At Long Ayre

I headed out to Tankerness to try and find a rare bird that's been seen there- a red-footed falcon. I got off the bus near the jeweller Sheila Fleet's workshop and had a look around Mill Sand, then the old mill and along a path to the Loch of Tankerness. No luck so I carried on past Smiddyquoy farm and down to Long Ayre, a raised shingle beach on Inganess Bay which encloses a lagoon. Birds there included a pair of shelduck with four young and red-breasted mergansers with eight young. Noisy arctic terns suggested chicks or eggs so I kept clear of where they seemed to be protecting. Also there- about forty dunlin, thirty redshank, ringed plovers and turnstones. The waders are beginning to flock now. Looking back, in the distance I could see flocks of birds in a panic and a falcon swooping around. Too far and brief a view to be sure it was the rarity. More here.