Logan Johnson

Now now lads, just cos the rest o you 'big listers' hae all these fancy lenses 🤣 it's there somewhere, just play some wheres Wally😂
I've just released a 3rd one tonight. Getting calls daily at this rate for slipping them!

I've spoken tae wir guy (Peter Guillver) and he says he's no come across it in Shetland's 'migrant bats' as we don't have a resident pop
In another note I need to make sure I get you the samples o my flatflies next year, keep collecting them n misplacing in the frantic-ness that is the summer!

Shetland as a whole! 2 breeding records in 100 years? 1 on a house near kergord. The other on the cliffs o Noss among the seabirds!

Well, it might no live up tae d recent images o N'thern Long-t Tit on Shetland, but I wis d only 'non-islander' tae catch d Whalsay bird (d crossin on d ferry wisna half something!), nearly flyin into us at times n the pissin rain, utter magic, I've had 1 in my freezer since 2016, not as lively!

No that I keen o. But I can check with the guy who deals with them here. Would you be keen on getting them Denise if he does?

Nauthusius Pipistrelle

Storm Petrel Taxis

Blue Shark

A eventful non-bird 24hours in Shetland this week. Migration slow (understatement) but got a call and picked up a dead bat from Yell to be ID'd by our local expert, then Storm Petrel from a local fishing boat to be released. And the Blue Shark the day before on St Ninians after dipping Snow Goose

Plenty o wild Dog Rose berry still to be found, but non-native Wood Mice ir giving me some competition! 1 bush I found down a cliff had 100s o half eaten mounds, thankfully still some nice big berry to gather n grow on the next gen, but shows that natural spread will struggle here with INN-mammals

So far a good looking season on Mousa fir Euro Storm Petrel, both on the long-term study plots in the dyke waas o the isle while in the other day, and elsewhar, good some seabirds are managing and to hear of the studies on Stormies bringing up good results

Well I'd actually stopped off to look at a Dog Rose bush full of red berries when I found the kite, maybe I should stick to that 🤣. Red-F Falcon? Red-t Hawk? Red-winged Blackbird? Stick to the berries and get the birds!

Some red gold found this week, a wild relic Shetland Honeysuckle with about 100 berries on it, rare I've ever seen more than a couple per plant, n given each berry rarely holds more than 1-2 seeds (up2 -6), each berry goes a long way to growing the next gen

Not often nowadays I find my own Shetland-tick, and glad I bothered to look at the 'odd seagull' going in circles as I was looking at wildflowers! A long-awaited Shetland bird, only been about 10 years since I got Black Kite up here

Glad somewan got a photo, you dunna want to see my field sketch 🤣

Enroute back from Mongolia and seemed wrong no to drop into Musselburgh fir the Marsh Sandpiper, certainly closer views than most o the birds when I wis farther east! A nice Scottish tick to start off the autumn

Found during a mid-survey snooze?😂

2 new additions to the local Shetland tree fauna, possibly 2 new Salix aurita sites, near to areas believed extinct, one of these only 10s of metres from the main road and the other taking numerous attempts to find

I suppose the next piece of data needed, is how waders/Lapwing act in the UK in more 'rewilded/natural' landscapes, as I imagine this buffer won't exist like it does here. As otherwise, how can we ever have functioning ecosystems again in this country

All that slogging round Yell and you don't even need to get out the car for some good scarce/rares, car birding is clearly where it's at!

And even one of the chicks from a tagged pair was recovered recently, likely as a breeding male about 2km away, though likely a bird flu death sadly, in 10 years it's my first chick recovered as an adult/breeding bird

And what tales we've had since then! The last 3 years we've had recoveries o 5 birds, 1 dead (with GLS), 2 caught by me, one of which that we hadn't caught since 2018, and it still had it's GLS attached! With data retrieved! still glad the project is getting more data even now, Dave would be pleased

Shetland Kale, planted on the croft at the start of the month, finally starting to perk up, hopefully come autumn it'll be a good refugia for insects and ideally I'll pop my head over the dyke to a rare bird or 2! Otherwise it will be used as a seed stock for future crops and leftovers fir the kye

Surprised with Hoodies as I've encountered probably hundreds of ground nests in heather, and ringed a number, most plantations here and lone trees tend to have them as well if habitat available

It was first recorded here in the 1970s and also noted in Orkney per the Birds of Shetland, it's my 3rd heather nester in recent years

Woodpigeon continuing to just be bonkers, shoved my walking stick in this hole to see how deep it was, WP flew out and found a C2! Practically underground, ground nesting probably common up here but not often found, Merlin pair around too!

2/ Unfortunately the public knowledge on invasives is still pretty poorly known, especially concerning plants, and I regularly see people selling non-natives and promoting spread whether invasive or not, and hopefully something that can be changed

1/ Montbretia (Crocosmia sp/var) a pretty hellish but attractive invasive, regularly planted in Shetland gardens and now spreading onto the roadside (if not deliberately planted) along side plenty o other invasives, now the slow process of removal, it's doable but needing a few extra hands!

Amazing discovery today out surveying #Merlin for #Shetland Raptor Study Group - this magnificent 2 day old Short-eared Owlets! Only 5th confirmed record. Bizarrely, with somewhat flukey owl finding fortune, these are the 4th I’ve found. #fieldwork @btoscotland.bsky.social
@rspbscotland.bsky.social

Certainly one of the more odd colour morphs I've seen in birds (car brakes wir slammed!), a 'dark'/melanistic Greylag Goose (unless there's another name fir this colour variation) around Scatsta Airport, polar opposite from the Ross' Goose a few months back!

Now that's een I'd be interested to see on a breeding lochan, there's a few spots in sooth yell but I've got a feeling it could easily be narrowed down, imagine it's no paired up?

Early morning ferry over to Unst for Dave Cooper's Serin was a welcome splash o colour, thankfully gave me the excuse to revisit a possible new Willow site I found the other week, a first look at a undocumented+healthy supply of what I'll probably call S. aurita, amazed its no been picked up afore!