Big south-easterly gales, rain, general gloom – that’s Shetland at the moment. So I’ve attempted to start sorting out a load of photos and have decided I would like to know what the various butterflies I’ve photographed are. Click here to have a look at them (they’re from India, Ecuador and Brazil) and anybody who can put a name to any of them will win a prize. (Except they won’t).

An update on this mighty competition…

The Committee meeting called at the Sumburgh Hotel to sort out rules/boundaries and so on took place a week or so ago. Unfortunately, we forgot why we were there and ended up drinking lots of beer instead. I think rules and boundaries have been given up on for the time being.

Latest scores as at 19th January:

SJM (Scatness) – 53
The Bell (Sumburgh) – 50
Me (Virkie/Toab) – 50
Professor Harvey (Quendale and whatever other bits he’s nicked) – 43
And a late entry: Sir Russ of Haywood (Quarff) – 42 (Russ’s total can be found here)

Everyone apart from me has seen a hard to get bird or two so far: The Bell scored heavily (I think that’s the correct phrase to use these days) with a few Little Auks past Sumburgh Head and 3 Mute Swans at West Voe (Mute Swans are very rare in this part of Shetland), SJM jammed the Mute Swans and also has a Moorhen at Scatness (a species which is very unlikely to venture into the Sumburgh or Virkie areas) and Professor Harvey added Bean Goose the other day using a very high powered telescope and some mirrors. Russ has got Red Grouse in his area, which is less likely to turn up in the rest of our areas than a Polar Bear. For my part I was delighted to see 2 Wigeon flying over Toab. zzzzzzzz.

I’ve been in Lerwick quite a lot recently, trying to earn some kind of living, which means I’ve been able to go to the Catch regularly. Apart from this adult Glaucous Gull, it’s crap there.

This White-beaked Dolphin had expired on the beach at Boddam today. I did consider chucking it in the back of The Bell’s van, taking it home and either putting it in the freezer with my collection of dead birds (which currently consists of a Wryneck, a Crossbill and a Meadow Pipit) or chopping it into bits and placing said bits strategically around the Virkie area in the hope of attracting a lost Ivory Gull. But I didn’t as I think it’s probably illegal.

Especially for Beast, here are a few more Agami Heron photos. Unfortunately I didn’t photograph Zigzag Heron although I did get rather splendid views of one…

And while we’re at it, some other herony type things from Brazil:

Little Blue Heron.

Rufescent Tiger-Heron.

Cocoi Heron.

Capped Heron.

Whistling Heron.

Instead of a garden year list competition (which was, as has been mentioned previously, a shite idea as I lost), this year has seen the birth of the Great South Mainland Patch Year List Competition 2010 ©. Some may scoff and say that listing and competitions and stuff like that is childish. They may be right. But we all do it to one degree or another, so why pretend we don’t. It will concentrate our minds, get us out into the field more and I’m sure we’ll all find a few things that we wouldn’t have done otherwise. Anyway, four contestants are involved this year:

The Bell (Sumburgh): clearly the best area for “rares” as he has Sumburgh Head, Sumburgh Farm and Grutness, but will the lack of a decent bit of water for waders and ducks hamper him?

Mr Minton (Scatness): a good freshwater loch for waders and ducks, a good headland for migrants and his own good garden – what or who can stop him claiming the prize?

Professor PVH of Harvey (Quendale): in his own inimitable style, PVH appears to have annexed most of South Mainland and called it “Quendale”. He therefore has Quendale, Garths Ness and Loch of Hillwell. He is also a robot who has found more BB rarities that everybody who reads this blog put together and is therefore the bookies favourite to land the prestigious trophy at the end of the year.

Me (Virkie/Toab): will the best bit of wader habitat in south mainland (Pool of Virkie) compensate for being lumbered with the generally wank piece of land that is Virkie and Toab? I doubt it.

Here’s the overall map, for anybody who cares:

And here’s a close-up of my bit of land:

There is, however, still some dispute over boundaries and rules: Scatness and Sumburgh are arguing like 14-year old schoolgirls over the bit near West Voe of Sumburgh, and there are still rumblings over whether you can include birds seen whilst you are in your patch but the bird quite clearly isn’t. A committee meeting has been called for tomorrow night at the Sumburgh Hotel to sort it all out.

In the meantime, my list is now on 44. Stuff of note so far includes: 1st: a Woodcock near the Ness Boating Club; 2nd: 25 Sky Larks at Toab, 25 Sky Larks in the crop behind my house and a Water Rail in the willows (for those wondering why I’ve mentioned Sky Larks – 50 apparently wintering is pretty remarkable for Shetland); 3rd: Brambling at Hestingott; 5th: 30 Snow Buntings at Toab; 8th: 3 Jack Snipe along the East Shore road (including one finally in my garden), Mallard x Pintail hybrid on the Pool of Virkie, Jack Snipe at Toab and 27 Snow Buntings at Exnaboe.

My full list, which as ever will be updated until I realise I’m going to lose, can be found here. The Scatness list can be found here. The Quendale list will never be found anywhere as Doctor Harvey has far better things to do with his time than arse around with silly blogs and websites. The Sumburgh list may one day see the light of day, as The Bell has had a domain name for a website for years but still hasn’t worked out how to use it.

Away from this: I’ve escaped the Greater Virkie area a few times to see what life is like elsewhere. The answer is that it’s very snowy elsewhere. Spiggie is almost completely frozen over and looks like this:

And this distant iceberg is in fact Foula:

Despite the Arctic weather for the last three weeks, there are no Arctic birds. I’d have thought after this weather that Shetland would be buckling under the weight of Brunnich’s Guillemots, Ivory Gulls, Harlequins and so on, but apparently not. Even white-winged gulls are in strangely short supply – I saw an adult Glaucous Gull at The Catch in Lerwick on the 6th, which it would appear is one of the only white-winged gulls in the whole of Shetland at the moment. Other than that, 4 Pink-footed Geese at Fleck, 2 Jack Snipe at Boddam and 2 Barnacle Geese at Spiggie are about all I’ve managed to find.

Barnacle Geese at Spiggie.

Whooper Swans at Spiggie.

Enough messing around: here’s the Top 5:

5th: Lesser White-fronted Goose (131 records)
4th: Squacco Heron (140 records)
3rd: Whiskered Tern (168 records)
2nd: Penduline Tit (217 records)
1st: Black-winged Stilt (388 records)

And for anybody who can’t be bothered to look back at what the other 20 birds in the Top 25 were, here they are again:

23rd (joint): Greater Sand Plover, Northern Parula and Trumpeter Finch (14)
22nd: Iberian Chiffchaff (15)
21st: American Herring Gull (18)
20. Chimney Swift (19)
19th: Forster’s Tern (20)
18th: Common Nighthawk (21)
17th: Bridled Tern (22)
16th: Rose-breasted Grosbeak (23)
15th: Short-toed Treecreeper (25)
14th: Sooty Tern (26)
12th (joint): Pied-billed Grebe and American Bittern (42)
11th: Sociable Plover (42)
10th: Great Spotted Cuckoo (43)
9th: Cream-coloured Courser (44)
8th: Little Shearwater (62)
7th: Red-breasted Goose (74)
6th: Red-eyed Vireo (112)

So, the next game is: what will be the next first for Shetland? Shetland has had a new bird every year for something like the last 50 years (somebody will correct me on that point – Penno?) so presumably there will be another one in 2010. From memory, last year was Brown-headed Cowbird, 2008 was Citril Finch (insert your own comment about escapes here) and 2007 was Siberian Thrush and Greater Yellowlegs. I would like to wager that it won’t be anything in the Top 5 above. In fact, apart from American Herring Gull, I don’t think any of the Top 25 above are particularly likely candidates. But that’s just my opinion, which is usually ill-informed and totally wrong. My prediction for the next first for Shetland is Siberian Blue Robin.

Other guesses please: there will be a prize for the winner, which I haven’t yet decided on what it will be. Currently it’s a choice between a dead Meadow Pipit, a piece of snow, an egg (unboiled), or a bucket of sand from the internationally famous Pool of Virkie.

Finally, bear in mind that there are plenty of non-BB rarities not on the Shetland List – such as Cetti’s Warbler, Marsh Tit, Willow Tit, Green and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Little Owl and Tawny Owl… and Water Pipit, which would be my second choice guess. A full list of everything ever seen in Shetland ever ever ever is here.

Due to an unprecedented number of requests (well, about four actually) for me to get my head out of my arse and reveal the Top 5 BB rarities never to have been recorded in Shetland, I thought I might as well get round to doing it. First of all, however, I would like to inform the good folk who read this (if there are any) about some of the silly answers I got from people who should know better.

First up, Mr Michael Maher. Despite being disqualified twice, he claimed he would have won at least a silver medal for guessing some species if it “wasn’t so heavily biased towards your mates”. I’m not sure what this means (but I have kept the text message from him to prove that is what he actually said), so I have therefore disqualified him again. Sorry Micky. (And by the way, while I’m at it, in response to your question about the Ladder-tailed Nightjar Micky – yes, it was taken in the dark after 1700 hours. Mr S was livid, but could do nothing about it as we had a “proper” guide for a few days (one who could work an ipod, didn’t swear or abuse everybody and knew where the birds were and what they were) and he cunningly put us on a little speedboat and zoomed around in the dark. The blow was softened slightly for Mr S when a cool box full of beer was magically produced on the boat at 1700 hours).

Next contestant is Mr David Hunt. Not the one from Tresco as that would be spooky and indeed impossible. His apparently random stabs in the dark included: Caspian Plover, Greater Yellowlegs, Marsh Sandpiper, American Robin, Solitary Sandpiper, Dark-eyed Junco, Least Sandpiper, Crested Lark, Western Sandpiper, Alpine Accentor and Gull-billed Tern (all already on the Shetland List); Purple Heron and Aquatic Warbler (not BB rarities), “an owl” and King Penguin. In his defence, this scattergun approach worked in the end as he guessed three of the Top 5. However, he’s a Coventry City fan so is automatically disqualified.

Next in the hall of shame is Unst’s finest, Mr Michael Pennington. Now, you would have thought that (a) being on the BBRC, and (b) being chief honcho in the writing of ‘The Birds of Shetland’ would have been some kind of advantage. But no. The first email stated categorically that xxx was the number 1. When it was pointed out that he was wrong the reply was that it was the runaway winner in 1990. Unfortuately, we are now in 2010. The next guess stated absolutely categorically that it was xxx instead. Wrong again. Then there was some excuse about something being taken off the Shetland List that used to be on in the past. Then the categorically absolutely definitive Top 5 was sent. Which was also wrong. Finally, the correct answer was sent, but only after he cheated by looking on the BBRC website. Dear oh dear oh dear.

As was mentioned previously: Marcus and Skev both acted completely put of character and provided sensible reasoned answers. Both guessed the Top 3 in the right order and Skev even got 4 and 5 but in the wrong order. Skev is therefore declared the winner and receives absolutely fuck all for his troubles.

So what are the Top 5? I can’t remember now and I can’t be arsed to look them up again. Sorry.

Some stuff has finally appeared… (see below)