First taste of winter

   After the very, very wet Up Helly Aa night, it was almost a relief to have a forecast of snow for Saturday/Sunday. I'd already said if we did have any, then I'd head back off over to Hermaness and try and get the Gannets in snow. During Saturday evening, I could hear the snow on the windows and so from time to time I checked outside. During one of these times, I noticed a definate glow to the north, was I seeing things? - surely it can't be an aurora as there wasn't a forecast for one. Unfortunately I seemed to have missed the peak at around 10pm on Saturday evening, but I kept checking for a clear sky and around 3am, I could see the glow to the north of Balta Sound. Unfortunately, by the time I'd got dressed and got the gear set up outside, it had started to fade. Another problem was that as the wind was blowing quite strong from the north. I couldn't shelter the camera and tripod from the gusts of wind which resulted in most of the images being blurred - a 30 second exposure time and a force 6 wind doesn't bode well for sharp pictures. If it had of been brighter it would have been nice as we had snow on the ground.................

....... I wish someone would turn the lights out !

  Sunday morning and we had snow - or rather a covering of it. Despite the thermometer only reading minus 2, with the wind chill it was more like -6 or 8 - this caused my car door to freeze up for the first time in ages.

  To this 'southern softie', it really did feel cold and instead of a gentle walk up to Hermaness,  it felt like I was back in the days when my friends and I used to go to the Highland mountains in winter and be quite happy in temperatures of minus 15 or so - and camp on occasions. Not long after leaving the car, I had a very brief view of the Rough-leg' as it flew north along the cliff top of the west side of Burrafirth. I know you should always 'expect the unexpected', but on this occasion I hadn't got the camera out and despite looking I didn't see it again. In a recent post I mentioned the relatively new board walk - here - well, when they designed it, they obviously hadn't thought it would get used much in the winter. All I can say is that it's lethal to walk on when its icy. After a couple of too close an inspection of the frozen moss and grass, I decided not to use it...................

Hermaness can be a bleak place in winter

A snow shower approaches Muckle Flugga

 

  As you can see from the picture above, there was very little snow on the cliffs and what Gannets were around on the cliffs, were keeping their heads well down in the rather strong, cold wind. Despite the cold wind it was a good walk and one I hope to do many times this coming spring and summer.............

 

  I've said it numerous times before, one of the great things about being here (like many places) is that you never know what you might come across when you're out and about. One place I do go to frequently is the headland at Lamba Ness. Often its just passing Gannets or Fulmars, Turnstones feeding in the clifftop turf or flocks of Starlings that I see; but, I always think I could see something different. In the past that has been Orcas or Minke Whales or a scarce bird or two. Earlier today just after I'd done a quick bit of work, I had the same thought going through my head as I walked around the headland. I then noticed a strip of sheep's wool right at the edge of the cliff where I know the turf is undercut and is certainly not a place to walk..........

 

 

  Going around to another piece of the cliff to get another look (thinking a sheep had gone over) I then saw something down below in the water. My first reaction was 'it's a sheep' but on closer inspection with my binoculars, I could see it was a fairly large dead fish. It was wider than it was long and had a very large mouth. Not knowing my sea fish, I took some photos and on checking them at home it looks to me like an Angler Fish (also called Monk Fish) - not as common around Shetland as they once were apparently  - according to the internet..............

  Apart from the sad people that sit in front of a pc and create computer viruses, one other group or type that really annoys me are the ones that copy or 'cut and paste' articles from the net and pass it off as theirs. This maybe from blogs or forums or even bird club newsletters etc. A bird club I belong to down south once had some of its sitings and articles almost pasted word for word in to another 'local' newsletter without even an acknowledgement or credit. A while ago, I came across some of my pictures (and article) that I'd done for a couple friends blog that had been copied on to another website again passing it off as his. On investigation by Martin and Dave, this guy had been ripping off loads of their stuff - here. It seems that this sort of thing has now progressed to Facebook, I heard only yesterday of a person gleaning (copying ?) wildlife sightings and information from one wildlife Facebook page and putting it up on another with no credit - which is certainly different from 'sharing' on FB. I don't know how the guy sleeps at night.

        Robbie