False hope

If i was back in Cheshire i would be writing about great views of Sabines Gulls on the Wirral and of a trip to Anglesey for a Baird's Sandpiper, but i am not i am in Shetland. At the moment we are stuck in a birdless zone and no matter how hard any of us up here try (and we are) we just cant dig out anything decent. Hopefully i wont be writing about our woes in the next few weeks because we should be eclipsing the rest of the UK with our eclectic mixture of rare and scarce migrants ? Anyway moan over, back to today. A Blackcap in the garden this morning was not only a garden tick but was a signal that maybe Brough would have some new birds around. A good check of patch produced 1 more migrant, a Willow Warbler. The Houb played host to a Sanderling and 2 Knot, together with the usual suspects. A call from Jon Dunn had me adding Green Sandpiper to my patch list with one very briefly on Houll. With autumn yet to really reach Shetland it was no surprise that the summers butterflies were hanging on with lots of Large Whites, 1 Painted Lady and a Red Admiral around Brough.