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Shetlands 20-23 May

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The second of my spring birding holidays was a whistle stop trip to the northern isles and like Scilly my timing was off, the brief spell of easterlies in the previous days producing a smattering of Bluethroats, all of which had moved on by the time I arrived.  However, Shetland in late May was always going to be fun.  I arrived to cloudy skies and I killed a bit of time in a small harbour in Lerwick, waiting for my friend to arrive, watching a pair of Common Terns at close range.                                                                Common Tern With nothing special to go and see we headed south to check out the gardens and fields around the Sumburgh hotel. Apart from the numerous Starlings feeding young around the walls, there were a few Whimbrel, Twite, Skylark and Meadow Pipits....
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Isles of Scilly May 9th - 13th

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The first of three spring birding holidays saw me head to the south west with an overnight stay in Penzance. Arriving in the late morning and with nothing major to go and see I plumped for a trip to Porthgwarra in the hope of seeing and photographing Red-billed Chough.  I got onto one bird below the coast guard look out and after brief views it went below a hummock and there would have been no way of getting a photo without flushing the bird, so I was satisfied with views of the head and bill popping up intermittently. After a few minutes the bird took flight and I got a couple of decent flight shots as it flew off firstly and then passed me going in the opposite direction a few minutes later. Red-billed Chough As bad luck would have it, I had coincided my visit with a party of school children and numerous students doing some kind of running challenge along the coastal path which made any attempts to photograph the Linnets and Stonechats that were around impossible. Instead, I head...
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