'Hotter and otter'

  Last Tuesday (17th April), I was heading along the shore-road on my way to do a small job at Burrafirth, when I noticed two Ravens behaving strangely by one of the roadside burns that leads in to Balta Sound. Getting to the small bridge I saw what the birds were being anxious about - an otter drying itself on the bank of the burn. Driving on past, I turned the car around so it was on my side of the car and coasted to a halt on the bridge. Fortunately it didn't hear or see me and carried on drying itself. Unfortunately as is often the case when shooting from a car, often, there is a fence to shoot through - as there was in this case. After taking a number of pictures through the wire (and getting an out of focus strand of wire through the image) I decided to try and move slightly for a better angle. This was a bad move as it obviously heard the car and decided to head back in to the sea - which meant it would pass right underneath the bridge I was on. It didn't panic, but just crept/swam slowly down through the shallow stream and under the bridge and out of sight. One thing I did notice about this otter that will be useful and that is it has one canine tooth missing, useful for future identification. Fortunately on this occasion there were no cars using the road for the few minutes I was parked as I would have had to of driven off......................

  A few days later, I was over at the community skip at Haroldswick when I decided to have a look at some near-by freshwater pools for migrants. As I coasted to a halt in to the passing place (plenty of room for two other cars to pass) I saw an otter in the pool heading for the bank. Quickly grabbing a shot, it climbed out of the water and in to the bushes. I could hear it - and occasionally got a glimpse of it - as it moved around inside and then it went quiet. Now I know that otters will rest for a while during the time it spends fishing - half an hour rest, fishing for half an hour etc etc - so I decided to wait for a while. Finally, it had just got to the 'I'll give ten more minutes' situation, when I heard it stirring. It then emerged from the bushes just a few yards away, oblivious to either me or the car and re-entered the water and carried on fishing................

Shame about the vegetation - still very nice to see though (all full frame)

  I spent most of yesterday afternoon (21st April) at home and in the late afternoon, I noticed a seal had hauled out on the rocks down at the shore. As I'd not see one haul out here before, I decided to get some 'record' shots. Carefully making my way down, I crawled up on to the shingle bank and got some photographs...................

   Whilst watching the seal, I noticed an otter feeding along the shore to my left and was working its way towards me through the wracks of seaweed and being very successful in catching small Butterfish.

 
  By now the seal had also seen the otter and was watching it intently - in all of my previous sightings involving otters and seals, the otter has always steered well clear of a seal. Looking at the direction the otter was travelling, it would surely either pass very close to the seal or change direction and head out in to the sound. What happened next was something I wasn't expecting. The otter deliberately swam straight up to where the seal was lying and seemed to want to have a good look - from around 3-4ft away. The seal stayed put and the otter didn't seem phased by the relatively large animal staring down at it. Several times the otter dived and when it did, the seal almost looked puzzled as to where it had gone. When the otter re-surfaced, the seal would move around on the rock to have a look. In all, I think this lasted for several minutes - although it seemed like ages....................

As the otter continued to fish a little further on to my right, I noticed a rabbit on an exposed seaweed cover rock, halfway between the seal and the otter. I've no idea where it appeared from as I didn't see it get there - maybe it had been hiding in the seaweed ? ................

 

  I don't know how (the wind was in the rabbits favour), but the otter then swam back along the shore some twenty feet, scenting the air from time to time and somehow knew there was a meal there. It went around the back of the rock and came up through the seaweed in an attempt to catch the rabbit - the rabbit however, was too quick and got away....................

  The otter then carried on along the shore, catching fish on every other dive.

  At lunchtime today (22nd) we all decided to go to Haroldswick for a bite to eat at the recently re-opened 'Northern Lights' restaurant (a lovely view out over the bay). Pulling up outside, Rona headed off from the car and then stopped and shouted (well not quite a shout) 'Look, there's an otter!'. Sure enough, led in the sun against a garden wall only 20ft from the road, was a sleeping otter. I don't know if it'd had one too many the night before, but it was in no hurry to move. I did wonder if it was either sick or injured, but when it did move away, there was no obvious signs and it disappeared completely........

 Now, I don't go out much deliberately looking for otters very often, but for chance encounters this past week has been exceptional - it's not like this every week, unfortunately.

  And as to the 'Hotter'? Well this week it has started to get hotter - there have been loads of migrants around. On Shetland as a whole, there have been several hundred Robins recorded along with lots of Chiffchaffs and other small migrants all due to the recent easterly and south easterly winds. Yesterday I had a nice Green Sandpiper at Lamba Ness and today I found a male Garganey at Haroldswick.

     Robbie

Big rollers

  It's still not making up its mind - the weather that is. It's been another week of '4 seasons in one day' - or even an hour. Most of the time however, it's been quite cool with a north easterly blowing. With this in mind, I took a look up at Lamba Ness during the week. There were some pretty big rollers coming in, the height of which I can only guess at being well over 20-25ft............

  Considering a Gannets wingspan can reach up to 5ft wide, that's some big splash!

  I started feeding the birds in the garden over 12 months ago and am very pleased with the bird numbers I get daily (but not number of species). Most days now I get 20 or more House Sparrows feeding and generally just sitting about. They bred in the roof of the cottage last year and several have now started going under the tiles of the main house - although I'll have to put up nest boxes once the roof has been re-tiled. The sound of them sitting about chirping takes me back to my childhood when back south, we had dozens in the small coppice at the bottom of the garden, feeding in a chicken run. When I go out to top up the feeder and to put some seed on the ground for the Rock Doves, they often just fly a few feet in to the small (6ft) Sycamore bush and wait for me to return to the house. Almost daily now, I see them bathing in any small pool of water on the drive, having a good chatter as they do so..............

Bath Time

  Another common sight (unfortunately) is seeing Hedgehogs that have been run over by cars. Judging by the numbers, I can only assume Hedgehogs are extremely numerous here on Unst. Only the other day I found one at Skaw out foraging in broad daylight which I took to be one that had recently come out of hibernation - due to how vigorously it was foraging and feeding...........

  Mid-week, I noticed on Spacew.com that there was an increase in auroral activity. Checking the first night, it produced a faint glow to the north through the clouds, but it was very windy from the north east. The following evening it was better but due to the wind direction, it made taking any pictures very difficult so I had to use one of the sheds as a wind break, not ideal.............

Last one of the season ?

  Just before midnight I headed up north to get away from the bright lights of town, it was still windy, but I thought I'd take a look anyway. By the time I reached Lamba Ness it had all but gone, time for my bed I think.

  One species I have been trying to get some half decent pictures of is Redbreasted Merganser. I was down in Uyeasound the other day and was fortunate to watch a pair at close range for a while by the old pier. As seems to be the norm' at the moment, the sky was grey and 'flat', not the best light for a bird on the water. Still a nice bird to see though..............

Male Red-breasted Merganser

  Yesterday (15thApril) we had a snow shower fairly early in the morning, so on looking out at 7.30am, I thought 'right, Hermaness it is then'. So leaving home at 8am, I set off and was up to the cliffs by 9am. The wind was now coming from the north and by heck was it cold. I went around the south side of the southern Gannetry (if that makes sense) and watched them for quite a while. There are now two nest sites fairly close to the top which gives a better angle, so hopefully when I'm there in better light I will get some nice head shots......................

  Shortly after these were taken, the sky darkened even more and it started to snow. Not very heavily at first but before long it was virtually a white-out. By this time, I'd gone back to start heading home which I now regret as in no time at all (less than 3/4hr) there was 2" of lying snow which would have made for some interesting shots. Halfway along the clifftop, I stopped to try and photograph a pair of Fulmars sitting on a ledge. In less than a couple of minutes, both me, my camera bag and tripod were covered in a thick layer of snow - and I don't think the birds knew what to make of it..................

  On Sunday morning (15th April), I had to head down to Lerwick to meet Catriona and the girls from the Northlink ferry. It meant getting the 7.05 ferry from Unst which would enable me to arrive in Lerwick by around 9.30am. There was a little snow around but nothing to speak of on the road - until I got to Yell that is. From Gutcher in the north to Ulsta in the south of the island, there was snow on the road (which had been salted but before the snow had fallen). I was now wishing I'd taken the 4x4 as it wasn't particularly nice driving and a max speed limit of 40mph (any faster and I'd have been off the road) meant I was concerned I'd miss the next ferry (which thankfully I didn't). Picking the family up at 9.30, it was then off to Sumburgh so Catriona could catch a plane to Geneva for 3 days. We did go up to the head (hoping to see the early Puffins) but unfortunately the birds had gone back to sea again - no doubt the snowfall had something to do with that.

  Saying our goodbyes to Catriona; Sula, Rona and I headed back north only stopping off briefly at Mossbank to take a look at the 'Solitaire' - a rather large pipe laying ship,  in fact it's the largest of its kind in the world. It's laying pipe to connect up to pipe from a North Sea gas pipeline which will come ashore near Mossbank and then travel a relatively short distance to the new Total gas terminal at Sullom Voe. Rather than type out all of the facts here, if you are interested you can look here ...................

'The Solitaire'

  The girls decided to go swimming with a friend this afternoon (16th) as it was the last day before school starts. I took advantage of this and headed up to Lamba Ness to look for the 'Blue' phase Fulmar which has returned for the 4th season (assuming it is the same one - it is on the same ledge) For the 2nd year running, it seems to have a mate, maybe this year they'll breed ?.........

'Blue' phase Fulmar

      Robbie

100 'not out' !

  Firstly sorry for the late update, I had meant to do it last week but as I was busy most evenings (sampling some fine whisky) and then a virus/bug on the pc meant I couldn't get online. Something had got in to the program that runs the wireless side of things and had basically turned off the connection and no amount of effort would re-start it. However, it now seems to have been sorted by my antivirus scans - fingers crossed.

  Over the last week or ten days, I've had one or two days (or part days) out either on my own or with 'Dr Phil' - who left yesterday (9th April) and I hope, has a few good memories of staying with us and working on Unst for two weeks. The family have been away since the 30th March (and still are until Sunday) on a trip south to see friends and relations so I've been 'home alone' for quite a lot of the time which did seem strange - although the cats were here (and Phil).

  We've had a couple of days during the last week or so when there's been a fall of snow - not much and it didn't last - but it did get me to make 3 visits to Hermaness in succession to the gannets. The last visit was the best with a good covering but by lunchtime it had all melted. I set off from home at around 7am and was up at the cliffs by around 8am. It felt really cold in the wind and my guess was the temperature was somewhere around -5c but could easily have been less with the windchill factor. A few shots from the morning............

  Despite the weather, it seems like spring is finally here as some of the summer migrants are starting to arrive. The first Puffins have arrived down at Sumburgh, there have been Bonxies on Yell and I had my first Wheatear at Lamba Ness this morning (10th April).


  Well, as to the title of this blog. This afternoon I reached 100 species seen in, over or from Ordaal - all since Feb 2011. Back south in the North Cotswolds it took me over 40 years to get to 107. The bird that took the list to this milestone ? A rather nice male Gadwall down on the flood water just along the shoreline. Gadwall aren't particularly common birds in Shetland so it was nice to get one here.

  Robbie