What was to be my sixth autumn visit to Unst to stay with Dave Cooper and Brenda Kay began on Sunday 04 October 2026 when Megan dropped me at the bus stop in Shorham High Street for the 07:40 National Express coach to Gatwick. From there I caught the 12:15 Easyjet flight to Aberdeen arriving at 14:00. I'd been a bit concerned about the size of my underseat bag but it just fitted, although I was pleased it wasn't a long haul flight. From the airport I caught the bus into town and walked to the Northlink ferry terminal arriving just as boarding started. Ten minutes earlier and I'd probably have been able to leave my bag in the store, but helpful as never at Aberdeen I wasn't. With an hour before departure I walked to the River Dee hoping for a Goosander but had to settle for a couple of auks. We departed at 17:00 and I birded on deck until dusk. Birds seen included a red-head Goosander in the harbour, 30 Shags and 35 Eider on or just off Aberdeen Harbour, a flock of about 80-100 geese flying south low over the sea made up of 8-10 Barnacles and the rest Pink-feet, 140 Kittiwakes, a Great Skua, 250 Razorbills, 12 Guillemots and 100 unidentified auks, 13 Fulmars and 65 Gannets. Back inside the lounge was fairly crowded but thinned out after Orkney when I could stretch out more comfortably than in my reclining seat.
Monday 05 October 2026. We docked in a drab Lerwick at 07:30 seeing 9 Black and 3 Common Guillemots in the harbour. Usually I catch the 08:00 bus north but Brenda had a dental appointment and she and Dave were coming down to Lerwick later that morning. I left my bag in the Northlink waiting room, Lerwick's much more helpful than Aberdeen. It was a bit drizzly and quite breezy as I walked to Clickmin Loch seeing 45 Turnstones and 20 Oystercatchers on the school playing fields and Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and a calling fly-over Redpoll around the Loch. We'd arranged to meet in Twagoes Road on the Lerwick coast from where a female King (= Queen) Eider was often hanging out with a scattered Eider flock. I was halfway down the road when a car pulled up beside me. Perfect timing by Dave and Brenda. We had reasonable views of the King Eider through Dave's scope (I'd not brought mine). My first UK female was more distinctive than I'd feared, although I would have struggled without a scope. Brenda's dental treatment was successful although a follow-up appointment was booked for the following Monday. The opportunity was taken to visit Tesco and we stopped at Northlink for my bag, filled up with petrol and continued up to Toft seeing a Red Grouse before catching the Yell Ferry. The weather wasn't improving and nothing of note was seen on Yell. On Unst a circuit around Easter Loch produced 29 Whooper Swans including a pair with 4 juveniles that looked as if they had just made landfall from Iceland. A fantastic sight and a great return for me. We also visited Lund and Westing, seeing 3 Arctic Terns at the former, before continuing up to Norwick as the day drew in.
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| Black Guillemot in Lerwick |
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| Guillemot in Lerwick Harbour |
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| Common and King Eider (on right) off Lerwick |
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| mostly Whooper Swans on Easter Loch |
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| newly arived Whooper Swan family on Easter Loch |
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| they conveyed a feeling of excitement/triumph at making a landfall - the last couple of days of strong SW winds not helping. They and about half of the other Whoopers on Easter Loch had moved on by our next visit a week later |
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| the juveniles white eyerings really caught my attention |
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| presumed non or failed breeders |
Tuesday 06 October 2026. Vaylie, Burrafirth and Northdale, Unst. Dave had been reading about Lanceolated and Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers on the continent being found in dune slacks and had started taking a slightly different route down to Norwick to take in those that backed onto the beach. After a proloned period of southwest winds it was no great surprise we were unsuccessful and there were not many migrants about at all although several were new for the year. Birds seen included 3 Pink-footed Geese, 40 Golden Plover, 7 Common Snipe, Great Skua, 2 Black and a Common Guillemot, Merlin, 10 Hooded Crows, 5 Ravens, 2 Swallows, 4 Chiffchaff, 7 Blackcaps, single Redwing and Redstart, 3 Wheatears, 6 Rock Pipits, 4 Chaffinches, 5 Brambling, 12 Twite and a Siskin. |
| Herring Gull with Shags at Norwick |
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| this Great Skua spotted 2 Pink-footed Geese arriving from the North and went up to intercept them |
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| one landed in Norwick while the Great Skua chased the other back across the bay |
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| later they reunited and steadily pulled away from the Bonxie as they continued south |
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| Twite at Burrafirth, always nice to see on visits to Unst where they seem to be holding their own helped by RSPB funded Twite friendly crops |
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| Pink-footed Goose at Burrafirch, another looking to have had a rather testing journey |
Wednesday 07 October 2026. Valyie and Skaw, Unst. Light westerly winds after overnight rain. We took the new route down to Norwick Beach where visitor Donald Wilson had just arrived. My second full day on Unst kicked into top gear as we flushed a Locostella warbler from a roadside ditch that immediately dived into cover beside the burn. The irony was not lost on me, our second day checking the dune slacks on our way to Norwick and we flush a Locostella from a roadside ditch that Dave walks by most days! It didn't look small and I assumed it would be a Grasshopper Warbler, something I'd not seen for over three years. It appeared briefly on a small wooden bridge where we took some photos, Dave's revealing more than mine. It was a very dark looking bird but appeared to show paler tips/edges to its tertials, a feature of Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler! Was this for real or a photographic effect as the closed secondaries looked to shown similar edges in the image? We needed the bird to dry out and give better views/photos to be sure. Improving views was a challenge as although it flushed fairly easily it dived straight back into cover. It slowly started to dry out with a more prominent supercilium and rufous tones to the rump evident on some flight views. Dave managed a flight photo showing white tips to the tail, something mine failed to notice. The bird eventually gave itself up, after a fashion, sitting for a couple of minutes by a tussock near the edge of a roadside field but behind some thin grasses. What a start to my visit! Dave had always wanted to find a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler (actually no longer a Locostella but Helopsaltes which doesn't roll off the tongue so well but that's taxonomists for you). After 10 years on Shetland he had finally done so and I'd been with him - definitely a dream come true! While looking for the warbler I was briefly distracted by Barred Warbler and Hawfinch, neither of which I would see again this trip. After returning for a late celebratory lunch we visited Skaw and a closer look at how the spaceport was progressing. It was two years since my last visit but other than a taller gantry and some fuel tanks it looked little different from my memories, the 'new' approach road past NorthDale still very much under construction and Holsten's Road as treacherous as previously. The approach to the site on Lamba Ness was more like a dirt track in places and the site itself no tidier. Cape Canaveral it certainly wasn't.
Birds seen included an Eider, 2 Goosanders, a Razorbill, 4 Guillemots, a Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaffs, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, a Barred Warbler, 6 Blackcaps, 4 Chaffinches, Brambling, Hawfinch and 6 Twite.
