Most of my time since the last post has been spent around home, doing some jobs outside and the odd smaller job in the house. The weather has been mixed and at times quite cold - but not the snow like there has been way down south. The week before last (around the 12th) there was great anticipation for a predicted strong aurora, unfortunately as often happens, we had quite a lot of cloud cover and so missed the best bits of it. Over the following couple of nights, it continued with a nice pleasant green glow at times despite the bright moon. My car was in the garage after a previous repair to one of the cooling system pipes didn't hold up and they're now waiting for a replacement section of pipe. This meant I couldn't go up to Lamba Ness to get away from the lights of Baltasound; this is because I don't like driving the Audi along there at night due to it having a very low ground clearance. So, I had to be content with setting the camera up at home and put up with the almost floodlight qualities of Baltasound harbour lights. I left the camera 'running' set up to continuously take a 30 second exposure with a split second between each frame. From this I could then go to bed and hopefully the following morning have a few pictures. On this occasion it was over 850 images showing various states of clear sky and a green glow of the aurora. I also stacked all of the images together using 'Startrails' to get an image that being honest, doesn't look real - I but I like it....................

  Also last week, I had a morning out with Brydon over to Yell and out in a boat to try and photograph the large flock of Dunters (Eider) that had gathered on the east side. We reckoned there were at least 800 - probably more - and also amongst them were 6 Velvet Scoters which aren't that common here.........

  As I was car-less last weekend, I spent most of the weekend at home, although I did have a brief stop-off at the pier. On this occasion there was a nice GND (Great Northern Diver) fishing in the sheltered water of the pier. On the Sunday there were 4 in total in Balta Sound and from time to time one would call - a call which I think is such an evocative sound (I have as the ringtone on my mobile). I've said before that when they dive its so graceful in the way they slip over to below the surface with a hardly a ripple....

GND

  On Wednesday morning (23rd), I was woken early at around 5am by the bright moon shinning through the window as it sank in the west over the village. I decided to try for some pictures but by the time I'd got the gear from the car and set it up, a thin layer of cloud had partially obscured it....

A peaceful Baltasound from the bedroom window

  Looking at the cloud, I thought that was it, as far as the prospect of a nice day to follow - wrong again! Looking out east from the kitchen window at just before 8.30, I saw what looked like was going to be a nice sunrise. I know about the saying of a 'red sky in the morning' etc etc, again that was wrong - we had a cracking day, hardly a cloud in the sky and no wind (but still at freezing temp').....

 

South east from the house

  Catriona was away for a couple of days so I was at home with no car (mine was still in the garage). I had to go in to the village for some shopping etc so decided to walk the shore-line along - or I could have taken the bike! Just as I was thinking of setting off, I could hear an almighty commotion down at the far end of the shore. I could see 6 or 8 gulls (Black backs' and Herrings') flying up and down in to one of the small tidal pools. Obviously it was something of interest - either something dead or maybe one of our cats trying to hide from them ? Quickly going down, as I neared, I could see the water was frozen (as the tide went out, the remaining sea water froze) so what was of interest? It soon became obvious as there were some chips out of the surface of the ice and below were some small dead fish that had got trapped underneath on the falling tide.......

The walk in to the village was fantastic and something I should do more; not a breath of wind, which meant I could hear every call and every ripple made by the numerous birds out on the water.

   Returning home an hour or so later, I was working at my bench in the shed looking across the sound when I noticed one of the male otters feeding offshore. I do feel privileged to have sights such as this from the window and never tire of seeing them. Taking a walk down to the shore with the camera however, I wasn't alone - if one of our cats is out in the garden and it hears the gate open, it always follows me for a walk - which can be a pain.......

Taking in some winter rays

 Despite the cat however, all was not lost (the otter was by now way off shore fishing) as a pair of Red-breasted Merganzers  came along through the shallows looking for fish. By now the cat had lost interest and had wandered off, so I manged to get a few pictures of the birds and especially the male. They're not particularly easy to get close to, but as I had been waiting there already, they didn't detect me.....

Male Red-breasted Merganzer

      
                   Robbie