It's not often that we find a national rarity so I thought this sighting deserved a blog post of its own. Chris and I made one last stop at Easter Quarff on October 10th.It was the first time we had visited the site and we really liked the line of willows with water running through them as we viewed from a very muddy farm track. On the walk up we had seen two Blackcaps in the trees, with little else to show for our efforts.
It was almost time to leave for the ferry, so we started walking back towards the car. Chris noticed a bird out on the track some way ahead of us but it flicked into the willows. We moved up and began looking for the bird. Chris's first thought was that it wasn't a Robin as it was too big, then Nightingale was discounted. As it hopped up briefly onto a branch we both knew we had an American vagrant, but which thrush.
Chris began working through the possible species and I tried to capture a record shot not focused on any twigs or grass in front of the bird. Veery, Wood and Hermit Thrush were ruled out but we weren't 100% certain exactly what it was. We had only seen it in shade and partly obscured. but we had less than an hour to get to the boat and hopefully get others there to avoid the bird being lost. We hadn't had good views, certainly not as good as those that saw it the following day and got terrific photos, but with time so short we put it out anyway, after all, some of those leaving on our ferry may get a chance to see it and it was getting towards the end of the day with the light failing. It was put out as a probable Swainson's Thrush and then we set about relocating it as it had flown upstream.
We were checking the time and hoping the parking would be sensible and not stop us getting away. A few people arrived and managed to get on to the bird and Grey-cheeked Thrush was suggested. At about that time we had to leave with people still arriving.
Later, while on the ferry, it seemed that a few people had managed a glimpse, with the last sighting being about 18:10. On getting a chance to review my photos with photographic ID guides we also agreed that it was a Grey-cheeked Thrush, so not new for our UK list as we'd seen one on Scillies in the 80s. This became the 12 record for Shetland, with over half of those having been seen on Fair Isle.
My images and our views were as follows -
While people that saw it in the following days (after we had departed Shetland) achieved photos like this. Can't say that I'm not the least bit jealous!
