Thursday, January 31, 2013

Sunday 27th January UHA part3

Today's bird of the day was Long-eared Owl! Brilliant views as it flew out of its roosting site flew around settled on a fence post looked at our group carefully watched us - while the photographers took their shots - I was so happy watching. (No I had deliberately left the camera in the minibus - I never thought we would get such good views! Fortunately Mark will post me one of his shots which are great- I expect to edit this post when I get the photo!) We saw lots of birds today - Eiders to add to yesterdays list as well as most of the birds I had seen yesterday. A Cormorant at the Shetland Catch site in Lerwick was the only one of the trip. We went to see if the RBG was about but he didn't show today - we had 3 trips there between us and a local birder was there for a long time this afternoon. Seals came to see us at Lerwick! Today had great views of Ravens - oh yes a flock of Jackdaws - a very rare bird for Shetland! and the Hoodies were lurking about..... I also saw a Great Tit today! This is a very rare bird for Shetland and goes on my mainland list only ever having seen one before on Fair Isle in October 2012! Shelducks, Goosanders, Goldeneye and finally a GBBG! Grey Heron , Tufted Duck and an overwintering female Scaup looking very fine and another scarce bird for Shetland a pair of Gadwall - threw themselves on my Shetland life list!Slav Grebe, Great Northern Diver, Red-breasted Mergansers and Kittiwake plus Wigeon were all added today! We also saw a Mountain Hare or two in the scope and long distance but as they are white and the background mainly brown do stand out when they show! Otters did not play fair today and hid from us.....not many pics taken by me today think I remember it rained a lot and winded a lot! But Eiders ere displaying in Lerwick Harbour so I got some distant shots.

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