It's been another busy week again with visitors and also the final week of the Unst Fest. Last Tuesday I had a trip down to Lerwick for an X-ray on my knee and also to do a few shopping chores; I also had to go down to the airport to pick up Stuart and Lyn (my brother-in-law and sister in law). However, early afternoon, I got a message to say their plane from the Isle of Man had been cancelled due to fog down there. Oh well, back down again tomorrow then. One other good result for the day (as well as paying for the roof tiles) was that I bought a new pc. All I can say is that it is 'turbo charged' compared to my other one - although Windows 7 is taking a bit of getting used to. The big job now is copying a lot of the stuff across or backing files up to an external hard drive. My old pc was getting beyond a joke, sometimes it would take an hour for it to load after a number of re-starts etc and sometimes it would take a minute or more to load one raw file.

  So, the following day, I set off again to the airport and thankfully this time they did arrive. The weather here was great and we even got to see an otter at Toft. The evening was spent in the Baltasound village hall listening to live music - which was brilliant by the way. Over the next few days, we had time out around the island in what was mostly, fine and sunny weather.

  I was also lucky to get some time out on my own and also a trip out with Brydon around Muckle Flugga one evening (27th) on the 'Julie Rose'. When he called, it looked like it was going to be a good sunset;  however, by the time we got out there, it had clouded in a little but all the same just being around the Flugga at sunset was enough in itself. I'm sure we all have particular memories from each year and that evening will be one of them for this year. Just the light on the rocks, the hundreds of swirling gannets and also the noise was enough ! The last time I was out there with Brydon, I took some shots of him 'in action' so to speak and one of the shots was recently used in the latest RSPBs 'Birds' magazine advertizing Paramo clothing. So a big 'thanks' to Brydon and the crew of the  'Julie Rose' Below are just a few pics from then.....

   Friday 27th was as virtually everyone will have known (even if they aren't interested - the media sees to that),  the day of the opening ceremony for the London Olympics; here on Unst, some of the comunity was taking part too. At 12 minutes past 8 in the morning, bells would ring out throughout the country and here on Unst it was going to be at the beach at Skaw. We arrived in rather damp conditions to see around 30 folk plus Radio Shetland and Shetland Arts who were going to record the event for radio and possibly television. Finally the count down and then several minutes of bell ringing with folk using all kinds of bells, led by (appropriately enough) Belle Spence.............

The Unst ringers  (Belle Spence is in white)

.....the following day was far nicer weather

  Later that day I went off up to Hermaness for a sunset. I didn't have anything particular in mind but if the opportunity arose then I did want to get a picture of the setting sun shining on a Gannet. At the top of the boardwalk by the cliffs were a couple of guys lying in wait for (I assume) Puffins so I headed off south to Saito and the Gannetry. Further along the cliffs was a tripod and camera bag on the cliff top with no owner in sight. I don't know why but in situations like this I always think the worst and that maybe someone had slipped. Fortunately, a short while later the owner appeared having been led down further along the cliffs photographing Puffins with a wide angle. Getting to the spot I wanted to be at, there were a few Gannets high up which was great. The sun was dipping fast but I had just enough time to get some pictures.....

Dunlin at Hermaness

  Once the sun had gone down, I returned back along the cliff top past the photographer who was also packing up. Introducing ourselves, it turned out he was Danny Green, a well known and successful wildlife photographer.

  One thing that I have mentioned before, is that of wool getting entangled around birds feet.  For some reason, I seem to have seen more of it this summer than previous ones. It is usually Lapwings, Curlews and Oystercatchers etc (ie waders) but also occasionally gulls. This is obviously due to their feeding methods - foraging in grass fields where there is also sheep. During the last week I've seen 4 or 5 birds with varying amounts of wool around their legs. One bird was a young Oystercatcher over at Lamba Ness which hadn't long started to fly. I noticed it limping and then saw the wool around one of its ankles. I pursued it and after several short flights it became tired and I managed to dive and catch it before it found refuge in some stinging nettles. It had cut into the leg quite some way, but wasn't bleeding and looked quiet 'clean'. It took at least 5 minutes to carefully remove the strands of wool and apart from the quite deep mark, the bird was ok - but it still wasn't grateful as it constantly tried to peck me. I did think at the time that if I was going to either kill or eat it (not that I'd have done that) I'd have done it within seconds, not held it in my hand for such a long time - but the bird obviously didn't know that !................

...after the 'operation'

  and an adult that would be impossible to catch.................

  When ever I go across Bluemull Sound on the ferry, I almost always have the camera ready on the seat (if the weather is being kind to me that is). Coming back across yesterday - after a trip off island to take Stuart and Lyn to town - it was a gorgeous calm, sunny, afternoon. Half way across, I noticed a Bonxie having a go at a Gannet fairly close to the boat so I grabbed a few shots. The downside was that it was into the sun so the images could have been better.....................

  The season is moving on and at the moment, fields are being cut for silage and then later on, hay. Each time I walk down the field to the shore, I get hassled by either the Tirricks or Redshanks as they both have fledged young around. The terns have fledged at least 3 young along the shore which is 3 more than last year so I suppose that is a 100% improvement. Another summer memory will be of the Tirricks hunting over the grass fields after sundown looking for insects, hovering momentarily, then either swooping down or moving on a few yards only to repeat it. Last night (31st July) was especially atmospheric as there was a mist over the fields and the Sound at 10.30pm................

 Tirrick or Arctic Tern

Redshank

31st July 10.30pm

             Robbie