Roger Riddington

Compare and contrast - Lesser Grey Shrike at Channerwick, in August 2004 (first pic) and yesterday - found by Ewen Thomson and @Vicount_Biscuit The Coolpix 4500/scope combo seems a lifetime ago. @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides

@TimBlackburn66 @Vicount_Biscuit @NatureInShet @BirdGuides @RareBirdAlertUK Of course I don’t look as old or as grumpy in real life you understand…😂

Pacific Swift! In the field behind our house! Oooft... Presumably the returning bird from June22 & July23. Where else does it go? And why is it in wing moult this year? So many questions. Thanks to @Vicount_Biscuit for souvenir mugshot. @NatureInShet @BirdGuides @RareBirdAlertUK

Breathtaking views of this Pacific Swift found by @RogerRiddington at Virkie, Shetland today. At times it hawked low over the ground only a few metres away from us. Less than 15 British records of this Asiatic species, but the third consecutive year since 2022 that Pacific Swift has been recorded here in Shetland, with all three records falling between 19 June and 15 July. Surely the same returning individual...🤔

@UKCEHseabirds @AHJHarrop That looks both worrying and horribly like our study plots at Sumburgh @SOTEAG1

What has happened to all the Isle of May guillemots? The first egg was the latest ever but adjusting for that we should still be peak laying now and the cliffs are terrifyingly empty. Even those that have laid don't seem committed and are losing their eggs at an alarming rate.1/2

Migrants in the Ness in the past week @NatureInShet, including two of my favourite chats and an Eastern Subalpine Warbler at Quendale found by @HughHarrop

One of the highlights of Skerries last w/e was the count of seven Wrynecks. Bluethroat, Icterine Warbler, plenty of common migrants too. A few Lesser Whitethroats this week giving churring calls, showing that blythi occur in spring as well as autumn. @NatureInShet

A sparkling drake Blue-winged Teal at Scatness this evening (found earlier by the legendary Pete Ellis); nice end to a day of beached bird surveys and still worrying numbers of dead guillemots on Shetland's beaches @SOTEAG1 @NatureInShet

Female Northern Bullfinches, with those sensational icy, grey-mauve underparts, are hard to beat. This one was at an unphotogenic drinking pool at Kergord earlier in the week. Yellowhammer at Quendale yesterday to continue the theme. @NatureInShet

@Alexander_Lees @AHJHarrop @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides Be delighted to oblige...

@RogerRiddington @AHJHarrop @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides BOURC awaiting the paperwork for a potential B-> A transition

Red-necked Grebe update - @AHJHarrop found the corpse on Quendale beach this morning and we measured it in our garage - wing 198, bill 56.0, tarsus 63.9 - which makes it a male holbollii @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides

@Ornithomedia Yes, sure - I look forward to seeing what is written…

@RogerRiddington Hi Roger, I'm the redactor of the website ornithomedia.com and we would like to write an article about this interesting bird: would it be possible to present your photos? ? Naturally we would credit them. regards David

Red-necked Grebe - decent Shetland bird nowadays; this one in Quendale late this afternoon was a find tick. It looks sufficiently long-billed to be a candidate holbollii (American) but definite ID would need biometrics. Comments welcome. @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides

@AHJHarrop @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides That’s interesting - I’d not thought of using tarsus. If you think you can see top and bottom of tarsus clearly on that image I’d be glad of one for the file - thanks. I’ll go through my 800+ frames again and look for evidence of it showing a leg…

@RogerRiddington @NatureInShet @RareBirdAlertUK @BirdGuides Not necessarily definitive (we need actual measurements), but this morning I got what looks like an indication of tarsus length compared to bill (pic, and see measurements in summary). I'd agree that what can be seen is suggestive of holboellii. Very nice.

@Jenny_Sturgeon Given that you have to get from the airport to the plane, maybe it SHOULD be you!

@kupac1 @NatureInShet That's a fair point. Some of the corpses at least are probably casualties of extra effort by airport security. In snowy weather, more geese use Sumburgh airport and the adjacent Pool of Virkie.

@RogerRiddington @NatureInShet Did that many really die? Greylags don't usually die of cold weather do they?

More Glaucous Gull gore at Virkie - this is the third individual I've seen in the past ten days, tidying up the Greylag corpses that litter the fields after the recent cold snap. @NatureInShet

@Pennyshotbirdin @NatureInShet Thanks!

@RogerRiddington @NatureInShet Love this picture Roger, would love to see this, but no car currently!

The wintering Black-bellied Dipper at Burn of Lunklet, late yesterday afternoon. Migrant Dippers are rare but probably somewhat overlooked in Shetland; the hills are not alive with birds in the winter. @NatureInShet

The Shetland Beluga, accessible to the masses this afternoon now the thaw has set in (Red-throated Diver for scale in one shot). @NatureInShet The animal seems healthy, I'm desperately hoping I won't be walking round it all summer on my Sand Wick beached bird survey for @SOTEAG1