East and West, bonking bonxies

 No blog yesterday as we went to a cheesy Eurovision party last night which was good fun. So, today  is 2 days worth.

We left early yesterday morning to head to Quendale to see if the Western Sub alpine Warbler was still there. Enroute, news broke of an Eastern Sub Alpine in Lerwick.  Although Jill needed Western for her life list, Eastern is actually rarer so we stopped for a look. It showed brilliantly even hopping right to the car for Rob to see. He has been struggling to stand this week so that was perfect.

Then it was down to Quendale gor the Western. This took a while as it was very mobile and feeding on the ground. Luckily it hopped up on to fences occasionally.

Good to see the two on the same day. It cements the identification.

 Off to Grutness and Sumburgh next. Lots if birds about everywhere so it was hard to choose where to go but it was the right call as there was a not so Common, Common Sandpiper at Grutness.

We had booked for a meal in Lerwick so slowly headed North picking up a few bits as we went.

Pleased to know that Bonxies are doing OK on the procreation front after avian flu.

It was a grand evening taking the Michael out of Eurovision and good to hear from Sam and Ro who were in Liverpool for it.

Today we took it easy in the morning with Jill doing some tidying and a bit of work on the porch ceiling. Mid afternoon the weather perked up so we did some patch birding and went to Sandness. Within minutes of getting to Norby Loch Rob found a lovely drake Garganey so we put the news out.

Jill wanted to ' borrow' the cutest lamb on the way home.

The sun came  out in full so we diverted to Da Gairden on the way. It was a good choice. Nice Willow Warbler and lots of Rhodedendrons and other flowers.

What an excellent couple of days.