Recent birding history
Initially
the only birders visiting the island with the purpose of finding rare birds in
the autumn, were my brother, Tim Drew and I.
We
discovered that aside from a handful of previous old records, the potential of the
island for attracting rare birds was unknown. We were always surprised to never
encounter any other birders during our visits, and further investigation
revealed very few, if any, autumn records pertaining to Foula
in the Shetland Bird Reports.
Why
was this the case? We have never really understood.
Some told us it was too far west. Birds from the east would reach mainland
Shetland first and therefore never make landfall on Foula.
Perhaps the potential of getting stranded on the island with little accommodation
to be had, may have put off a few. Whatever the reason
or reasons, we were determined to make a good go of it.
Every
year, from 1992 to 2000, we set out alone to find rarities on Foula, convinced that its isolation and proximity to the
other Shetland Isles, must make it good for vagrants.
(Click here to read some of our accounts of
these years)
In
this isolation, with only ourselves to discover the birds that may have made
landfall, it dawned on us that we were at one of the frontiers (albeit a very
small one) of the birding world. We felt privileged; pioneers; responsible for
documenting, all the birds that we found on Foula.
And
YES – there were many birds to be found! We came across many rare birds in
these early years. It was a delight. There was no competition. No-one to say
what was ‘there’ before you got ‘there’. No jostles, elbows and loud-mouthed
claimants. To relax and indulge in what we enjoyed most in the world, in such a
peaceful, and undisturbed location was heaven. We were
like wide-eyed children with a giant goody bag, pulling out gifts of Pallas’s
Grasshopper Warbler, Lanceolated Warbler,
Black-throated Thrush, Citrine Wagtail, Booted
Warbler, Melodious Warbler, and so many others.
We
find it sad therefore, that many of these early discoveries of rarities did not
find favour with the rarities committee. I say sad – by this I mean sad for the
documented history of birding in
Occasionally
one or two others took up our invite, and joined us, either for a week or two.
During the early years we also met Anthony Mainwood.
Tony, had been to the island a couple of times back in the 1960s (he met his
wife Helen here) and had found Dark-eyed Junco amongst others. He made one or
two visits after this, and then from the early 1990s to the present he has been
conducting ringing studies, exploring bird movements on the island. He has been
the Ranger on the island in recent years and enviably, has the longest Foula bird list. He has been instrumental in many of our
finds and we owe him a great debt of gratitude.
Left to right: Ken Shaw, Russell Wynn, Mark
Wilkinson and Tim Drew
Things
change. The sins of competitiveness, fear and envy have entered this Garden of
Eden! Now we are joined by two dedicated teams of birders. The
Northern Team (The Foula Fellas)
and the Southern Team. My brother and I are in the former, along with
Scottish birders, Mark Wilkinson and Ken Shaw. The southern team consists of
Paul and Neil Wright, Russell Wynn and Kevin Shepherd.
We
have recently employed a rota system of visits to the island to try and ensure
the island is watched over a longer period of time during the autumn, with as
little as possible overlap, and therefore a greater contribution is made
towards recording migration on this wonderful island - this island can only effectively
support a very limited number of birders at any one time.