Orcas and Eels

  A few weeks ago, Catriona took the girls on a walk over to Woodwick beach on the west side. Woodwick is well known for the flotsam and jetsam that gets washed up there and due to there being no nearby road (3/4 hour walk) there's an awful lot of stuff that gets washed up there and left. Below is a picture I took there a couple of years back...................

Woodwick

   As they were looking around in the rubbish thrown up by the tide, Catriona found what at first looked like a large marker pen. On closer inspection it had some writing on it with 'Reward 60 Euros' plus some other info on it. It turned out that it was an eel tag, put on by a group based in Lowestoft UK and has involved releases in Sweden, Ireland and France. This particular one was tagged in Sweden in November 2010 and dropped off the eel on Jan 9th 2011. Inside the tag is data recording electronics that records it's movements etc, incredibly they can even tell if the animal has been eaten ! In the past they have discovered that eels have been eaten by sharks and whales due to the different temperatures that have been recorded - ie a shark has a higher temperature than an eel and a whale has a higher temp' than a shark and this is recorded by the tags electronics. They tag eels from 1/2 metre in length and larger and use either internal ones or (like the one below) ones that drop off after a certain period of time...........

An eel tag

  Catriona is away for three weeks at the moment and so last Friday (15th) I drove her down to Sumburgh airport. We had little time to spend so we took a quick look around up at Sumburgh Head. There were very few Puffins around, possibly due to the windy conditions on the cliff top. I was just about to start the car, when I looked out seaward and thought I saw something, I did, it was four Orcas feeding offshore just to the east about a mile away. We had a quick look before heading back to the airport and dropping Catriona off. I then quickly returned - just in time - to see them heading north east past the head and out of sight........................

Full frame 500+1.4ex - the silver patch on the water to the right is probably fish oil

 

Quite a large crop

  The following day, Unst had its first uncommon warbler of the year turn up at Burrafirth, unfortunately for this bird - a Subalpine Warbler (eastern race) it came to an untimely end by either being hit by a car or flying in to electricity wires. It was - or would have been - depending on how you look at it, the earliest date for the species in Shetland - by one day....................

'Eastern' Subalpine Warbler (ex)

  During the day time when the kids have been at school, I've been doing jobs at home and outside. One important job this week was to get a small trench dug for a power supply for the out buildings - not an easy task given the nature of the ground below - so the electricians could connect it all up. I must say its nice to finally have power for my power tools in the workshop and also lighting at last. Another couple of jobs involves fencing. Part of this is for when I plant the willow cuttings in the next week or so and also for when a crofter brings some sheep in later in the summer. These 'woolly maggots' will eat anything including the saplings, so prevention is better than cure. The grass needs to be cropped as it's now just tussocks - not much good for anything, especially birds.

  Way back in the 80s and early 90s, I used to submit pictures to magazines and also to a photo library and from time to time, I'd get some sales and in return got a few 'beer tokens' for the effort. Nowadays I don't have the time and would happily admit there are many far better photographers than me out there so I now only sell locally. Therefore it's nice when I get contacted in person by someone for a picture to be used in a publication or whatever. This has happened a couple of times recently, one was for two pictures for a book on Puffins and the other was for an identification book on Reed and Bush Warblers. in the Helm series .................

Marsh Warbler, Northdale Unst 2009

........and a picture similar to one due to be used in a book on Puffins................

 Puffin digging a nest burrow, Sumburgh Head

  Migrant birds are still a bit thin on the ground - or in the air for that matter, although in the week I did see my first Arctic Skua of the spring over the house. I did spend an hour this week down at the shore after doing the school run as it was just after a hight tide and I was hoping for a another chance at the R B Mergansers. I did see a couple but I'm still not happy with the distance they were from me - and I was using the bag hide as well. Unfortunately they'll be moving off to breed soon, so this coming week may be my last chance for a while.........

Male Redbreasted Merganser

Below are a few other pics of birds I took this week around Unst.............

 Common Whitethroat at Skaw

 Pinkfooted Goose at Ordaal

  Redwing at Skaw

  One thing that has concerned me (and also my friend Brydon ) is the lack of sightings of otters around Unst. Until today (24th April) I'd not seen an otter around Unst for almost 3 weeks when often I could see one without trying every few days. We saw one today (Sula saw it first) fishing at Haroldswick and it was a most welcome sight. Brydon has been wondering if the spell of bad weather earlier in the year has taken its toll, lets hope not.

   This week has been quite nice as far as the weather goes, quite sunny and at times warm (10 or 12 degrees). The last couple of evenings have been rather nice with relatively little wind and lovely sunsets, many more to come hopefully !..........................

 8.45pm looking west along the shoreline at Ordaal

                      Robbie

A 'big' garden tick

  Well more of the title later. As the kids are off school, it's been a bit of a juggling act keeping them entertained, driving them to and from their friends etc. Last Friday morning (8th April) I was driving Sula south to Uyeasound to her friends house when I saw one of the Rough-legs' soaring over Caldback Hill; we watched it for a short while before heading on. I later returned with the hope of getting a few shots as it was now a gloroius sunny morning - but with a strong northwesterly wind blowing  - the bird was still around, but tending to be much higher than we've usually seen it. I managed a few shots, but even better, I had cracking views in good light as soared back and forth along the hillside above us looking for rabbits (no shortage of them here)................

Rough-legged Buzzard

Sat 9th April

  Today one of Sula's  friends with her mother was due to arrive on Shetland for a short holiday so Catriona and Sula went down to Sumburgh to pick them up. I stayed at home with Rona and had a final clean around in the cottage and Rona made up the beds etc for their stay. Whilst in the cottage givving the windows a clean, I noticed a 'head' swimming along past the jetty at the bottom of the field some hundred yards or so away. It didn't look right for a Common Seal and we don't see many Grey Seals very often over this side of the bay. Grabbing the bins', I then realized that I may have a 'big tick' for the garden list. Getting the camera I quickly went down to the shore to try and get a record shot to confirm my suspicions. By the time I reached the shore however, it had moved further down the sound towards the west end and was now a least 150 yards away. Getting a few pictures, I quickly put the on the pc to confirm the identity  of the animal, this is the first 'record shot' - a big crop............................

 

....... it was a Bearded Seal.

  I relocated it just off of Skiboul  Stores and then phoned Rory and Brydon with my suspicions.  Sure enough it was a Bearded' and it was the same one that was around a couple of weeks ago. It spent quite some time underwater - presumably feeding - showing from time to time and then disappeared completely. Later still, I re-found it on the slipway at the marina (where it was a couple of weeks ago) where we then watched it for quite some time before it was spooked by someone going out in a boat. When it did dive in the water, it didn't swim off straight away, it came across to where we (Rory, Chloe, Rona and I ) were sitting, to give us the once over; at times, being only 10ft away in the water. Sadly however not everyone was happy to see this magnificent creature lying on the slipway. One chap (who originates from some islands a bit further south than Shetland) reckoned we should throw it some fish and put a bullet in its head ! When we said it only eats crabs, his reply was 'tell that to all the other blokes'. It was precisely this sort of misguided ideas that I put up with from my dear old dad years ago. He kept racing pigeons and believed that all birds with hooked beaks were vermin and no amount of convincing would change his mind that Kestrels or Buzzards didn't take pigeons out of the sky. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the 'Beardy'.....................

 This really was a big garden tick !

  As it turned out, the plane was delayed and then, despite it reaching Sumburgh, it had to divert back to Orkney as there was thick fog down at South Mainland and couldn't land (we were in bright sunlight). Ellie and her mum  would then have to take the overnight Northlink Ferry from Orkney to Lerwick, arriving on Sunday morning at 7.30am to be picked up by Catriona and Sula.

Sunday April 10th

  As it was such a nice morning, once our friends had unpacked we decided to take a walk to Hermaness NNR in the north west corner of the island. I love Hermaness and could spend days up there just watching the seabirds. The walk up was a very pleasant one in fairly warm sunshine. There were a few Bonxies around and also a few calling Golden Plover up on the hills. Just as we approached the cliffs, I was about to say to our friends that there probably wouldn't be any Puffins back yet, when Sula - who was a short way in front - shouted out 'Puffins !' They certainly seemed to be a little earlier than last year and there were also quite a few - thankfully.........

Taking a rest

 

You must be joking!

 

'Mug shot'

 

Gannets 'allo-preening' (mutual preening)

Later, on returning back towards home, I stopped off to have a chat with Rory (the Unst ranger) He was watching (and trying to photograph) several Swallows, Sand Martins and a House Martin that were hawking for insects over Haroldswick pools. Always up for a challenge, I stopped to have a go as well, and also soon to be joined by Mike (Pennington). These little birds don't hang about and even with just the 500 on the camera (I sometimes think I should have held on to my 300) it was very difficult to keep them in the frame. Below are a couple of the slightly better ones - an awful lot were binned ! ...............

Monday 11th April

  With the kids back at school (and Sula's friend Ellie going as well) I took Louisa out around the island for a bit of sightseeing. We did briefly see an otter at Buness but unfortunately it saw the car pull up just as I saw it so it didn't hang around. Another nice sighting over at Lamba Ness was the 'blue phase' Fulmar, it seems to have paired up with a 'normal' one. I do hope so as I'd love to see it there on a regular basis and I also wonder what the young will look like.......

                Robbie

  It really does feel like we've 'turned the corner' so to speak, the evenings are drawing out and it's now light until well after 8pm. I've been busy in the cottage for the last few days again and also the kids are on their Easter break at the moment. As well as thinking about jobs that need to be done around the house (inside and out) I'm also starting to think about outside projects etc. I intend to plant some trees for cover  for  migrants but first I've got to sort out the rabbit problem. Other than controlling their numbers, the only other ways are to either put up rabbit proof fencing (expensive and they get in there in the end anyway) or guards around the trees individually (again expensive and when there's heavy snow, they then nip out the tops of the saplings anyway). We intend to have a dog and a cat eventually so maybe they will be a deterrent.

   Due to time restraints, ie not lots of long periods of 'free' time, I seldom do any 'wait and see' or putting out food for birds ( I do still feed the birds in the garden however) and usually photograph things when I'm travelling around the island. Something I have noticed down at the shore at the bottom of our field is that either side of high tide, Red-breasted Mergansers often come in quite close to the shore. So, last Sunday, as the weather was quite nice - although windy - I decided to lie in wait under my bag hide and try and get some shots of these very nervous birds (they are here at any rate). I had to wait an hour before a female came past, but it was much longer before I saw a male. They are starting to pair up at the moment and so I was hoping for several males displaying but today sadly that was not to be..........................

Female Red-breasted Merganser

  Unfortunately by the time the male came past, the tide had dropped a bit and so he was further out than I would have liked..............

Male R-b Merg'

  As I lay there, I had several other close encounters, one was a Redshank that landed 10ft in front of me, it turned and looked at the lens poking out from the bag hide and decided it didn't like it and went off. Not long after, a Little Grebe came past and although it wasn't quite sure what it was on the shore it didn't dive in panic and just swam a little further out....................

Little Grebe

  This bird has been around Balta Sound all winter but has been quite difficult to get close to on a day to day basis. Even when I'm in the car along the shore road, it would dive and then resurface much further out, so on this day I counted myself lucky. It was a lovely couple of hours lying there listening to the cooing of Eiders and wailing of Red-throated Divers out in the bay, but I had work to do. My excuse for being there in the first place was that I was waiting for a coat of paint to dry ! Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Later on in the afternoon it turned cloudy, followed by rain showers in the evening. There hasn't been much in the way of solar activity lately, but I did check the website in the evening and nothing was forecast. Just before bed at around 11.30pm, I did look outside and was very surprised to see a green glow of an aurora over Setters Hill to the north.

                       Robbie

BST ...................

........ Baltasound Shivering Time !

  Well two days after the clocks went forward, we were having sleet/snow showers here on Unst. Within the space of 24 hours the wind direction went almost full circle and has now seemed have settled in a south easterly direction - bring on the migrants !

  After missing the Bearded Seal last Friday morning, I had hoped that it may come back (the one on Yell did for several months) For several days, I drove around past the slipway each time I headed along the shore road or if I was heading to the north, sadly to no avail. On one occasion I did come across a very obliging immature Shag that was drying itself on the breakwater........

  Returning home a little later, I took a short walk down to the shore to scan the coast opposite - in the slim hope that the seal had hauled out somewhere else (which it hadn't) I was startled by a Grey Heron that had been standing in the water down by the jetty which I hadn't seen. I'm always amazed how quick their reaction is, almost as though they are rocket propelled as they leap skyward. All I managed was a couple of shots as it flew off...........

  Yesterday (31st March) as I was driving the girls to crèche, I saw a small bird on a fence post just along the road from the house. As I got nearer, I was really pleased to see that it was a cracking male Wheatear - yes, spring has arrived ! I had arranged to meet Brydon about some work around mid-morning. As the time approached, I got a call; there was a male King Eider in Bluemull Sound showing well from the ferry. If I left straight away, I could catch the 11.20 ferry, enough said. Fifteen minutes later I was on the ferry and heading off from Belmont. Sure enough there it was, a male (probably the Uyeasound one) quite close to the boat. As we passed, the boat slowed for those interested, to get a good look. I managed some shots but it was nice to see as we were even closer than at Uyeasound the other week............

  This morning (1st April), after a cracking sunrise  ('red sky in the morning, shepherds warning' and all that stufff is true, it rained later) I did some more painting in the cottage - almost there - and then called over to a mate of mine for a while. On telling him about the eider, he jumped at the suggestion of going over on the ferry to take a look (fortunately the ferry is free) We missed the bird on the way out, but on the return had good views - also of it in flight....................

.......almost, but not quite there :(

  Returning home, we had some people coming to lunch who we'd never met or didn't even know - I won't bother to explain. While sitting having our meal, I was looking out at the wild rose bushes in the garden not far from the living room window, when something caught my eye. There was definitely a small bird moving around in there but I couldn't catch up with it with the bino's. Finally later on, I saw it again and confirmed it to be a Chiffchaff, the first for spring for Unst.

                      Robbie