I'd rather have a white one please...

I rarely go out without the scope but yesterday afternoon I was feeling lazy, and it was windy so keeping it still here would be a challenge, so off I set... First up, behaviour of other species indicated there was a raptor about. After a lot of scanning about I was rewarded with a pretty brief view of a dyke hopping large falcon, well very large. Big Peregrine was my thought but... Next it was in the air scrapping with a Peregrine, what I guessed in comparing them was a small male. This time I got a bit of a longer view and the thought of Gyr did go through my head but... In the end I just passed it off but one or two things did bother me about the id. So when I bumped in to my neighbour by his Loch of Bosquoy house late this afternoon and he said he'd had prolonged and close views of a dark phase Gyr hunting yesterday afternoon I was a tad jealous. Trouble with dark phase birds is that I think they are almost impossible to get accepted as the falconers hybrid issue comes in to play. No doubt this was the real deal. Whatever, great bird, even my brief views were of quite a beast. Story wasn't over though as after getting home just in front of the rain this afternoon, sat drinking tea and Louise saw a very large falcon with contrast between the underwing coverts (dark) and the primaries (pale) scoot over our big sycamore and into the distance.

When I finally got to The Shunan yesterday afternoon with no scope and wanting to check if the Blue-winged Teal was still there I just blasted off a pile of photos.

 There's the B-wTeal on the right of the picture

However, this is a tad more problematic, adult Iceland maybe, opinions welcome.

I'll take the scope in future.

Seawatch yesterday produced Fulmars going 3,000 an hour and two Blues with them, and not much else but Guillemot was a Patchwork tick.  The gull scrum produced nothing of note, but always an interesting moment. 

 A very blustery walk around the Links revealed  two Reed Buntings, tricky to get there.

 A few minutes later it looked like this

Late afternoon, end of the telescopeless walk around

Today both the Blue-winged Teal and the Green-winged were in view, there was a Pied Wagtail and a drake Goosander at Bosquoy, early Oystercatcher and drake Shelduck on The Shunan and Louise finished the day off with a brief view of the Gyr (thing) from the kitchen window.

Oh, nice boat at Bosquoy...

Patchwork running totals for 2015
Old Nisthouse - 56 species   FootIt - 51 (66)    Comparitive PWC 2014 - 117 (169 Pts)

Palace, Birsay - 38 species - Comparitive PWC 2013 - 93 (121 Pts)