Marsh Warbler

Today's blip is a good example of the advantage of doing a guided wildlife holiday.

We went to the RSPB nature reserve at Hermaness, the northernmost point of the British Isles. The main purpose of coming here was to see the gannet colony and the large numbers of great skuas that breed here.

Had we been holidaying on our own we would very probably have come here and would have had no trouble finding the skuas and gannets. I very much doubt, however, that we would have seen this marsh warbler, and even if we had we would have struggled to identify it.

Our guide Gary spotted it almost immediately after we had parked by the visitor centre. His ability to spot and identify birds after just a fleeting glimpse was quite astonishing. We spent a long time watching it flitting about in the shrubs and feeling like fully fledged twitchers :-) . Eventually our patience was rewarded and I was able to capture this picture.

Marsh warblers are very scarce summer visitors and are normally seen only in the south of Britain. To see one in Shetland is very exceptional. Gary's expert guidance helped us to see many more birds that we would otherwise have missed.