farmland birds have also increased in the same time period by 13%. Its not all good news as upland birds have decreased by 16%.

                                                          Good to see a good number of Skylark in Shetland

The survey suggests that 10 out of 17 upland birds have declined, with Curlew -62%, Lapwing - 63%, Golden Plover-43% decline.

However in Shetland Curlew are doing well, and there even might be a slight increase, Lapwing and Redshank only show a slight decline by around10% with Golden Plover just a few % down

Shetland Amenity Trust give the following indication on numbers in Shetland
Curlew 2,300 breeding pairs
Redshank 1, 170
Golden Plover 1,450
Lapwing 1,740

This is partly down to a lot of crofts, poor soils and less improved ground

In Shetland we have very little woodland and as a result little diversity in this area, perhaps highlighted by the fact there may be only 3 pairs of breeding Robin in Shetland. Good news for farmland birds and the mixed type of farmland/ Crofting helps. For instance the House Sparrow appears to be doing well here and poorly down in England and Skylarks seem to do well.

This week has seen a lot of birds leave Shetland and headed ? with all the lochs frozen duck and swans will have found it difficult to find food, this also may be the point that the Pied Billed Grebe either leaves or perishes it will be interesting if any more records are submitted.

                                        Whimbrel numbers down but may benefit from peatland restoration

The field outside our living room window has been full of birds today including 5 species of wader. Redshank(6), Oystercatcher(4)  Turnstone(8) Golden Plover(12 briefly) Curlew(2) also Greylag(4) Starling (30) Herring Gull (2) Rock Dove (6) Blackbird (8) Rock Pipit(2) Fieldfare (4)

 I have seen a Peregrine at the Scord Scalloway chasing thrushes while a Sparrowhawk flew low over the road at Cunningsburgh. Gulls such as Iceland and Glaucous still present in small numbers and seaduck, King Eider (Yell) and Surf Scoter (Unst) reported. The Pied Billed Grebe has survived and is still at the north end of Spiggie

Black Redstart

It was nice to find a Black Redstart just down the road at Sanick.in Sandwick.  This male was probably the best marked individual I have seen

I didn't manage to see it on the first visit but I saw it within 5 mins on the second visit inside the cemetery

It jumped on the wall and down into the carpark but by the time I had moved round it had gone

I moved the car round and sat a while in the carpark and it didn't take long before it was seen on the wall, this time for a bit longer. It then moved onto the ground and quickly moved over it to longer vegetation before getting chased off by a migrant Robin.

As most birds do a circuit I found it to the west hopping around on some piles of earth , then back into the cemetery

I quickly re located the bird working its way down a fence line, flying up onto the wire fence every now and again. It seem to find plenty of food on the ground.

It was certainly a good looking male, its mostly female/ juv birds that I have seen in Shetland. Although a male turned Black redstart did turn up to the north side of Sandwick a year or so ago

Black Redstarts tend to be late migrants to Shetland and birds sometimes stop into the long winter months. This one stopped 6 days and I saw it on its last day. The first few days of its stay it was also joined by a second bird

Other Black Redstarts turned up in Lerwick, Hoswick, Sumburgh & Boddam as well as several birds in the north isles. The same day I also saw the Siberian Stonechat down at Swinister but it was very mobile so no photos

The fields  in Sandwick are full of Greylag geese and feeding with these are Golden Plover (350) along with numerous Redwing, Fieldfare and Blackbird.

Other waders in these flocks include Turnstone, Redshank, Curlew, Snipe and Lapwing. A couple of days later, again in the Sandwick area I missed out on the Dusky Warbler at Hoswick, also Blue tit here which is just as rare.