Our birding week on Shetland was gradually grinding to a halt by Friday – our last day on the islands before catching the overnight ferry to Aberdeen. The winds continued to come from the north and there were persistent pulses of heavy rain. We started the day back on Mossy Hill – no sign of the Lapland Bunting but we did find a few Snow Bunting. A tour of the western side of Mainland produced very little, except a nice coffee and cake stop at The Cornerstone cafe in Scalloway. We were heading towards Lerwick for an afternoon of sight-seeing when the mega alert sounded – ‘White-winged Scoter – Wadbister Voe’! We were only just down the road so it would have been rude not to go for it. We pulled up on the quayside and started scanning the Eider flock. A solitary scoter was occasionally visible as it worked its way through the ribbon of birds. This was the bird – apparently present for the past two weeks, but (understandably) identified as a Velvet Scoter. It took closer views and a good deal of experience by AR & LMCJ to re-make it into the much rarer American version. We boarded the boat very happy birders, after a week of some excellent birds, a list of 120 species and a much hoped for ‘lifer’! We will be back.