Shetland day 5 - Lap Bunt but not there yet

Winds dropped today and it was an exceptionally calm day, sunny at times. This raised hopes for new arrivals. Well, that hope was almost completely false. I spent most of the day with the Dream Team, Roger and Paul. We started off with the Sumburgh circuit. Some stuff moving about up in the air - several Lesser Redpolls, Siskin and quite many geese. In the bay several Slav Grebes and Long-tailed Ducks:

Long-tailed Ducks - juveniles

Slavonian Grebes

Then we had a thorough look around Quendale. Also today the iris beds did not deliver. One Common Sandpiper and a Whitethroat were new. There were two Great Northern Divers there as well. I did play around with the Fulmars a bit.

Amazing scenery off the end of Quendale head

After lunch the news about Swainson's Thrush broke. I decided not to go because it would have been a mad dash, and I preferred to stay in the south and look for my own birds. Mistake? 

In the afternoon we checked Sumburgh head. A very showy Lapland Bunting (adult male?) was at the carpark. Lots of admirers there. Stunning bird! 

The view off Sumburgh Head was stunning:

Fair Isle was visible in the distance:

Last place we checked was Scatness. Roger found a very unsettled Sibe Chiffy but by the time I joined him it had evaporated. 

Lovely evening with all the team - certainly pumped me up with energy for tomorrow. Weather is looking promising. Hope my last day on Shetland delivers.

Goodbye sun, hello rain, bye-bye drongo...

Tuesday morning I met up with Jonathan for a couple of hours of birding near Modi'in before returning to UK. The sun was out of course, lovely temperatures, lots of winter visitors - nothing too exciting though. Some Woodlarks, Siskins, several Gazelles etc.

Southern Grey Shrike aucheri

Long-legged Buzzard

And then another long trip back to UK - flew to Paris, where my car waited for me. Drove to Calais, and had a couple of hours to kill before my ferry departed. There were some birds to be seen inside the port - one distant Slavonian Grebe, and two Red-breasted Mergansers:

The ferry trip was uneventful, as was the drive from Dover to Norwich.

When I got back home news broke of an Ashy Drongo that was found by Irad Solnik at a funny site in the heart of the country. Good chance this is a wild bird. I knew this would come. There were some good birds in Israel since I left, but luck was on my side - I had seen all of them before (Lesser Flamingo etc.). This bird is something else - first for Israel of course. Today it was not relocated but if it stays for the winter good chance it shows up somewhere.