The temperature here in Shetland has gone steadily down during the week. Yesterday it was a high of 6 deg but, with the wind chill, it felt like little above freezing. Our final stop in the afternoon, on top of Mossy Hill, was baltic – I wished I’d have worn my gloves. The day started at our local hot spot in Hoswick village. In the garden below the carpark there was a nice Siberian Chiffchaff and an unusually pale Lesser Whitethroat. Turns out that it was probably of the blythii race. Our next stop, at Channerwick Bay, arguably produced the best bird of the day – a well-marked Bluethroat. We managed to pick up a couple more trip ticks during the day and were just relaxing with a cuppa when a message came out about a Cattle Egret – just down the road at Sandwick. We just managed to catch up with it in the failing evening light. Not a bad day – all things considered. But, without fully realising it, the real star of the show was a Blue Tit which I’d spotted earlier in the day flying out of cover from Swinister Burn and over the nearby gardens. We put the message out on the ‘Common birds’ WhatsApp but that was later upgraded to ‘scarce’ and the bird drew a steady trickle of observers – being seen again three hours later.