Lifer: Green-winged Teal & other birds

So this weekend was a slow birding weekend with not much around besides all the perrie fluff balls also known as chicks running about with their Mams & Dads.

Saturday the 8th

When I was helping my Dad with his sheep,  He spotted a pair of Shalders 

or Oystercatchers with some young.

Here is one of the two babies, there might 

of been three but we weren't sure

A pair of Collard Doves sitting on a lum (or chimney)

A male House Sparrow having a dust bath

An adult Shalder or Oystercatcher

Also the same day my grandad Tommy came in to Lerwick to do some shopping,

while he was in the toon he was able to get some photos of birds 

Two Shelducks at Seafield 

(Photo by Tommy Tyler)

Common Gull 

(Photo by Tommy Tyler)

Sunday the 9th

While my Dad was working I took a walk around the Clickimin Loch for some birds

But instead I wandered over to Helendale and

got a picture of these Bluebells

and what I think is a male Blackcap

Around the North end of the loch I found the 

four partially domesticated Mallards which I 

sometimes feed

three of them are males and one is a female

The Mammy deuk as I call her

A Herring Gull

A slightly out of focus Tirrick or Arctic Tern

A Tirrick makes a splash

At around one o'clock I checked the Nature Shetland website for

any updates for some birds, on their Facebook page I noticed that 

someone had seen a Green-winged Teal up near Ollaberry in the North Mainland, 

So after I phoned my grandad Tommy we went to see it an hour later.

After 15 minutes of birdwatching on the top of a small hill looking out over a small marshy loch

all we could see was these two male Teal sitting in some grass.

After one of the Teal sat up and showed a very prominent white stripe going down 

its breast towards it feet (a key way to Identify Green-winged Teals),

I immediately said to Tommy that it was the Green-winged Teal we were looking 

at, we both started taking photos which came out pretty blurry

My record shot of the Green-winged Teal a 

first for me and Tommy too

Tommy's record shot of the Green-winged Teal

and its Teal friend on the left

(Photo by Tommy Tyler)