Feeling like death warmed up

Ack. And ick. I’ve got a cold, and I feel like shit. So shit I’ve got a sick note from my mum and stayed off school to dose myself senseless with a self-prescribed cocktail of ibuprofen for my tonsils, paracetemol for my headache, hayfever tablets for the runny nose (this is genius, and really works. [...]

Shag

Spent the weekend birding and digging – the former more BTO stuff, second timed tetrad visits and random roving records. Started the home tetrad from the comfort of the bedroom – with 270 degree field of view, taking in sea, maritime heath and grassland, it’s a quick fix for nailing a whole heap of birds [...]

Secret diary of the Kirkabister White-billed Diver

Monday – spent all day submerged off Kirkasbister, swimming around with just my beak sticking out of the water like a periscope. Could see occasional cars stopping and birders trying to find me, but haha, tough luck, losers. I’m not here for your gratification.
Tuesday – fancied a change, so spent daylight hours hanging out with [...]

Green-winged Steal

That’ll teach me to be smug and clever – while I was busy getting hot and bothered about freshwater Glaucous Gulls yesterday, somebody more conscientious than me took the trouble to check the small gang of Teal that hang out on Loch of Tingwall. And yep, turned up a Green-winged amongst them. Tch!
What the dallio. [...]

White-winged nonsense

As promised to myself, spent a happy lunch hour checking out the choicest of Lerwick’s gull hotspots – the roof opposite Co-op, Holmsgarth lairage, the wire store, the sloping field opposite the garage at Gremista, Shetland Catch, and of course Rita’s kipper bay. I had so much fun it hurt.
 I just knew it was going [...]

Wintery stuff

Started the day with a thorough check of the Eider flocks off the pier – masses of them, seemingly more than last winter, but no King. Found 2 (well, maybe one, but seperated by enough time to make me think there were 2 individuals involved) last year here, but fuck all so far this year. [...]

Frozen swonnicles

It’s cold as a witch’s tit here today, an eye-watering, snot-running north-easterly storm-force wind coupled with the occasional horizontal snow shower. Snow at that speed really, really hurts. You wouldn’t think it, but it bloody does. Not a promising day for birding in Shetland, and even the local Starlings couldn’t be arsed to come and [...]