6th October. Buff N Stuff

With the weather suggesting that there would be little chance of anything new, we decided that the best course of action for today would be to pay the Buff stuff at Esha Ness a visit, taking in some likely hotspots along the way.

First port of call was Voe, where the stand of sycamores behind the Pier Head and Voe House are always popular. Standing behind the Pier Head I was distracted by the delicate fragrance of baking. I had been tipped off over the weekend that Voe is the home of Johnson and Wood, bakers of the legendary macaroni pie. Wandering past the bakery I caught the eye of one of the staff and asked where I might purchase said delicacy. Directed towards a discreet door I entered the magical kingdom of the pie bakery. In a rather surreptitious manner a draw was pulled back, revealing a collection of offerings. I opted for a macaroni and a chicken in white sauce. On seeing me walking down the street with my purchases the Llama left the unidentified passerine he had heard and headed for the bakery to break his macaroni pie virginity. To say he was pleased with it would be an understatement.

Love at first bite

The King of Pies wears a crown hiding its secret layer of baked beans below

There were also a few birds at Voe with Spotted and at least a couple of Pied Fly's being the avian highlights.

Next stop was for the Buff-bellied Pipit at Tangwick. A couple of photographers were staked out net to its usual spot but the bird wasn't playing. Wandering a 100 or so yards down the road I found a flock of pipits in a field, one of which was the target bird. Unfortunately I was unable to get anyone over, due too lack of phone signal before it disappeared. We decided to head over to Esha Ness for the Buff-breasted Sand's and return to Tangwick in the hope that it would be back in the field.

At Esha Ness it didn't take long to locate two of the sandpipers and as usual, with this species they were rather tame.


Returning back to Tangwick we delighted with point blank views of the pipit.

A few other likely rare looking sites were checked out on the way home, most of which I'm sure would be overflowing with migrants given the right conditions. As it as the best we could manage was a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Jack Snipe at Isbister.