Shelduck shot in Belarus an unexpected first

Earlier in the summer we belatedly received details of a ringed Shelduck from the Belarus Ringing Scheme, and subsequent communication with Highland Ringing Group highlighted that this was rather unusual and very far east. GF78567 was ringed near Castle Stuart, Inverness, in January 2003 and reported shot in autumn 2009 in the Minsk region of Belarus, but the details have only recently been processed. This is by far the furthest east recovery of a Shelduck to/from the UK (see map below from the Online Ringing Report): a British-ringed bird has previously made it to western Poland and birds ringed in in Finland, Estonia and Lithuania have been found in the UK.

Map of Shelduck recoveries to/from the UK

In fact, Shelduck is a pretty unusual bird in Belarus anyway (see the below map from avibirds),so this record is even more surprising.

Thanks to Bob Swann for bringing this to our attention.