The Rares keep coming.

Fair Isle at its best – a shout from Will this morning, ‘Blyth’s Reed Warbler in the garden’ was enough to cause a scramble. With the nets open a bit of gentle coaxing didn’t work, but thankfully, shortly afterwards the bird then made its own way into a mistnet. It was extracted and processed, where the measurements confirmed the identification, and paraded for all at the Obs to enjoy. A great call from Will with this potentially tricky species (they were strictly an ‘in hand identification’ only when I was a lad!), especially as the first bird of the day to see out the bedroom window!

After release the Blyth's Reed showed well in the garden at times, even feeding out on the grass.

Whilst the BRW was being shown off to our visitors, a second check of the nets produced a Great Grey Shrike, which took lumps out my hand but was well worth it. The Shrike was later recaught in the Vaadal, where it dropped its mouse prey in the catching box. After refusing to pick the mouse up, Jason had the bright idea to put the mouse on the ground, then put the GGS next to it – it swiftly grabbed its grub and flew off over the hill!

Jason also caught a Bluethroat in the Gully and a Yellow-browed Warbler (one of at least five on the island) was trapped later in Single Dyke. Other birds seen today included Little Bunting (Walli Burn), Citrine Wagtail (Da Water), Melodious Warbler (Shirva), Barred Warbler, Short-toed Lark and 3 Common Rosefinch, with a variety of common migrants probably slightly reduced in number from yesterday but including the first Ring Ouzel of the autumn.
I’m ‘taking it easy’ and plodding round the roads a little bit, so I haven’t caught up with all the birds, but I can feel my fitness coming back, so I’m sure I’ll be OK to run up Ward Hill tomorrow if needs be! For those of you interested in such things, I got my stitches out today (anyone want to see a picture?!) but I am currently held together with medical sellotape.
The forecast now looks less promising for a few days, with westerly winds set to dominate. But this is Fair Isle and virtually anything is possible, so I’d not be surprised if there were still one or two headline birds to come…