This latest post is partly an 'add on' from the last post and partly new post.

  The day after my walk up to Hermaness, we still had a covering of snow which, with the sun now shining on it, looked quite picturesque.  Virtually every morning during the winter period, when I look out of the bedroom window, there are always a number of Rock Doves waiting for me to put food out - and when there is snow there are usually even more; on this day there were over fifty. Usually as soon as I walk back from the feeder (which is for the sparrows and starlings), the doves take this as the signal that there is grain on the lawn and will then take off, circle once and land. I know I've said this before, but I really like the fact these are truly wild doves, not the 'winged rats' as some folk call the urban ones..........

Rock Dove

Hoodie Crow

   A few days later (18th) I went up to Skaw for a short walk. I'd been at home all weekend working stripping paint with a gas torch and wanted to get it 'out of my system' so to speak. I wasn't intending to be there long as I was very busy at home, so I walked down to the shore with just my bins' and no camera. I'd just reached the high tide mark, when I heard the alarm calls of several gulls coming from behind me to the north. Turning around, I saw the avian equivalent of a hang glider coming down the hill towards me - the Sea Eagle was back again ! Despite the fact I was feeling pretty ropey with a really bad cough and short of breath, I ran back to the car for the camera. Thankfully I'd got it set up on the seat and also the bird continued in my direction and came over very close to the car.

  I watched the bird soaring around for at least 15 minutes as it went back and forth around Skaw being continuously mobbed by gulls. Eventually the bird drifted south east over the hill towards Lamba Ness. With me following in the car, it drifted over Norwick and the hill of Clibberswick and along towards 'Saxavord Resort'. At times like these, it's often difficult to decide whether to follow, or just sit and watch and hope it comes back. I decided to follow because if I could get on to the other side of the valley, the sun would be behind me and it would also be (hopefully) at eye level. It was a bad decision, the bird soared around the valley and then right back past the spot where I'd just been parked - heyho. In all, I reckon I watched this magnificent bird for at least half an hour over north Unst  ................

 

   This is the same ringed Norwegian bird that has been around since late December. For more info on this bird take a look at Brydon's Shetland Nature webpage here and of another sighting some years ago here on Nature in Shetland.

  The following day I was off island but returned to Skaw at 9.30am on the 20th. I hadn't even got out of my drivers seat when I heard the tell-tale mobbing calls of large gulls and there it was again, several hundred feet up above me being mobbed by Black-backs'. This time the bird seemed to be on a mission as it was soaring up and up and eventually I could only just make it out with the naked eye. I watched it for over ten minutes and until finally it headed south in a long glide and out of sight. I'm not too good at estimating altitude, but comparing the size of the bird say to the distance to the end of Skaw, it must have been up several thousand feet.

  On the way back, I also did get a lovely view of one of our commoner waders - a Common Snipe - at Lamba Ness...

Common Snipe

  Also on the way home passing through Haroldswick, I had a very close view of a Grey Heron at Haroldswick Pools. Normally at any sign of anyone paying any attention to them, they are off like a shot before the vehicle has stopped. This one however, stood there for several minutes before flying to the other side of the pool......

...too close for the 500mm

  While most of the country has been either very cold, has had lots of snow, or both, Unst has had a few days of windless sunny weather. This picture below was from Skaw on Tuesday (26th). It was a beautiful windless day and I was the only one there :)

    Robbie

It's been a long time....

  I can't believe it's been a month since my last blog post, sorry about that.

  I'll make this post a fairly short one - mainly because I've been very busy at home and haven't been out and about too much .....aaahh, poor me :)

  So what has happened during the last month ? While Catriona was away in Tonga, the girls had a couple of days off school (short holiday) so we headed to Lerwick for the day. This was partly to get some building materials but also to go and have a second look for the Pine Grosbeak that had been at Collafirth for quite a while. PGs are a rare visitor to Britain with only just over a dozen records. Due to its rarity status, this bird drew twitchers from far and wide, many flying up just for the weekend - some costs I saw were around £600 - it would be cheaper to go to northern Europe to see one. My first attempt to look for it failed due to it going in to hiding just half an hour before I got there and despite spending several hours searching, it remained elusive. Thankfully, the second attempt was more successful and the girls and I saw it for a few minutes (although quite high in the conifers) before it flew off. Other folk, on other occasions, were much luckier than us, getting very close views in bright sunshine, whereas we had a dull overcast day, hey ho suppose it was only a bird.....

 Pine Grosbeak

  At the end of February, I was outside doing some wall repairs when I heard a number of Hoodies mobbing something just to the east of the house. Thinking it might be the Sea Eagle (it had been seen again down on Mainland) I grabbed the bins and searched the sky to the east. I soon found the source of the noise, three Hoodies mobbing a buzzard quite high up. I first assumed it was a Rough-leg' (I've seen more of them than Common Buzzards here - come to think about it, I'd only seen one Common B) but later on enlarging the image on the pc, I saw it was indeed and Common Buzzard - 116 for the garden list.......

Common Buzzard and Hooded Crow

  The 2nd March was the second of the Unst Up Helly Ah's and this was up at Norwick. Thankfully the weather for this one was almost perfect, not much wind, no rain and not too cold. The procession started with the squads coming down the hillside by way of the 'broken road' (the old, now closed road to Skaw). It's always a lovely sight with the flaming torches lighting up the hillside and foreshore, but not an easy one to photograph without using a ridiculously high ISO setting on the camera which then introduces too much digital noise to the pictures. Below are a few pics from the event....

  Weather wise, the last month has been pretty variable. As usual its been a mixture of the occasional nice still day (6 or 8 degrees, coat off weather), wet and wild days and also a few cold days. At the beginning of this last week, we had a few snow flurries and had a forecast of a covering of snow for Wednesday. Waking early on Wednesday morning around 5.45am, I looked out and saw the hills to the west were white. Even though I was due to go to work later, I decided to head for Hermaness. By 7.45am I was at the end of the boardwalk at the cliffs - what a great place in winter! There wasn't too much wind, the light wasn't bad and out at sea were quite a few snow showers moving through. My first encounter was with one of the number of feral cats that occur up there and I don't know who was more surprised me or it......

 

  I also came a cross a small flock of Skylarks that were trying to find food on the snow covered clifftop - quite often in the places where the sheep had been lying during the night............

  Along at the nesting cliffs, there were quite a few Gannets but by far the greater number were either sitting down on the water or soaring around and around offshore like a giant gannet 'tornado'.......

  These are views of Hermaness that most visitors to the reserve never get to see, it's a truly magical place at any time of the year - even more so with a covering of snow in late winter....

Looking north

   Looking back south to where the previous picture was taken (marked with a red 'v')

  To finish off, a couple of pictures of Burrafirth (which is on the way to Hermaness car park) taken a few days apart.........

 

      Robbie