Friday 3 October 2008 - Day 8 - Making a Twatt out of yourself....... on Shetland! - 03/10/08
Making a Twatt of Yourself.......
If you're an childish birder with a penchant for toilet humour, no trip to Mainland Shetland is complete without a visit to the village of Twatt. We were determined to find a decent bird at this location in order that we could phone the news out to Rare Bird Alert. Initially only Northern Lapwings, Hooded Crows and Shetland Starlings were seen in the gale force winds but a quick search of a nice looking garden produced a brief glimpse of a Yellow-browed Warbler. It was the opportunity I needed, I phoned the RBA number, I had the message all sorted in my head......
* * *
"On Mainland Shetland this morning - Yellow-browed Warbler showing well at TWATT in the lady's garden of the house with pink curtains between the recently pruned bush and the rusty cess pit."
* * *
Unfortunately at the crucial time I uttered the word Twatt, I caught a glimpse of Snapper Richards's comedy face in the rear view mirror and lost it! The silence in the car was broken with an ejaculation of extreme laughter...... I hung up! Amazingly the edited message came through on our pagers a couple of minutes later.
* * *
The ASBO Posse (or should I say pussy) at Twatt, Mainland Shetland.
Left to Right - Jensen, Richards, Nuttall, Archer (front), Moore (behind).
* * *
We then stopped off at nearby Tresta where another nice wooded garden was thoroughly grilled. Here we found just a Spotted Flycatcher, Song Thrush, male Blackcap, Garden Warbler and a few Goldcrests. It was here that we had our second comedy moment of the day. A car pulled up alongside us with a local husband and wife birding combo inside. The trouble was that the male of this partnership looked exactly like the dad from the American Pie movies, we all tried to suppress the giggles. He said that he'd seen us having our photos taken by road sign at Twatt and even though he had seen it loads of times, he still found it funny.... not as funny as we found his movie star looks mind! While we all sniggered away like a bunch of school kids the female in the passenger seat looked absolutely horrified.
* * *
Hooded Crow - Twatt, Mainland Shetland - October 2008
Photo by Steve Nuttall
* * *
We then made our way around to Kergord where Ian Moore spotted the showy Barred Warbler before any of us had left the car! This bird continued to show well acting more like a Phylloscopus warbler than an elusive Sylvia. It obviously had some kind of identity crisis. Just down the road in the main plantation we had at least 3 Yellow-browed Warblers, a Blackcap and a Pied Flycatcher and a Grey Wagtail. Small flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare were also knocking around the area.
* * *
The final trip of the day was back down towards the south of the Mainland to the tiny hamlet called Channerwick. A 1st winter Red-breasted Flycatcher had been reported earlier in the day but there was initially no sign of the bird. Eventually though the bird showed briefly around the ruins of a derelict cottage before it flew off towards a grassy area nearby. Fortunately I happened to be at the right place at just the right time and I managed to get pretty good views of the elusive bird before it disappeared again. Also in the area was a single Yellow-browed Warbler and a pair of European Stonechats, our first of the trip. A minor disaster occured on the way back to the B&B when I drove our shitty Rover into a ditch but no major damage was done........ I think!
| 
