African heron lost in Urafirth

AN AFRICAN heron has been discovered beside a Shetland loch, around one thousand miles from where it should be.

The Squacco Heron was spotted by local man Peter Sinclair lurking at the head of Ura Firth on Monday morning.

Excitement grew when he took a photo of the unusual bird and brought it into Lerwick for photographer and bird enthusiast John Coutts to identify.

“Peter Sinclair from Urafirth dropped into my shop yesterday and asked if I could identify a bird photo from the back of his camera,” Mr Coutts said.

“To my amazement I was fairly sure it was a Squacco Heron. He had a view of it popping its head above the vegetation at the water’s edge at the Waddel of Urafirth and another of it in flight.

“I quickly contacted my father Dennis and we went to check it out. Sure enough, there it was sitting in a clump of buttercups just where Peter had seen it earlier.”

Since then twitchers have been streaming up to Urafirth to catch a glimpse of a species that has never been recorded in the isles before and only seen in Scotland a handful of times.

The Squacco Heron is a small heron that winters in Africa and flies to southern Europe to breed and was probably blown up to the northern isles on the recent strong southerly winds.