Final day on Shetland... then back to London

It's the last day of half-term and it has been a really poor one. I should, in retrospect, headed out west to Corvo but you shouldn't look back with much anger. Instead, I came off Shetland on Wednesday night due to the onset of westerlies and a bit of work I needed to do back in London.

The last day on Shetland, Wednesday, I decided to head west again to an area I'd not really explored. And it was a delight, with loads of habitat and obviously no birders. And at Dale of Walls, there weren't really any birds! Just a few crests but also loads of thrushes piling through. As well as the odd Brambling. I headed around after this to the small village of Walls, parked by the quayside at Pier Road and had a wander. I was mildly contented to find a Yellow-browed Warbler in one of the gardens, my second of the five days, and fairly welcome considering I saw none this time last year. After they occur in almost abundance in late September and early October, numbers considerably tail off by this time of year!

Yellow-browed Warbler Walls, Shetland 25th October 2017

After having a whack around Walls, where there were three typically interesting looking Chiffchaffs, I headed back east and stopped off at Tresta. I'd done a little bit of research, and all the birds here in the past seemed to be in the gardens by the methodist chapel. And so I stopped here for a gander - another 'eastern-type' Lesser Whitethroat was pecking about on the lawn, and there were a few Chiffchaffs too and a couple of Lesser Redpolls.

Siberian Chiffchaff Geosetter, Shetland 25th October 2017

Goldcrest Geosetter, Shetland 25th October 2017

With a late afternoon flight, I headed south through Scalloway, and picked up my route along the west side where I hit Wester Quarff first - which was very quiet - and then Maywick, where a Chiffchaff was the only bird of note. Geosetter Burn had the usual Brambling flock and a lovely Siberian Chiffchaff, as well as some showy Goldcrests, while the highlight was just north of here where I booted a Richard's Pipit from the roadside ditch, where this large pipit rasped away as it headed west with vitesse. The last bit of Shetland birding was, as usual, in the quarry at Sumburgh where there were a couple of redpolls, including this male Mealy: -

Mealy Redpoll Sumburgh, Shetland 25th October 2017

And that was that. Having got back to Aberdeen for 6pm, I was back in London for 3am and out with the gulls a few hours later. Unfortunately, the last few days in London for gulls have been really poor for some reason and so I couldn't find a Caspian Gull for love nor money! Thursday's highlights included seven Yellow-legged Gulls (five at Thames Barrier Park, a 2nd-winter at the O2 and then a showy adult on Greenland Dock) while Friday was even more of a struggle with a couple of numpties on the beach at Thames Barrier Park, which was a site first for me, meaning no gulls there and just single first-winter Yellow-legged Gulls in Rotherhithe and at Creekmouth. Yesterday wasn't that much better with four Yellow-legged Gulls at Thames Barrier Park and the adult Yellow-legged Gull once again showing nicely on Greenland Dock. However, it was nice to see a returning Norwegian Black-headed Gull JZ35 back in Rotherhithe - ringed as an adult near Oslo in 2016, I saw it last here on 4th March 2017 before it was back in Norway from April to July this year.

adult Yellow-legged Gull Rotherhithe, London 26th October 2017

Black-headed Gull JZ35 Rotherhithe, London 28th October 2017