"I saw many other birds in my month on Fair Isle, far rarer ones: I found a woodchat shrike, a streaky youngster with a grownup hooked bill, that should have been on the other side of Europe; I became adept at listening for the soft calls of common rosefinches, the blandest of birds with the beadiest of eyes; I knew where a buff-breasted sandpiper blown from North America roosted."