Thursday 5 May 2016

White-billed Diver after 15 attempts......

Its been a long road, over two years of searching, 3 different birds, around 15 failed twitches and a lot of man hours later I have finally managed to hunt down and see a White-billed Diver.

A White-billed Diver has been in Basta Voe, Yell for over two weeks now, originally found by Brydon Thomason (probably wintering in the area) and I dipped it two weeks ago but I decided today that I'd head up and try find it after my English exam since it had been seen yesterday.
I spent an hour walking along the south side of Basta Voe and had just given up hope by the time I'd gotten to the bottom of the Basta road.
But I decided I'd give it one last scan because I'd covered a large area before I'd done the last one, I raised my bins and after a couple of seconds I spotted this Diver and it flapped its wings and boy it was big! huge! I had a good feeling this was it and quickly set up the scope but it was too windy so I rattled off a few shots and quickly looked at them and there she was, all beautiful with its huge big bill and lighter head.
White-billed Diver! I actually shouted with joy I was so pleased, I've tried so hard to get one of these and they've always eluded me so its great to get one of the home island.

White-billed Diver in all its glory!

Number 252 for Shetland and 124 on the yearlist and my most wanted specie of the year, I got some good views in the scope before it just disappeared, and with that I left.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on finally nailing one down! I can only dream of seeing a White-billed Diver this far south on Wirral

    ReplyDelete