Olive-backed Pipit, Lerwick 3rd October 2015

Saturday with no transport, since Dave was now staying at Toab, I decided to catch the bus into Lerwick & try again for an Olive-backed Pipit which had turned up the day before. We'd been at Wester Quarff watching a Red-brested Flyctchear when news broke. I didn't have any info, so we followed the folks that did know where to go, into Lerwick. The bird had been seen in gardens around the Gilbertson Park area, but wasn't on view whilst we were on site.

So, misreading the bus timetable I decided to hitch into Lerwick. I hadn't done any hitching for about 35 years, but got a ride no problem & being only a short walk from where I was dropped off near Tesco's to the area took only a few minutes. I'd been on site for around fifteen minutes when the call went up just a few yards from where I was standing on the edge of Gilbertson Park. One birder went round to the other side of a small bunch of Willows on the edge of the park & signalled he could see the bird. We all then went through the gate & arced around the Willows. Good views were obtained as the bird moved into the gaps between the trees right at the back at the base of the wall. Photo by Peter Garrity.

OBP twitch in Lerwick