30th October 2025 Unst & Yell NE3 Clear

After a quick look at Skaw and Norwick, I headed to Yell surveying. On my return home, as I was passing Mid Yell pier at sunset, I thought I'd check to see if any Gulls were roosting on the voe... but there was just a single Herring Gull present! However, an unexpected reward came in the form of a Little Auk swimming just off the pier. It soon got short shrift from a Guillemot, so started swimming surprisingly quickly, off towards the fish factory.

Skaw: Siberian Chiffchaff, Blackbird & Redwing.

Norwick: Water Rail, 8 Common Snipe, Robin, 5 Blackbird, 12 Redwing, Song Thrush, Hawfinch, female Northern Bullfinch, Brambling & Greenland Redpoll.

Yell: Merlin & Little Auk.

Little Auk off Mid Yell pier

29th October 2025 Unst NE3 Clear

We awoke to a thick frost. With heavy snowfall in Iceland, snow in Finland and on the hills in Faeroe we hoped there might be some hard weather movement in our direction. We took a walk around Norwick before completing the monthly SOTEAG beached bird surveys. 

Norwick: Grey Heron, Merlin, 6 Golden Plover, 26 Lapwing, Woodcock, 18 Common Snipe, 2 Jack Snipe, adult Glaucous Gull, Goldcrest, 2 Robin, 2 Fieldfare, 10 Redwing, 6 Blackcap, Tree Sparrow & Brambling.

Burrafirth: Grey Heron & 2 Blackcap.

Adult Glaucous Gull at Norwick

26th October 2025 Unst NW4 Showers

With the weather brightening earlier than forecast we took a look around Norwick where a Great White Egret present on the mires was a nice surprise, the Northern Long-tailed Tit was present around the beach and a/the Little Bunting was at Kirkaton.

Norwick: Pink-footed Goose, Great White Egret, 3 Chiffchaff, Siberian Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Northern Long-tailed Tit, Fieldfare, 5 Redwing, 11 Jackdaw, Northern Bullfinch, 3 Brambling, 2 Chaffinch, Goldfinch & Little Bunting.

Great White Egret at Norwick

Northern Bullfinch at Norwick

Little Bunting at Norwick

Siberian Chiffchaff at Norwick

25th October 2025 Unst N7 Rain

Another very wet and windy day when we didn't venture out. A Jackdaw arrived in our garden and around 30 minutes later had been joined by another two.

Jackdaw in our garden

24th October 2025 Unst NNE7 Showers

What a difference a day can make - wet and windy today. I walked to Valyie and back and then called it a day.

Norwick: Shoveler, Song Thrush, 5 Redwing, 2 Blackcap, Siberian Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Northern Long-tailed Tit, 2 Chaffinch, Brambling & 2 Northern Bullfinch.

Northern Bullfinch at Valyie

23rd October 2025 Unst E1 Light rain clearing

Our first full day home and it was nice calm conditions to be out birding. I opted to complete my three Twite crop surveys finding a Little Bunting in the first. The day then got even better, as after being joined by Robbie, he picked out a very smart Northern Long-tailed Tit along the burn at Valyie - the first that I've seen on Unst. It transpired that Magnus had seen it too. As Robbie had also seen the lingering Firecrest at Clingera, we successfully saw it virtually at dusk, also being the first that I've seen on the island.

Norwick: Water Rail, Woodcock, 8 Blackbird, 6 Redwing, Robin, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Northern Long-tailed Tit, 2 Tree Sparrow, 2 Chaffinch, 15 Brambling, 2 Greenfinch, Mealy Redpoll & Little Bunting.

Skaw: Robin, Chiffchaff & 4 Greenland Redpolls.

Clingera: Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest & Firecrest.

Male Greenfinch feeding on rosehips at Leawart

Little Bunting at Leawart

Northern Long-tailed Tit at Valyie
With something of an irruption of Northern Long-tailed Tits taking place across Norway, including 150 seen migrating on Fedje (being virtually due east of Unst) on the 19th October, a few have also reached Shetland in recent days – the first since 2016. On eliminating the possibility of vagrant caudatus x europaeus intergrades, the key identification feature is the wholly white head. Some, including (Jansen & Nap 2008) treat any showing the merest trace of grey on the head as ‘intermediate birds’ whilst others, including (Kehoe 2006) note that some pure caudatus do show some faint grey streaking on the head-sides behind the eye. Images of some of the birds photographed in Norway (to the north of the zone of intergradation mapped here) in recent days are showing such faint grey streaking e.g. https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/3231149.

Water Rail in our garden

Greenland Redpoll at Skaw

A link to a recording of it calling

Firecrest at Clingera

21st October 2025 Rattray Head S2 Overcast

Passing through Aberdeenshire on our way home nicely coincided with Andy Carroll finding a Common Nightingale of an easterly origin at Rattray Head. On seeing a couple of the first online images of it, as it was clearly a striking bird, I was very keen to see it... During the hour or so that we were present, it made frequent brief appearances in the garden of the old coastguard cottages and adjacent gorse mound. The colour of its upperparts, dark loral smudge, lack of a whitish eye-ring, broad whitish fringes/tips to its median and greater coverts, frosty tips to its uppertail-coverts and long tail, all combined to give it a very distinctive appearance. Common Nightingale is typically treated as comprising three forms. The two forms of easterly origin (africana and golzii) intergrade in south Iran (Shirihai & Svensson 2018). Quite rightly, there is some debate as to whether the strength of the bird’s supercilium falls within the variation that can be shown by golzii. Here is a link to an image of what appears a comparable first-winter trapped in Kazakhstan being within the breeding range of golzii.

Common Nightingale of an easterly origin at Rattray Head