Lesser Florican - August 2023

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Thursday 28 February 2013

Shetland Trip 25-27th Feb

With negative Grosbeak news on the 23rd onwards, and having already booked the flights to Aberdeen, it was worth a go just incase. On the 25th, I picked up Jake and we met John Cooper in Burgess Hill. We arrived at Gatwick pretty early (thanks David for the lift) and a couple of hours later we landed in Aberdeen. With 10 hours to waste, we hired a car and drove north visiting several sites.

First site was Rattray Head where the Desert Wheatears showed well, and offshore were Eider, Long-tailed Ducks and a Red-throated Diver. At a nearby loch were Whooper Swans and Goldeneye.

St. Combs was nice but all the Eider were a long way out, and with no scope between us, spotting the King Eider was tricky, so we didn't hang around. Strathbeg and Ythan were also visited with just the usual species being seen.



Desert Wheatear

We arrived in Aberdeen Harbour, had dinner and caught the overnight North Link ferry to Lerwick. A pretty uneventful crossing, and we all slept well on the floor with hard cushions to lay on.

26th - We picked up our hire car and headed straight for Collafirth. We met Hugh Harrop and Mark Golley there as well and we set about searching the pine plantations but it was soon evident that the Pine Grosbeak was not present. We stayed til midday, but gave up and headed for Scalloway where the Ring-billed Gull showed well, and at Lerwick Harbour were 2 Glaucous Gull, Black Guillemots, Long-tailed Ducks etc. After some Fish and Chips, we caught the ferry back to Aberdeen where the next morning we caught an early flight back to Gatwick. Dip over!!

 
 Ring-billed Gull
 


Glaucous Gull and Long-tailed Ducks