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.
