Wind, Waves and Birds

Saturday the 1st of February

So after all this terrible strong winds and rain, the weather seemed to let up for a while this morning and my Stepdad, my younger brother Riley and myself headed out to look at the waves.

Our first stop was Vatster (just south of Mid Yell) and when we got there, we could see how the waves had eroded away some of the beach.

I like the markings below this sheep's eyes, make's it look like it's ready for a battle

 Starling on the back of a sheep

On the bird side of things, I spotted fifteen Turnstones and three Ringed Plovers.

We left Vaster and went to Aywick, the sea there was white and among the the waves were lots of gulls.

While we were watching the waves I spotted four geese flyover but I couldn't get a positive ID on them.

The sea at Aywick

We checked a few other places along the way and then we got into Burravoe, as we were nearing the western end of the Loch of Littlesetter (pronounced Littlester) we saw a light grey goose, I immediately knew it was a Barnacle Goose and we pulled up alongside it so I could get a few photos.

It was a nice bird and my first of the year

A black and white shot of my Barnie

The Barnacle Goose wandered to the far side of the park so we left it and headed off to look for some Bean  Geese and a White-fronted Goose which Dougie Preston had found earlier in the week.
We got to the Hamnavoe Kirk and we saw the six Tundra Bean Geese with the European White-fronted Goose and some Greylags (including one domesticated male) right next to the road in a muddy park, I got my camera out but the birds had already took off so I tried to get a flight shot.

Greylag, Tundra Bean, European White-fronted and a massive domesticated Greylag Goose in flight

We headed off to find some more Geese and we found twenty more Greylags and my first Golden Plover of the year.

The view of Ulsta and the Mainland

So the day ended with three more birds to my Yell list (Barnacle, European White-fronted and Tundra Bean Goose) and three more birds to my year list (Barnacle and European White-fronted Goose and Golden Plover).