Shetland Hudsonian Godwit still present

The Godwit is still present down at Grutness today after a brief spell on the beach at the end of the runway and on the Pool of Virkie

I was surprised that no one else was present when i was down, at least for an hour. Then two locals turned up. If this occurred down south there would have been 100's watching

It was good to see the black underwing, another ID feature of this wader

It flew closer than the previous day and fed quite close not disturbed by a skip lorry

once it started to feed it was difficult to capture its head out of the water

              It has now been present for nine days, having arrived a week  last Sunday. Its has been more mobile recently and today has been seen on Grutness beach and on the Pool of Virkie

Hudsonian Godwit- First for Shetland

This Hudsonian Godwit turned up at Grutness this afternoon and is a first for Shetland. Only the 5th for Scotland

                 The first impressions was this was a small Bar tailed Godwit but looked a bit odd.

Certainly the supercilium was very distinctive and it had dark underwing although it only showed once

       This Godwit only has a restricted breeding range in Alaska and is a very rare vagrant to the uk. 

                It was still present as darkness fell allowing many birders to catch up with  the bird.

I left it asleep on the far bank but later it flew off to the beach before quickly returning to the pool

It was joined by two Turnstone, Dunlin (5) Redshank (3) Oystercatcher (6) Ringed Plover (2)

                      The first British record was at Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve in September 1981