Greylags

Mixed fortunes today. I went to Burray to try and see the Siberian stonechat and got a couple of stonechats at the site- but not the Siberian variety (which I confirmed only on looking at photos later). Then heard of a hoope near the Hope- so went there and- no Hoop in the Hope. There were lots of redwings, some fieldfares, Slavonian grebes, a buzzard mobbed by starlings and lapwings, 500 or more golden plover. Then I went along to try for the smew at Loch Echna and thought it gone until it was pointed out by a passing Tim Dean. There were 20+ long-tailed duck and 90+ red-breasted merganser on the bay there.