Robbie's Northern Exposures

'Mirrie Dancers'

2012-01-23T18:21:00.001Z

For most of last week and into the weekend, the Iceland Gulls have been the interest around Baltasound. I spent a bit more time along at the pier watching the interaction between them and the Fulmars and hoped to get a few images of the friction between them. It was usually the Fulmars that would see off the Icey's if they got too close or were feeding in a good spot. It seems as though there had been some fish heads etc discarded off the end of the pier and it was pieces of flesh that was drifting up to the surface and also fish oil which the Fulmars seemed pretty keen on...........

On Saturday while I was there, the 'northside' mum and full grown cub were feeding just off the pier, I did think that maybe another Iceland' might become a meal but on this occasion they caught a large crab and disappeared off with that. On one journey along the shore road I saw an otter coming down a field towards the sea. I grabbed a few shots for the record but the light was pretty poor (2500 ISO) so the images were pretty 'noisy'........................

..... Why did the otter cross the road ?

.................... to get to the other tide of course !

On Saturday evening, there had been a prediction for the 'Mirrie Dancers' (Northern Lights) but when I looked out in the late evening there was just a slight green glow through the clouds. Looking at several websites (Spacew and Spaceweather) they were predicting an aurora for last night (22nd Jan) - and luckily it was a relatively clear night. So, keeping and eye on Spacew on my Ipod, I saw it starting to build up just after 7.30pm. It wasn't quite as good as the September one, but still great to see. This time, instead of leaving the camera set up to do time-lapse, I took single photos and moved around outside. I don't know how it seems to work out, but, for most of the better auroras I've seen here, Catriona is either away or has had to go out. This means I can't really leave the kids at home alone while I go out looking for suitable locations (I've got a number of ideas in my head which hopefully I can try out at some stage)....................

'Mirrie Dancers' Ordaal, Jan 22nd 2012

I'm sure you'll notice the 'converging verticals' on the house which is normally a 'no no' in landscape photography, but in this case I ignored the rules to get as much of the sky in as possible. Taken with 7D, 10-20 wideangle, tripod etc. ISO800, 30 seconds @f4. Earlier on this evening (23rd) it even made the news on Radio Scotland as they were viewable from quite far south (certainly the Borders or even further south) and over the next few days, it's thought there could be even more - clear skies please...............

Robbie

Icey' Days

2012-01-18T18:49:00.001Z

Well it seems that the temporary Iceland Gull population on Unst has decided the pier in Baltasound is a good place to be. Over the last few days the numbers there have steadily risen to at least 13 today. As well as the 'Iceys' there have been a couple of Glaucous Gulls around, one immature and one adult that Brydon found down in Uyeasound............

Adult Glaucous Gull

Back in Baltasound, I was doing a regular run along the shore road to the skip (which was convenient) so I called past the pier during each trip to count the gulls. As well as the Icelands' there were also a few Herring Gulls along with Fulmar, Kittiwake, Great-blackbacked and Shag. Below are a few pics from the last couple of days. Unfortunately, sometimes the light was too bright and blew the whites on the birds making exposures difficult..................

2nd winter Iceland

Adult Iceland

Fulmar

Shag

Grey Heron

Today (18th Jan) was a different day again, a strong south westerly wind and driving sleet and snow showers that made it difficult to get pictures on the exposed pier. Most of what I did take were from the car but with the relatively low light and the constant rocking of the car by the wind, the results were poor. There was a lot going on with constant skirmishes between the gulls and also with them stealing food from the fishing Shags. Even with 2000 ISO it still resulted in too much movement in the pictures or too much noise in the images, so I'll make no excuses for the pictures below :) ...........

During one of the sleet/hail/snow storms

When I'm thinking of leaving a site where I've been watching something, I'll often think ' I'll just give it 10 more minutes' or whatever, I did today and I was glad I did. I then saw down to my left in the water, an Iceland' frantically flapping its wings in the water. At first I thought it was having a fight with another one, but then quickly realized it had been grabbed by an otter. Quickly getting out of the car I managed to get a few pictures before it climbed out of the water and into a hole in the breakwater.................

Otter with Iceland Gull

Robbie

Iceland Gull Update ii

2012-01-15T16:29:00.000Z

Just a very quick one from me today. Yesterday (14th Jan) there was a Shetland wide co-ordinated count of Iceland Gulls. I did north Unst (helped by Sula) and Mike P did the south of the island - although we did overlap a bit. The total for Unst was 24, although to be fair there were a number of areas that we didn't get to so the number could have been a bit higher, it seems that the birds have spread out a bit since last week. If you click the link below it will take you to the Nature in Shetland Facebook page with a breakdown of the results - http://natureinshetland.blogspot.com/2012/01/iceland-gulls-in-january-2012.html.

Robbie

Iceland Gull update

2012-01-11T22:01:00.000Z

In the last post I mentioned an influx of Iceland Gulls, well it seems almost like an invasion ! Over the last few days when I've visited 'up north', the numbers of these lovely gulls around Skaw has risen steadily to eleven. Who knows how many have been passing through there as they are almost certainly not the same ones. Going around today, I counted 14 and down at Belmont Brydon had 32; also, down in Lerwick there were at least 21. Who knows what the real total is, it could be a hundred or more. Thanks to Mike on Nature in Shetland Facebook page for a link here and here in the Faroes, which makes interesting reading - if you're in to gulls. Just a couple more pics from the last few days........................

2nd winter Iceland Gull

While over at Skaw late morning, I took a walk along the beach and noticed something on the rocks. It was soon obvious it was a small seal, but was it dead? Going around the rocks to approach it from the front, it was very much alive - and also surprised to see me. It was quite a large Grey Seal pup, which I presume, had hauled out for a nap while the adults looked on - I'd been followed by one in the water all along the beach. I only had my mobile with me, so I grabbed a shot as this was the first I'd seen hauled out at Skaw........................

Taken with my camera phone

Robbie

A New Year begins.........

2012-01-08T17:11:00.001Z

Here were are at the start of another new year and as with most folk, I am wondering what the coming months will bring. For me, I know it's going to a busy one with lots to do on the house and from now until the spring, I'll have to concentrate on the cottage as we want to rent it out for self catering this year. Fortunately there's not a huge amount to do, but there is still quite a lot. Hopefully we'll get a few visitors and several have already said they'll come up, so despite the house work, I will still find time for visiting friends or relations. Around the fields, there is more fencing to be done and later on, more trees to plant. The fence down at the jetty (which goes in to the sea) will have to be taken down again and be completely re-done. The one at the eastern end has a rail along the top which I think helps to spread the weight of the seaweed which collects on the fence, so I'll repeat it on the western one. It's pointless doing it now as there is still plenty of time for more gales which would demolish it again, that will have to wait until April.

Photographically, I have a few ideas and subjects to improve upon lurking in the back of my mind, by this time next year I'll know whether I have achieved them or not. And what of last year ? Well as far as birds go, my clear favourite has to be the Pallid Harrier at Northdale here ; I'll never forget the bird and I'm still getting comments about it from birders. Despite it being a relatively poor autumn for migrants, there are still a few that stand out such as the Siberian Rubythroat at Gulberwick - here- or the Pine Bunting at Haroldswick found by Mike and Brydon -here. Also, going out and landing on Muckle Flugga was pretty special - here.

Going south off Shetland for a couple of holidays was great as well - even if it was to appreciate the peace and quiet we have here. One trip was to the west side of Orkney for a week - here , the other was to the Spanish Pyrenees for a week - the start of it is here.

Wildlife, holidays, friends visiting and trips out aside, obviously the best thing about last year was putting down roots here at Ordaal, enough said !

So what about the last week ? On New Years Day, I went for a walk with Sula to Woodwick over on the west side. It's one of the more 'remote' beaches on Unst in that it's a 3/4hr walk from the nearest road - not far by most standards ! For most of the way, the route goes through a fairly deep valley which, at this time of year is in the shadow of the sun - if it's shinning (today it was). If there's one thing that Woodwick is noted for, it's the rubbish on the beach. As, like I have said, there is no road directly to it, it doesn't ever get collected up. It is literally piled high with timber, fishing nets, floats and everything else that you could imagine. This the place that Catriona and the girls found the eel tag last year - here . It came as a surprise to me when I realized that in the time we've been here, I'd only been to Woodwick once before. One thing or object that is amongst the commonest of items to turn up is footwear; I don't know why but there are all types from wellies to flip flops, trainers to sandals - unsurprisingly, there is never a pair ! The picture below is of a few that Sula piled up in the space of 10 minutes and there were probably the same amount again..........................

and a couple of more pics.............

It never ceases to amaze me what can be found and some times it can be useful. I also wonder where it has originated from, with most fish boxes that's easy as they often have an address on the side. However, I am wondering how far this funny little duck had swum :) ................

(now residing by my bath!)

Locally bird wise, the Woodlark is still around Skaw, but it is the white-winged gulls that are of interest ie Glaucous and Iceland Gulls. In the last week I've had two Glauc's at Skaw (an adult and imm') along with 4 Iceland Gulls. According to Mike on the Nature in Shetland Facebook page, there could possibly be over 20 Iceland Gulls (once they're all added up) on Shetland at the moment with lesser numbers of Glauc's................

Imm' Iceland Gull (low light = high 2000 ISO)

After what seems like months since I had the trailcam out, a couple of nights ago I set it up in the usual place. I had deliberately not left it there due to the gales and heavy rain - I didn't want to have it destroyed by the weather. Apart from a rat, a blackbird feeding (at night) and one of our cats, I was delighted to see this morning (8th Jan) the mum and full grown otter cub on it briefly. I'd not seen them for over a week and it can't be long before the cub becomes more independent..................

Robbie

The Last Post - of 2011

2011-12-31T17:09:00.000Z

I'll start by a follow up to the last post about the recent gales. As we hadn't really seen anyone until after Boxing Day I didn't really know what damage other folk had sustained on their property. From what I've heard, there were several old croft roofs that were blown off (fortunately abandoned ones) and quite a few slates ripped off around the place. I also heard of a sheet of roofing material that had come off and then been blown over a mile in to someones garden - very dangerous. There was another story of some folk on Mainland who had gone next door for drinks or whatever on Christmas Day, when all of a sudden their house roof went flying past the window - scary stuff.

Down in Uyeasound,12 salmon cages broke their moorings/anchorages and ended up 20-30 miles east of Unst drifting in the North Sea. (When I say 20 or 30 miles it's because there are several versions of the story). These cages are huge and are anchored to massive weights on the sea bed and also to the shore. Apparently when they were found by a helicopter that had gone out to look for them, only four were recognizable as fish cages, the others had either been smashed up or not found. It's said (again several estimations) that there were between 350 and 400 thousand salmon lost - just a week before they were due to be harvested. Obviously there is insurance, this figure has also varied, somewhere between 2 and 8 million pounds. Apparently, depending on current market prices and also the fish size, each fish could have been worth around £15 each. The knock-on effect of this event is that when the fish had been harvested, they had more fish ready to put into the cages. It was some storm.

The Christmas period here this year has been fairly quiet, we have had a few friends around though, so despite the lack of electricity it's been nice. One thing (or rather person) that's been missing this year has been Ian, my father-in-law. For a number of years (including when we were down south) he would visit over the Christmas/New period - even playing the part of Father Christmas at times. So, due to illness he was unable to come up this year and was greatly missed - get well soon Ian.

I have managed to get a out few times despite the weather and on most days I watched otters fishing at one location or another. I forgot to mention a few days ago that recently when I was down at Westing watching the gulls feeding in the breaking waves, an otter caught one that had been sitting on the water. I had seen an otter enter the water and then disappear for quite some time (usually a dive lasts around 20-25 seconds). Only when I heard the gulls giving out an alarm call I knew something was up, I then saw the bird being dragged through the waves just off shore for over half a mile which must have taken at least 20 if not 25 minutes.

Yesterday (30th) was a cracking day, still, bright sunshine and for the time of year, very mild. I had a trip up north to try and catch a sunrise over the sea, but as is often the case, there was a lot of low cloud over the horizon. The drill ship 'Stena Carron' has been anchored up for a few days a couple of miles east of Unst while it is re-supplied etc (and sheltering from the storm no doubt). It has looked quite festive at night all lit up, but due to the distance, photos haven't been possible. Back at home, I stayed at home and did a few jobs - as well as keeping an eye on Balta Sound. During late morning I saw 6 Slavonian Grebes, 1 Little Grebe and 3 Great Northern Divers along with the Red-breasted Mergansers and Goldeneyes. I also saw the mum and otter cub fishing just off from the jetty. However, just as I was going down to try and gets some pictures, Rona and her friend asked for the bike tires to be pumped up etc, so by the time that had been done, the otters had moved on. One of the GNDs seemed to have 'bitten off more than it could chew' so to speak, as the fish took quite a lot of getting down. There is a lot of seaweed covered rocks close to shore here, so most of the grebes and divers tend to fish further out..........

Great Northern Diver (GND)

A view west along the shore with the camera phone................

For the first time for a while, we went out for a family walk over to Skaw and around the headland to the north. There was to be a small window in the weather (according to the Met Office local forecast) which proved to be bang on target, so the whole of the walk was dry. Apart from the ever present Greylags' the only good bird was an immature Glaucous Gull looking for food, way down below us on the rocks. Shortly after getting back to the car, it tipped it down with rain - time for lunch and then home to light the fire.....................

It's a hard life being a cat !

Well, tomorrow's another day and indeed another year, so a happy and healthy New Year to everyone. I wonder what next year will bring ? Certainly I'm going to be busy on the house, but hopefully I'll have time to get 'out and about'. Most likely I will have to get up and go out earlier before breakfast (once it's light enough) and then come home to work etc. As to New Years resolutions ? I don't normally make them as the ones I make, I soon break - eat less chocolate, get fitter etc etc. I do have some photo ideas, but then they shouldn't be resolutions, but I know I do need to improve on my digital processing - but I've been needing to do that for years.

Robbie

Rapturous Years.

2011-12-27T18:45:00.000Z

Well here we are on the 27th of Dec and we've just had our Christmas dinner, crackers and hats and all. Late afternoon on Christmas Day, it was blowing a real hoolie (apparently it reached 101 miles an hour down at Sella Ness (Sullom Voe oil terminal) and we had our dinner cooking in the oven - and then the electric went off. It remained that way until around 3 this afternoon. So our dinner on Christmas Day was roast tatties and carrots - as the chicken had only partly cooked before the electric went off. Fortunately we had the gas fire and also the open fireplace to burn wood and coal on (the new fire basket arrived on Christmas Eve). It did certainly make the kids (and us) realize how much we all depend on electricity; even more so for the kids, as they had just had a Wii for Christmas and they couldn't use it. Around the island there were varying amounts of damage to roofs, walls and the like, but we got away with a few slates and a broken gate. It was wild though, most of the time it was F10, but certainly it gusted to 11 or even 12. The short, shaky video below was taken at the bottom of our field looking north, several times as I walked down there the wind caught my legs and almost blew me over...................... (make sure the volume is turned down)

Christmas Day at Ordaal

So with, the wild weather and not getting out and about very much, I've done a sort of review of one of my favourite families of birds - birds of prey - that have occurred on Unst since I've been here................

With the recent sightings of the Pallid Harrier up here on Unst, I began to remember the raptors from this year and then of the ones I've seen since arriving here. In total, including owls, there have been 18 species here on Unst in the last two years - 17 of them I've seen (Goshawk is the only one I've missed so far). Also out of the 18, I've managed to get pictures (of varying quality) of 14 - not bad for a small virtually treeless island 60 + degrees north in the UK.

Apart from the 'common' raptors, ie Sparrowhawk and Merlin these would be then followed by Kestrel and Peregrine; after that, the birds start to become scarcer species. The first 'less common' bird was a Common Buzzard which spent most of the winter around Alma, just west of Baltasound in 2008/09.

Sparrowhawk

Merlin

That was followed the following year by a Hobby in Baltasound in July 2009. It wasn't a very obliging bird as it perched on a boulder in the middle of a field so the resulting photo was a big crop and not very good.

Without doubt, one of 'the' birds for me was an immature Snowy Owl that Brydon and I found after a tip-off from a local in the early spring of 2010 (early Spring being May !). That bird was only seen well for one day but what a bird it was (there was another here last winter which we didn't get to see) the blog from the day is here..

Snowy Owl

The next 'goodie' was a cracking immature Sea Eagle over our previous rented house at Voesgarth. I was driving home when I saw this huge shape that looked more like a hang glider than a bird. It turned out to be a one year old bird from a release program in the Montrose Basin on mainland Scotland. Over the following week it was seen quite widely across Shetland.............

'No8', an Immature Sea Eagle over Voesgarth 2010

The other nice - but brief- view of a new raptor for me on Unst for 2010 was a Honey Buzzard over the cliffs at Hermaess; it didn't hang about and carried on down the west side.

2011 started with a cracking bird, no in fact two, Rough-legged Buzzards which spent the second part of the winter and early spring over on the west side of Unst. The birds would often disappear for days, leading us to think they'd moved on and then show themselves again. The last month or so of their stay, they were much more helpful in often hunting not far from the road south to Uyeasound around an area called Caldback. Numerous times I would drive along the road and see one soaring or hanging in the wind...................

Rough-legged Buzzard, April 2011

After the Rough-legs', the next bird was a female Goshawk that Brydon first saw, which, I won't spend too much time on - despite numerous attempts, I didn't get to see it :(

The next B of P (bird of prey) was a Black Kite during the first week of May. Rory first saw it in the north of Yell and then a few days later it urned up on Unst. I was fortunate to see it a few times but never when the sun was out ! ..............

Black Kite at Burrafirth, May 2011

Around the same time as the kite, an Osprey turned up and this bird stayed around for almost two weeks - I'm sure of that, as it had a small notch in the 2nd primary of its left wing.........

Osprey at Burrafirth May 2011

This bird was closely followed by a quite confiding Kestrel at Skaw...................

Female Kestrel at Skaw

Finally at the end of the 2nd week (for May at least), a Marsh Harrier showed up around Ungirsta and stayed around for around a week. On one occasion, I was watching the perched harrier, I then took my eyes off it for a second and on looking up again, it had been replaced by the Osprey flying past with no sign of the Marsh Harrier.................

Marsh Harrier - big crop

June, July and the first couple of weeks of August were quiet as far as B of P were concerned. However, on the 25th things hotted up when I found a juvenile Pallid Harrier at Norwick. Of the birds of prey I've seen so far here (which includes owls) its number two on my list so far (Snowy Owl being 1st and Rough-leg 3rd). Over the next couple of weeks I saw it a few times getting views I could never have dreamt of......................

Pallid Harrier Norwick August 2011

Over the next few weeks, there was an unprecedented number of Pallid Harriers arriving in the UK, with possibly 7 on Shetland. The Pallid was then joined by several Hen Harriers around Unst (which caused a bit of confusion with the Pallid) and in the end there were 3 Hen Harriers roosting for a while each night at Norwick.

Even now in December, there have been Sparrowhawk, Merlin, Peregrine, Kestrel, Hen Harrier and Rough-leg' sightings on Unst along with sightings of both Long and Short-eared Owls. So when are we going to get a white-phase Gyr or another Snowy Owl, maybe this winter ? Who knows, but we'll be out there looking.

Lost and found

2011-12-22T13:34:00.000Z

I'm told that I'm one of those rare beasts nowadays that has spent most of their life in one place. I spent almost 50 years living in the same village - indeed the same house - before we moved up here to Unst. The only break was a year in Malawi southern Africa, going when our eldest, Sula, was 9 months old. As we were going to a relatively well furnished house, all we needed to take was our personal possessions etc and the rest of the stuff went in to storage. I can certainly remember us saying at the time that we managed without all of the 'stuff' we had in storage, so why had we still got it! On returning home 12 months later however, the belongings came out of storage and I was reunited with things I'd forgotten about which gave me a sort of 'warm' feeling on discovering them. I used to feel the same when after a few months away from the hills - putting on my walking boots again at the start of a good mountain walk - it was like being reunited with a couple of old friends.

Back here on Unst, it's been similar. From August 2008 until January 2011, we had three containers of things stored down in Gloucester, either waiting to be brought up here or (a less pleasant thought) us returning south. For me it was frustrating when I wanted a particular tool to do a job knowing full well 'it was in storage' but I had to go and buy another one that wasn't an 'old friend' if you know what I mean. Once we had moved in to Ordaal and the storage stuff had arrived, we gradually went through it and over the following weeks/months I began to suspect that there were things missing. As it turned out, I've 'lost' a box of tools - some are irreplaceable as they were of sentimental value, others can be replaced but will be of a much lesser quality. Who knows where the box went, but someone somewhere has gained. Also, going through my books and cds, I still can't find some that I know I have; but I'm sure in time they will appear.

One such missing item was a sort of family 'heirloom' - a loaf of bread ! A loaf of bread I hear you say ? - well it was not just any loaf of bread. This particular one was baked by my great uncle Leon not long after he left school and started in the bakery of my home village on October 4th - 1910 ! Uncle Leon, was then drafted in to the army at the start of WW1, but then received a honorable discharge after loosing a leg in the Dardanelles. From a very young age, Uncle Leon would take me across the fields and woods (bearing in mind he was on crutches) and taught me a lot about the countryside which I believe was a grounding for what I now know. One thing that uncle was well known for however and that was making catapults. When I was growing up in the sixties, every small boy had a catapult, and uncle was an expert at making them. From choosing the leather for the sling, the thin twine to bind the elastic to the stick and then coating the string with beeswax (collected by him) he was a perfectionist. I still have my 'Y' shaped sticks (minus the elastic) and also my dads which is now probably over 60 years old. As to the loaf of bread ?, fortunately after 11 months I found it in a large box with some boxes of slides, phew !

Uncle Leon and the loaf of bread - circa early 80s

I mentioned at the end of the last post about the sheep fence down at the jetty, well, after spending and hour chasing the sheep around to get them back along the shore, I then spent another hour re-erecting the fence. Having the feeling of a victory, I was annoyed to see them back in the field the following morning - and even more than last time. Some off the sheep are of Shetland stock and are akin to mountain goats, ie will climb over or squeeze through the tightest gap. On this occasion it was through a small space which had been covered by seaweed that I'd missed. I've now got them fenced off in a smaller part of the field and will move them out later.

While I was down there 'fixing' the shore fence, the mum and otter cub where out on one of the rocks that gets exposed as the tide drops and didn't seem too bothered by me making a lot of noise 100yds away. Returning to the shore an hour later, they had come up on to the stone jetty and were resting - or rather the cub was. She (the cub) was lying on top of mum using her as a pillow and mum was obviously not too comfortable with this arrangement as she kept fidgeting. There was only a slight breeze which unfortunately was going from me to them, fortunately I was behind the high wall (one side of the old noost shed) so that did help; mum did know someone was around as she kept sniffing the air, but I can only guess the scent wasn't strong enough.

Yesterday (21st Dec), there was a cracking sunrise - made even better by the fact we could see it from two rooms on the east side of the house without going outside. This is because I've now manged to change the glass in a couple of the windows; two had obscure, frosted glass, which in this house seemed rather strange. The window in the upstairs bathroom is at shoulder height and can't really be seen into (unless you are on a ladder on the outside) and the window in the kitchen which used to be a loo window, also isn't over looked. It's also one of the mysteries (to us) why here on Shetland where there are so many fantastic views to be had from houses, that many, many, houses have net curtains and many of them are isolated houses..............

A couple of 'grab' shots from the car as I was doing the Baltasound school run at around 9am.

We've now arrived at the shortest day/longest night, but the lighter days of spring and summer are still a long way off sadly.

If I don't get the opportunity to post again before Christmas, I hope everybody has a good one. Thanks for finding a few minutes to look at the blog and also to those who've become a 'follower' - sorry I've not acknowledged you individually.

Robbie

Waterfalls and a Wheatear

2011-12-17T13:45:00.005Z

Its been a fairly quiet week this week - apart from the weather that is, but I won't do yet another post on the weather !

I've been doing some work on the fireplace in our living room which is an ideal job when its foul outside. Its an old Victorian one with a cast iron surround and a vertical row of 6" tiles either side. Originally it had a cast iron built in-grate and fire back with a damper (a lid at the top) but that was removed by one of the previous occupants (and not very carefully at that). This was all replaced by 3 fire-brick panels which had now come to the end of their days in that they were cracked and had started to break up. On removing the panels - and around 7 buckets of soot and dust - I discovered that there was quite a lot of space behind and that it had been used as a fireplace before the cast one had been installed. The tiles had been set on cast frames which were now totally rusted and rotten which meant new ones would have to be made at some stage. On cleaning it all out, I decide not to reinstate the tiles for the time being, but to use the by now, much larger fireplace. I found three 10x10x6 inch pieces of cut stone outside which I manged to cut and to make in to six 10x10x3 inch pieces to use as a new hearth. I then re-pointed the stonework and all I have to do now is to wait for a new cast iron fire basket to arrive.

With all of the wind (sorry I won't talk about it for long) birding folk are now looking to the far north for any wanderers. Over in North America, there has been a large movement of Snowy Owls (over 100 in one State alone) which bodes well for the possibility of one turning up here, probably not from North America, but most likely from northern Scandinavia or similar. I came across this image from a link on the Birdforum - looks like noise reduction software used on it but I'd be glad to see them, somehow it seems almost too good to be true. Earlier in the week between breaks in the weather, I took a walk up Crussa Field where the Snowy was a couple of years back - here. Its a large area to try and cover in a short space of time (2hrs) but it was good to get a hillwalk in, something I've not done for quite a while. Sadly no Snowy (I wasn't expecting one really, but if you don't look, you don't find) All I saw were a few Hoodies, Ravens and a Snipe...........

Crussa Field looking north to Saxavord and Norwick

Returning back home, the two Bean Geese were still around Ordaal, which was nice change from the ever present Greylags...........

'Tundra' Bean Goose

The following day (13th Dec), was pretty dull so as I needed to go over to Norwick, I took a look first at Skaw. The Woodlark was still present yesterday, but today it was being elusive as usual. I decided to take a walk up the burn (something I don't do enough) with the thought of a possible migrant Dipper. If there's anywhere on Unst one could turn up, it would be here. Only taking the camera with the 24-105 lens (plus binoculars), I set off. There was quite a lot of water around so I hoped that I could possibly get some shots of some of the very few proper (although smallish) waterfalls on Unst. Using the 'live view' function on the camera, I rested the camera on the bank to get some 'slow-mo' shots of the water. Looking back now, I should have taken the tripod, remote lease, filters etc etc but I did want to travel light.................

Walking on up the stream, I then noticed an Otter heading down the edge of the burn straight for me around 50 yards away. The wind was good and it hadn't seen me so I instantly lay down in the extremely wet, sponge like grass. It crossed the stream and came right past me, totally unaware of my presence. As it moved downstream, it constantly checked rabbit holes and also sniffed the air. It always surprises me when I come across an otter away from the sea, yet they often venture a long way in land. Only recently a friend came across an occupied holt on the top of one of Unst's highest hills which is almost two miles from the sea............

I headed on up stream a little further to the 'largest' waterfall to take a few pics before heading back to the car - just as large sleet/hail shower past through.......

Just after 1pm the sun came out for a while, so, timing it for a school run, I drove up to Valla Field. My thoughts were to possibly a Rough-leg' Buzzard, but instead got both a fly-over and perched immature Peregrine - still a good bird, but I've had more sightings of R-l Buzzards (not individuals however) than Peregrine on Unst. It wasn't very close but still nice to see however.........

Imm' Peregrine at Valla Field

Wednesday, was to be a trip down to the bright lights of Lerwick, what a treat! There was method in my madness to go however, as in Breiwick on the south side of town, there was a Desert Wheatear (a lifer for me) which had been around for a few days. I certainly wouldn't have gone and twitched it but as I needed to go in to town I thought it was ok. Unfortunately the weather was pretty grim - a splash of sun would have been nice - so I made the best of it as I could. Desert Wheatear's are traditionally late migrants when they do turn up but it did seem a little out of place on a cold winters day.................

1/100 sec @ f5.6, ISO 1250, full frame

The arrow marks the bird

I mentioned in the last post about the fence down at the jetty, well the picture below is the result. It was the shear weight of seaweed on the wire that caused it to collapse and I've since been told by a crofter, that many folk will remove the wire at the end of a summers grazing to avoid this happening - time for a re-think................

I'm not sure what's happened to the formatting today as the spacing the text/pictures seem a little out. I'll try and sort it for the next post.

Robbie

And the gales continue.........

2011-12-11T20:14:00.003Z

Well earlier on in the week it was one of the rare occasions that the Met Office local forecast was wrong. I usually only use the main BBC forecast (also from the Met Office) as a general idea what might happen - unless there is a wide front moving across the UK. So often here, the forecast has said it was going to rain and it was fine and vice versa. Some days it has been fine all day on Unst and wet all day down in Lerwick - 50 miles away - and also the other way around. The app on my Ipod, is set for Baltasound and more often than not its spot on with the timings and weather conditions. On Monday and Tuesday however they got it wrong; it was supposed to be two days of brighter, drier weather. On Monday we had about an hour of slightly brighter weather and Tuesday was wet and windy again, hey ho. Returning back from the school run on Monday, I was delighted to see 11 Jackdaws in the garden, even though the light was rubbish I grabbed a few pictures from the car. Returning back home again a little later, the number had now risen to 16 (26 the following day). Positioning the car at an angle so that only the lens hood was showing through the open car window, the birds soon got used to the car and started to come back. Just like any corvid however, they still didn't relax too much, constantly darting in and out to pick up bits of food from around the feeder. They also soon cottoned on to where the seed was dropping from and even tried (not very successfully) to hover in front of the feeder and peck out the food from the feeder ports. There is the saying about 'living and learning' etc, well I certainly still do and even more so about many of the birds I see up here; the jackdaw picture below is a good example. From reading the article on Jackdaw identification which I mentioned here , I learnt that young Jackdaws have a browner plumage, especially their wings. When I saw this bird, it threw me completely (obviously I knew it was a Jackdaw) and got me wondering where it had originated from etc. The reason for the very poor pic below is that it was taken through the closed car window and it didn't show up again...............

An immature Jackdaw - it should have moulted the wing feathers out by now.

The pale collar varied in width, length and brightness amongst the jackdaw flock, sometimes being just a pale spot.

During the first part of the week, I didn't do much in the way of picture taking - partly due to the weather, partly due to doing some work at home, so apart from the jackdaws the only other bird I photographed was this Purple Sandpiper at Westing. For me, I think the stalks of Kelp on a beach, are one of the most distracting backgrounds there is.......................

Purple Sandpiper

There probably isn't anyone this week in the UK that has missed the gale warnings issued by the Met Office. I heard folk a number of times on the radio, commenting on them saying, 'What's the issue ? we have weather like this on and off all winter in Shetland' etc etc. I think they (the Met Office) must have heard the comments too; as on one report, I heard a spokesman acknowledge that Shetland did indeed often have gales like these, but the reason for the 'red alert' was that these gales would travel right through the central belt, where it was much more likely to cause damage. It was really eerie yesterday, in the morning we had a very strong wind, then for a few hours either side of lunch time it went perfectly still. In the mid afternoon, it picked up again (from a different direction) and blew a right hoolie for a while and gusting to Force 11.

Early this morning (Fri 9th), it kicked off again when I got a text message telling me both the Yell and Bluemull Sound ferries were cancelled due to the weather - when they stop running, you know its rough ! So, after dropping Sula off for the last time at Uyeasound School (sort of an 'end of an era' for me) I took a look a Westing, all I could say was WOW ! Just as I turned off the engine at the end, an otter trotted past the front of the car carrying a fish heading inland a short way looking for some shelter for it to eat its catch. The funny thing was when it returned to the top of the shingle bank it paused, looked at the sea, then back to where it had come from and returned to the relative shelter of the marsh. I think I'd have done the same. As the light was rubbish, I decided to go home, do some work at the house and return at lunchtime.

Westing

And here is a rather shaky 24 sec vid from Lamba Ness - I was using the car as a wind break but even that wasn't enough.........

At the mid point along the cliffs, its between 10 and 15 metres high so that will give you an idea of the wave height.

By early on Saturday morning, the storm had gone through and every thing was looking fine. Our house was intact (apart from an ingress of horizontally driven rain) the sheds were also still in one piece although the shear ferocity of the wind had driven water through the joints of the ship-lap boarding. The only options for that is to have either double boarding or a membrane behind the boards - that is now usually done as standard practice. Down at the shore, the fencing I put up to stop the neighbours sheep coming along the shoreline had been almost flattened by the battering from the sea. Not so much the wave action but more to do with the weight of seaweed being thrown against it. When I was doing it in the spring, the crofter that had sheep here, told me not to spend too much time on it as if we were lucky it would only last 2 or 3 years. The main straining post (5'6" of old telegraph pole) was pulled out of the rocks and that had been dug down almost 3ft.

As most will know, there was a lunar eclipse on Saturday afternoon. Due to the timing, Shetland was going to be the best place in the UK to see it - weather permitting. I headed off up to Lamba Ness with a hope that at around 3pm when the moon was due to rise, there might be a break in the cloud. Arriving at 2.30pm, I was disappointed to see there was a long band of cloud almost all the way across the eastern horizon. As the cloud was moving south, (but not as quick as last night !) I thought I'd wait awhile - just in case. Finally after several tantalizing minutes just before 4pm, the moon finally showed and with it the last few minutes of the eclipse - oh how I wished it had been clear................

Lunar Eclipse, Lamba Ness

Robbie

Wet inside and out !

2011-12-04T16:19:00.000Z

This week has been pretty much like last, wet and windy. The wind has still been coming from the west or south west and for most of the time has been Force 7 and above. Fortunately, the gales have been relatively short lived, blowing through in a few hours, dropping down a couple of notches before picking up again later. I've been over to Westing again a couple of times and the sea has been pretty much the same although on Friday it was breaking up on to the parking area which is probably around 10-12 feet above the normal high tide. For a time today (3rd), the wind had been forecast to rise up to Force 11 (Violent storm on the Beaufort Scale ) west of Unst but fortunately it seemed to pass by much further offshore. The first picture below is across to our house, the entrance to Balta Sound is two miles to the left (east), this is taken from almost at the western end, wild weather ! (absolutely no apologies for the poor quality of the pictures)............

Balta Sound, Force 10

And two more from during the week...................

Westing

'Smoke on the Water' - on the sheltered side of the island

With all of this wind, the driving rain has once again found its way though the cracks in the lime mortar pointing on the west side of the house and into our living room, so out came the bowl again. Next summer we are planning to re-tile the roof and as we do so, also put roofing felt on to the sarking boards underneath the slates; doing this will certainly help make the house a little less drafty. Once the roof has been done, then the very slow and laborious job of 'picking and pointing' the mortar joints will get underway which will also help to dry the old house out. As we'll need scaffolding for the roof, we can then move down the building, taking the scaffolding down as we do. Another job will be to refit guttering all the way around the main house; incredibly, the house hasn't had any for a least 50 or 60 years which again doesn't help with damp problems.

During all of this heavy rain, we had a leak through a ceiling in another area which has only happened once before. I then spent a number of hours over last week, moving furniture, taking up floor boards etc trying to trace where the leak originated from. To cut a very long story short, it wasn't weather related at all but from 'dodgey' plumbing by one of the previous owners. I know we all might have a go at a trade or job that we're not really 'qualified' to do, but a least please try and do it in a professional manner. In this case, it was a plastic heating pipe joint (I'm still not convinced this stuff is better than the good old copper pipes) which had gone through a hole in a joist where the hole was exactly the same size as the pipe. So what happens is, when the pipe gets warm it expands becoming tight in the hole, the other side of the joint (which was along side a joist) expands and puts pressure on the plastic fitting and distorts it slightly creating a leak. So always make sure there is enough space around pipes that either go through or over floor joists - you also won't get woken up by creaking pipes when the heating comes on or goes off !

As I've mentioned before, I wasn't too keen on having cats. The thought of them bringing in a small dead migrant bird that is a rarity or even a mega rare one didn't please me too much when the family announced they wanted cats. However, now they are growing up, they are starting to earn their keep so to speak. At first it was a small mouse or rat, now it's full grown rabbits - that I have no problem with. Unst and Shetland in general is over run with rabbits, although in many places they don't cause a problem - unless, like our neighbours, you have a flower and vegetable patch. This week, the smaller of the two cats (which looks like it was the runt of the litter) brought in a full grown buck rabbit which weighed considerable more than the cat. Not only that, it had to drag it up 12 inches to get through the cat flap, which in itself is a bit of challenge as it has a small tunnel on the outside to cut down the wind blowing the flap open.

On the wildlife front, the main interest this week has been the number of Bean and Whitefronted Geese that are still around. During the week Brydon had a Rough-legged Buzzard just south of
Baltasound, lets hope it stays for the winter feeding on the rabbits. Closer to home, we're now getting a few Jackdaws coming to feed with the Starlings, House Sparrows and Rock Doves. This morning (4th Dec) we had 9 Jackdaws on the lawn, not something to get exited about normally, but these birds however are most likely to have originated from Scandinavia. Some of them have a pale neck collar which suggests their origin - for a more detailed account on the races, take a look here. With the weather settling down a bit for a few days with possibly some SUNSHINE , I'll try and get some pictures of them this week.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I grew up with racing pigeons (or homing pigeons as they are also called) as my dad used to keep them. They were around for most of my life and as they were always around, I did resent them a bit. However, times change and having true Rock Doves in the garden (which all racing pigeons have descended from) is quite nice. Maybe it's because I don't have to feed them or clean out their pigeon loft - but I do still put out food on the ground for these birds - I think my dad would approve...................

A true Rock Dove will always be in this plumage and always have a white rump

Yesterday while driving back from the shop past the Houb in Baltasound, I saw two otters heading out across the grass from the saltwater towards one of the small freshwater burns. At first I thought it was the two which come along our shoreline but was surprised to see it was the family from the north side - minus one cub. Speaking to Bydon about this, he said that when the cubs start to mature, often a male cub will go off on its own on occasions - maybe that's what happened to the other one along our shore? Comparing the pictures of the mum from last week, it looks like her nose is slowly starting to heal, it still looks pretty raw though..................

Robbie

After the sunshine ? - wind and rain !

2011-11-26T17:12:00.004Z

Like in a number of other places, 'between weathers' here, broadly means a better day than the previous one or the day that is forecasted to follow it. Tuesday was one of those days, not particularly nice, but better than Monday and certainly better than the forecast for Wednesday. I was doing a 'skip run' along the shore road, when I saw the mum and two otter cubs at one of the usual roadside places. She had caught a large Lumpsucker fish and was eagerly feeding a relatively short distance from the road. The two cubs looked like they were having a great time not far away playing and mock fighting in the water - all part of the growing up process. They are now quite big and apart from their faces, they are becoming difficult to tell apart from their mum unless I see them well. She was showing the obvious signs of a fresh bite on her nose which looked quite sore - if it were my nose I'm sure it would be ! Brydon was saying its a common occurrence and was probably a crab bite and he believes it is one particular species of crab that usually inflicts this wound.................

Despite being 'between weathers', it was still a pretty dull day so I only took 3 pictures and the rest of the time I used the video setting and took a few short recordings. Even though she's looking directly at me (she knew I was there) there a so many vehicle movements along this stretch of road each day, as long as I stay in the car and keep quiet, they will carry on as normal.

My pc is now quite ancient in computing terms being 5 or 6 years old and just can't handle the processing power needed by some of the video editing packages; so the videos from my 7D, are almost straight out of the camera - apart from file conversions. I'm also not 'up to speed' with video - and don't really want to get in too deep with it - so I'm not sure what the footage will look like on a more modern, faster pc. From what I can see here, as long as the vid' isn't clicked on to go full size then it's passable so to speak - I think I'll stick with stills !

Later on in the morning, I called in at Haligarth for a quick look. Nothing in the garden or wood but just across the field I could see a small duck on the loch behind Buness House - it was a red-head Smew (a female or immature). Brydon had seen it earlier in the week (and got it on his garden list) so maybe I could try and get some shots of it? Unfortunately, between me and it, was open ground with only a low wall leading down to the field corner - not an easy approach. Also on the loch were several Teal and a few Mallard, as soon I made an approach they would be off and in turn so would the 'redhead'. So, just as you would do with Otters, I only moved forward when it dived, this in turn would help in that if the other ducks took off as I moved, the diving Smew wouldn't be frightened off at the same time. For a change the plan worked, the other ducks left (without too much fuss) and the re-surfacing Smew was none the wiser enabling me to get within range....................

'Red-head' Smew

By Thursday (24th Nov) the weather was back to wet and very windy again. Fortunately I was working again (I'd rather do that when it's like that) so it didn't affect me too much. The forecast was for gales and gales we had! Overnight on Thurs/Fri at times it gusted to F10 with driving rain and at times sleet and hail. Airing on the side of caution, I had decided to bring the trailcam in on Thursday and how glad I was that I had. When I saw the bottom of the field on Friday morning, only 4 inches of the 30 inch camera post was above the water line !.........

...the red arrow marks the post

When there are any strong winds or swell from the west side its always worth taking a look at Westing. The best wind direction is either north west or westerly but even Fridays south westerly created a big sea. According to Magicseaweed there was a predicted swell of between 25 to 30ft offshore with 30-35ft a few miles further out.................

Westing storm

Robbie

Sunshine after the rain

2011-11-20T22:05:00.000Z

Last Monday (14th) was another pretty dull day. Despite this, I took a look over at Skaw and to just have a stroll along the beach. Walking along the edge of the field at the back of the croft, a bird flew up out of the yard and flew up high and in a big semi circle past me and up the field to the north; as soon as I saw it, I knew it was something different. It's wings were rounded, the tail was short and had an undulating, woodpecker like flight. My instant 'gut' feeling was that it had to be a Woodlark, however, knowing how uncommon they were up here, I had to be sure. Seeing generally the direction where it had gone I headed off, it was now pretty dull and starting to drizzle. I saw the bird on two more occasions (only in flight) and was now sure what it was. The following morning was much brighter, heading back over, I felt confident in 'nailing' the bird and getting some shots. My idea was to head east and then come back over the hill from the north and if it is up in the fields, then it would fly back down towards the croft. Despite an hour of searching, I drew a blank until that is, I got back to where I had started. Suddenly it flew up and landed on the wall some 100yds in front of me, yes definitely a Woodlark and I got a record shot to prove it...albeit very poor quality..............

Some distance ! - full frame

............big crop

Despite looking, the bird had disappeared again and I had to head off unfortunately. Just after lunch, the sunshine was still holding out so I just had to go and have another quick look at Skaw. Parking up, I took a look over the wall in to the yard and there it was sitting on the gravel track, this time much closer. I managed to get 20 or so shots before it either saw or heard me and flitted over the wall and in to the field. Time to go..............

Still quite a big crop, but better.

As it happens, the last Woodlark recorded on Unst was just over 23 years ago and in the very same place.

Both Thursday and Friday were a bit of a washout (at least I was at work inside), wet and dull and getting dark by 3.30pm. On Friday afternoon I did go and have a look at Skaw again and as I reached the parking area at the bottom, the Woodlark flew up from the roadside looking rather wet and bedraggled.

Also on Friday, I received some post I'd been looking forward to for a while. It was a new book (or rather a 2nd edition of a book) written by Prof' Mike Harris on the Puffin. It wasn't just because I'd got two pictures in it, but also because it is the book on the Atlantic Puffin. If anyone wants to find out anything about this species, from what I've already seen, it will be in there.

Saturday, was a nice day, so after leaving Sula on Yell to go to Lerwick with friends, Rona and I headed off over to Burrafirth so I could do a quick job and also see a new couple that had recently moved in to one of the Shore Station flats. It was while we were there, I started getting texts from Brydon asking if I'd managed to see the OBP (Olive-backed Pipit) that he'd found at Norwick in the week. I'd recently received a new phone and was still trying to work out how to access the various menus etc (it's one of those android things) until he finally phoned me and said ' There's a Bittern at Haroldswick' . I thought it was a wind up but no, there was one at Haroldswick Pools. The bird was doing what Bitterns do best - being hard to see. Despite the reeds not being particularly tall, the bird managed to remain well hidden for much of the time - except when it wanted to have a look around. Rona and I, sat in the car and watched it for over an hour and a half - or rather I did as Rona was playing on my Ipod, for much of it. We then left for an hour and I later returned until dusk. This is one from Saturday lunchtime............

I had a look at the weather forecast for today, Sunday 20th Nov and the one I saw wasn't too brilliant. However, on mentioning to Sula that I would be going out at sunrise to look for the bird, she was very keen to come - Sula had seen one at Slimbridge many years ago and still remembered it. So on getting up this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see a clear sky to the east and also an orange glow. By 8.20 we were over by the pool and had seen the Bittern feeding, but not for long however, as it took off and landed in the much larger and denser patch of reed at the north end. Fortunately over the next hour and a half, we had some cracking views of a bird I never thought I'd see on Unst; in fact the last one recorded on this island was in 1871 - around 140 years ago !.....................

'Lift Off'

Back home later, I headed off down the field to retrieve the trailcam as the sheep were feeding in that part. I noticed both a Great Northern Diver and the mum and otter cub feeding just offshore from the beach. The GND was too far out for any decent shots, but maybe the otters would come in to range ? Watching GNDs when they dive, I think they must be one of the most graceful surface diving birds. When they dive, they give you an indication they are going under by moving their head and neck back ever so slightly and then slip below the surface with hardly a ripple. Yet when a Shag or Red-breasted Merganser dive, there is so much water splashing about everyone knows about it.

In no time at all, both mum and daughter were out of the water and clambering amongst the seaweed covered rocks which were now exposed by the very low tide. They did a sort of sound check on the barking sheepdogs that were several fields away and then just melted away amongst the rocks for a snooze...............

These two pics are of the cub, now well grown, mum is just out of the frame having a good shake - on a larger pic you can see the water droplets. I waited for half an hour for them to stir, but no sign, so I left them to their slumbers.

Robbie

Well it is mid November !

2011-11-14T20:56:00.002Z

Unsurprisingly, the weather here over the last week has been pretty dreich (dull and gloomy) so it was a pleasant surprise one evening to briefly see a clear sky and a near full moon. I was outside working in my shed during the evening and heard the constant sound of geese and curlew flying over in the moonlight - far better than having music playing. Having the shed is another 'luxury' that I've been waiting for for many years. When I say shed, what I really mean is a place to work without bikes, lawnmowers and other garden implements taking up the space. I'm currently making two windows to replace rotten wooden ones in our front porch. In all of the house/cottage, these are the only wooden ones left out of 19 windows (excluding the sun-room) , the rest being upvc. When I asked the listed buildings person if we could change these two to Upvc to match the rest she said no. This was because as the house was listed with them in, we had to replace them with wood, despite as I have just said, the rest of the house being plastic.

As the weather has been so dull, I've done very little photography this week, also because I've been working over at Burrafirth and up at what will be the new Valhalla brewery at the old RAF base at Saxavord. Yesterday (13th) I did have a quick look up to Lamba Ness. On the way to the end, I was passing the small freshwater lochan - just past the small causeway - and saw two Purple Sandpipers resting at the edge. Firstly it's not very often I see Purp' Sands' on freshwater, but also on this day there was no wind at all and so the lochan was mirror smooth. I almost didn't stop but then thought I'd give it a go to try and get some reflection type shots. Although the light was still pretty bad, I made my way around them to get the light behind me and use the bean bag on the very wet ground for support. The sandpipers were very confiding and allowed me to approach quite close by crawling slowly towards them......................

Purple Sandpiper

I know it would look better without the strip of background running through it, I have cloned it out on another picture but that's cheating - isn't it ? Another option would have been to raise the camera a bit higher by using the tripod (which was back in the car) but maybe that would have lost a bit of the effect.

Back at home I had a bit of fencing to do along at the eastern end of the beach as the sheep in our field have been straying further along the shore. Even though they're not our sheep, I do count them daily and I can't see them all from the house if they go along there. Out on the sound, there were numerous Redbreasted Merganzers, 2 Slavonian Grebes, Great Northern Diver and 1 female Common Scoter - garden tick (there were 3 earlier). I set up the trail camera again as there's been a lot of activity down by the small pool so I wanted to see what was around. The biggest surprise was this morning when I saw it had captured a Water Rail sometime in the night. I would be a garden tick but I can't really count it.......................

It crosses one way and then returns at 15 seconds

Surprisingly, I'm still seeing a hedgehog on a regular basis down at the pool despite the fact we're now in mid November - although it is still quite mild. A small party of Greylags have returned to the field to graze and when you can see the amount of damage they do to a grass field it's no wonder farmers and crofters alike are not their friends. One thing you can see, is that there is always one on the look out - geese are very difficult to take by surprise. The short film below is a sample of what five can do in just over a week........

Greylag Geese

Robbie

Fireworks and Otters

2011-11-07T21:57:00.000Z

This last weekend was after a somewhat dull few days rather pleasant, sunshine, clear skies and not too much wind, so I went out for the morning to just see what was about. Over at Skaw, there were a few common migrants around but, more interesting, was a set of tracks down on the beach. They came out of the sea and then went right up the beach to the grass at the top which is some distance, what is baffling is that they don't appear to go back in to the water again. They had been made as the tide was going out - so the sea hadn't washed away any retuning tracks - and also the first set wouldn't have been so obvious. All I can think is that the return was made via the burn which was around 50-60ft away, but there were no tracks leading to it. The width of the track is around 12 inches so assuming it was made by a seal, then it would have been a pretty small one. It's going to be a mystery that I may never know the answer. Below is a pic................

Tracks at Skaw

Male Blackcap at Skaw

After Skaw, I headed back south towards Baltasound, but just outside of Haroldswick I got the call from Brydon, ' Think we've got a Pine Bunting at Clibberswick'. As I was only 5 minutes away we (I had Rona with me) headed off to see the bird. It was a female and basically it looked like a Yellowhammer but without any yellow - still a pretty little bird though none the less. They breed across most of temperate Asia and winter in Central Asia, North India and Southern China, however, some also winter in NE Italy. We saw it well and watched it for a while, Rona however, said 'birdwatching is boring' - wash your mouth out with soap !................

female Pine Bunting

Saturday evening was spent partly at Uyeasound at the bonfire and fireworks display and then at home having a few beers with Mike and Brydon - the excuse was them finding the the Pine Bunting, but who needs an excuse !

This morning (7th Nov) I thought I'd take a look at the trail cam down the field. There were a number of clips on it, sheep, birds and a rat but only one otter. Setting it up again, I took a stroll along the shore to see if the Snow Bunting was still feeding on the shingle bank. Getting to the Noost I glanced down the jetty and had quite a surprise. There half way down were two sleeping otters curled up in the morning sunshine. As the wind was going straight from me to them, I quickly retreated and fetched the camera. Fortunately I could approach the shingle bank using the lie of the land and with the wind now coming at 45 degrees over my left shoulder, I was safe for now from them catching my scent. I had a little bit of time to spare so I decided to just lie and wait for them to stir. I'm told that during the time they are looking for food, they will hunt for a while, then rest for half an hour and then fish again etc, repeating this until either low or high tide is reached...............

Mum and cub

After about 15 minutes or so, they began to stir. At first the cub wanted a feed but mum wasn't having any of it. So then it began to play around a bit, but she wasn't having any of that either. Eventually, they both stood up and relieved themselves before settling down and curling up again. However, the cub still wanted to play and decided to bite its mums ear which I don't think she was too happy with. I did wonder after seeing the two cubs playing the other day (and was slightly sad with the thought) how this cub possibly felt after loosing its brother or sister and not now having a playmate..............

Mum's on the right

Wakey Wakey

Mum

Daughter

Getting an earful !

Finally they settled down again and so I left them to it. That's the way it should be, unaware that I'd been watching them for a while. However, if they had of got up and gone back in to the water and headed east, they may well of picked up my scent as they swam along the shoreline.

Robbie

Whooper Swans

2011-11-06T19:32:00.000Z

Now we've reached November autumn migration season is now all over bar the shouting so to speak. There has been one or two scare birds around down on Mainland and up here on Unst; this week I had a late Wheatear and for me at least, a very late House Martin at Skaw. In all my years of living down south, I have never had a November House Martin while living in the Cotswolds - even a Swallow was a rare sight. So as far as wildlife here, I'll now be looking for the winter visitors (still with a hope something else may arrive).

One of the most obvious winter visitors has to to be the Whooper Swans which arrive at Easter Loch down in Uyeasound. While there aren't huge numbers- the numbers peak in the mid thirties - they are still a pleasure to see - and hear. Once the cold weather sets in and the loch starts to freeze for any length of time, the birds will then move off south with only one or two remaining. It is one of the pleasures of doing the school run there for the last couple of winters and seeing them every day. Sula now makes it her daily routine of counting the birds as we drive past, with the numbers rising and falling as the birds move around the freshwater lochs to feed. I spent a few hours at the weekend and also at the beginning of the week watching and photographing them as the light was quite good. Again this year, a pair of Mute Swans have returned and often have mild disagreements with the Whoopers over the best places to feed. Here below are a few from Easter Loch........

Mute Swan

Whooper Swans

I don't know why, but I often seem to see Otters most often when the weather is foul, such as in bad light, howling wind or driving rain (or even all of these put together) - like on one day this last week. We were having driving rain from the south east that was almost horizontal so I decided to have a clear out of one of the sheds. As there was plenty of space in one of the Councils community skips over at Haroldswick I thought it would be a good use of the available time. We're very lucky here in that (like most of Shetland) there are skips for house and domestic rubbish - ie diy waste, old sofas etc etc - which are paid for out the council tax. While there may be old rusting machinery etc around the crofts etc, there is very little rubbish dumped on the side of the roads - on Unst at any rate.

Anyway, as I was on one of the numerous journeys along the shore road, I spotted three otters in the water not too far from the road. It was a mother and two very large cubs and the cubs seemed to be having a great time fightings and chasing one another in and out of the water. After a short while, the mum went off to fish and the kids carried on playing, mum then returning after about 5 minutes with a fish. I had a great time watching them and despite the fact she obviously knew I was there - or should I say could see the car - I had around half an hour watching them. The rain was coming in horizontally through the passenger window, but thankfully it was slightly from the side so nothing got on to the front of the lens.....................

Mum and cubs

One of the cubs having a feed from mum

Contentment ?

Waiting for scraps

It would be nice to think that this family are the ones from across the sound who visit our shore and have been reunited with the lost cub. Without any obvious markings it would be difficult to tell, if I'd got some pictures of the chin spots - as in the 3rd picture - then it might be possible. Speaking to Brydon, he's says that there could easily be two families, with one either side of the sound (our shore is only half a mile away ) I had mum and a cub through the trail cam a couple of weeks ago, so I've put it out again to see what I get, it would be nice if there were three again.

I was intending to include what we've been up to over the weekend but the PC is not behaving and takes forever to load pictures, hopefully I can do it tomorrow after giving the computer a bit of a clean out.

Robbie

2011-10-29T20:57:00.001+01:00

After the excitement of the Rubythroat down on Mainland a couple of weeks ago (its still there and is the longest stayer for the species in the UK - 29th Oct) all eyes and ears where looking at the forecast for the following week(s). It was predicted for almost a week of south easterlies and strong ones at that, consequently folk were wondering what might come in on those winds if a Rubythroat could arrive on lesser ones. Well for the first part of this last week it was pretty wild here; however,even though this is only our 4th winter here, I've seen worse. Due to the winds, finding any birds was hopeless either because the vegetation was thrashing about or it was a job to stand upright! Even so, I don't mind wild weather , even if there is not much else going on the sea is often spectacular to watch anyway.....................

The 'Bears Head' (use your imagination) at Norwick

Skaw

Norwick

Lamba Ness looking south west towards Norwick

On Tuesday I had a trip across to Yell to the dentist again. I suppose it could be an unfortunate place to have a dentist, however as it was at Mid Yell, it wasn't too painfull :) I didn't have much time to spare due to ferry connections and also as there was only one ferry running due to a mechanical breakdown, the ferry wasn't staying for long at the pier before heading back across. On the way back, the boat was loaded earlier than normal (usually it's five minutes before departure) and then it waited for a few minutes for some reason. As I stood at the stern of the boat, an otter came out on to the breakwater, shook itself, disappeared in to the rocks then reemerging a few seconds later. I grabbed a few shots but as the light was rather poor, I had to push up the ISO to 4000 in order to try and get a half decent hand holding shutter speed for the long lens...............

By Thursday, the weather had improved no end, slightly less wind (Force6 -F7) and sunshine. There were a few birds around but mostly large numbers of Fieldfares, Redwings and scores of Blackbirds. Also, throughout Shetland, there was an influx of Jackdaws which are thought to originate from Scandinavia. They were mostly in ones or twos but today (29th) I had a flock of 17 here in Baltasound. Some of the birds have a distinct pale collar, which apparently is a sign they are of Scandinavian origin.......................

..... another low light, 4000 iso picture !

On Friday I was still hopeful that something could have come in on the winds so I headed to Skaw again. Walking around the croft, I put up a pipit which flew on to a nearby fence. Looking at the bird I thought 'well, it's not a Meadow' or Tree', what is it?' As it flew off it called and I then thought 'blimey, it could be an OBP' (Olive-backed Pipit). Quickly going and getting the camera, just as I did, the heavens opened, rain, hail and sleet and with a driving wind at that ! Fortunately I managed to re-find it a get a couple of record shots - far more important than any creative portrait type picture in this situation. After the first couple of pictures, it then dived in to the long rough grass in the marsh area, at which point I left it alone. Seeing the pics, I was sure it was an OBP, but later I did contact Brydon - just for confirmation.................

Olive-backed Pipit (OBP)

There were also a few other new birds in - albeit common ones - Blackcaps, Redpolls, a Goldcrest, Bramblings and several Robins................

Female Brambling

If you look closely at the eye of the Brambling, there are some black dots. When I zoomed in, I discovered they look like small mites or such like.

For most of today (29th), the weather has been grey and windy again. Sula was off down in Lerwick so Rona and I had a trip up north - but it was more about looking at the landscape rather than finding wildlife etc. We also had a trip over to Westing to take a look at the 'Stenna Carron' which was passing by again - which I have also mentioned here......................

The mobile drilling ship 'Stenna Carron'

I do quite like this time of year - especially when there is good light. The low angle of the sun can create a lovely atmospheric landscape and one of my favourite locations is on the way to Belmont at the south of the island..................

In the last couple of days, the media has been 'discussing' a proposal for possibly moving the clocks forward an hour permanently. Several folk - on Radio Scotland - were totally against it for a number of reasons. When we thought about it on a day to day basis, we didn't think it would actually make much difference up here. In mid winter it gets light at around 8.30 -8.45 and is going dark again around 2.45 -3pm, so moving it an hour probably wouldn't affect the normal working day very much at all...............

Midday Christmas Eve 2008

Robbie

Bad news, good news

2011-10-22T20:24:00.001+01:00

Well firstly I'll start with some sad (but unfortunately expected - as far as I'm concerned) news. After months and months of consultations and waiting, the Scottish Minister for Education has agreed with the Shetland council that the school in Uyeasound should close. My thoughts are that it had nothing to do with the supposed saving of £100,00 pounds per year (it would most likely have been a lot less than that), but probably more to do with politics - which I prefer to keep away from. However, I still think that the shear amount of time and effort that has been put in by parents,staff and many many other folk was still worth the fight. Despite the result, I personally think it has highlighted how disorganized and (in some cases) badly run the council is - the 12 months to repair the Uyeasound bridge being a good example. The consultation paper seemed to have more holes in it that a well used sieve - they probably spend even more on council meeting lunches and dinners etc. So I was told, there was supposed to have been a risk assessment for the routes that the children would have to walk (or be driven) in order to get the Baltasound school bus (ie pass the loch, sea etc etc) but, so I was told, it was done from a desk in Lerwick ! It will be great loss to the village, which no longer has either a shop or post office and now after Christmas will have no school. It is a ridiculous situation that, even though the school will not be open, it will still have to be maintained etc. Last year when the council produced the blueprint for education, they said that in the event of the school closing, they would then employ a development officer to try and encourage job opportunities and growth in the village - without the school the village is not going to grow ! What a mad world we live in !

Last week, the kids were off school (two and half weeks school holiday) and also Catriona was away in Ethiopia again. The weather forecast didn't look too good for the week so we made the best we could of whatever it threw at us. So while the kids were making their own mini broch on the beach at Norwick, I got to look around Valyie and the surroundings. We had several trips over to Burrafirth and on one occasion I found three Goldfinches feeding alongside the burn there. Coming from down south where I used to have over forty feeding in the garden, to them being an Unst scarce bird is taking some getting used to. In fact, there are certainly many more Barred Warblers, Yellowbrowed Warblers and the like on Unst each year than Goldfinches so to have a flock of three is a a red letter day..................

Goldfinch at Burrafirth

While at home on Wednesday evening (19th Oct), I was running the bath for Rona and while it was filling, I had a look one of the daily bird sightings webs sites. When it loaded, I couldn't believe my eyes - 'male Siberian Rubythroat at Gulberwick, Mainland' . Blinking heck, that was one bird that I (along with probably hundreds of other folk) have always dreamt of seeing. Fortunately, it just so happened, that I was going to Mainland with the kids to meet up with Catriona the next day. Time to change our plans slightly. Returning to the bathroom, the water had now run cold - one wasted bath :(

Fortunately the following morning the bird was still there. So instead of staying in Lerwick, we took the bus down to the airport, 'borrowed' Catriona's car (she wasn't due back until 3.15pm) and went and saw the rubythroat'. Despite the fact for most of the time the bird (when it did show) was several hundred yards away in someones rather large garden, it was well worth it. It was just stunning in the midday sunshine. On the whole, everyone was generally well behaved and just enjoyed seeing the bird; apart from one occasion when it appeared close by, when it became a bit of a scrum as folk serged forward to get the 'shot of a lifetime' - and we were at the wrong end ! The two pictures below don't do the bird justice really. As it was so far away, I stacked both the 1.4 and the 2x on the 500 in order to get a record shot, resulting in very low quality pictures......................

.......a quality bird if not quality pictures, male Siberian Rubythroat

After staying for a couple of hours we heading down to the airport to meet Catriona. As we left, I saw three guys (who were obviously birders and were travelling light) hiring a car. It wasn't long after, that they sped past us and 4 or 5 other cars through a village - with a 50mph speed limit - driving like idiots. Sula wanted to go back and have another look at the bird and as we arrived, the folk from the car had not long got there also. Later that evening, I looked on the birding forum and one of these guys had made a comment about the bird not being seen and the situation not being helped by 'noisy local photographers' (not us I hasten to add). I made a comment regarding the driving and the reply was - "time was of the essence dear chap its called twitching don't you know" . Trouble is with this sort of attitude is we, (resident birders here) have to then repair the 'damage' caused by it. Also, the only 'dear' bit is the cost of them getting up here at short notice. I saw on the forum that some folk had been quoted from between £600 and £1300 pounds - just to come for one or two nights, each to their own I suppose. The other thing here is that if it hadn't been for possibly one of the 'noisy local photographers' they'd not have had a bird to come up and see ! End of rant ............................... :)

On a much more pleasing note, last week I opened the October issue of 'Birdwatch' magazine to discover that my picture of the Pallid Harrier here on Unst had made ' Rarity Photo of the Month'. I knew it was going to be in there but that was a bonus.............

Pallid Harrier at Nordale

Robbie

2011-10-15T10:45:00.000+01:00

Here we are at the end of another week and a week that was pretty poor for birds at that. I've had a birding friend staying here this week and I would guess he's gone home a little disappointed with the lack of both common and less common migrants. I know the feeling only too well, you've gone somewhere for a holiday or break, have a preconceived idea of either what should - or could - be there and for what ever reason, it doesn't really happen. That certainly happened when we went to Spain in the summer, I knew what should be around, but didn't consider the time of year and hey presto, very few small birds around. This has happened to Tim this week, last year at this time was very good, earlier on at the end of September here wasn't bad, then the wind changes to the west and no birds (or a few anyway). Speaking to Brydon yesterday, he says that it's been one of the worst autumn migration periods for years and it doesn't look like it's going to improve over the next few weeks.

When I went to pick up Tim last Saturday from Sumburgh, there were a few less common birds around. I knew there were a couple he wanted to get, so, with time to spare I went and sussed them out beforehand. The first was a Citrine Wagtail at Fleck, fortunately it was still around and was still there (after a lot of waiting for it to show) for Tim to add it to his 'Life List'....................

Citrine Wagtail at Haroldswick (from a couple of years back)

From there, we then headed over to Quendale to try and re-find the Isabelline Shrike. I'd seen it earlier ( a lifer for me) and hoped it was still viewable for Tim. Speaking to others, the bird was still around but was elusive. Finally after half an hour, the bird gave up its location due to a scolding wren and was already settling down to roost for the night in a small garden hedge. The bird must have been so confident in its chosen roost site that it let us approach to with in 5 or 6 ft. As well as this bird, we had several views of a Hen Harrier around the area.............

Isabelline Shrike (from earlier in the day)

Most of the week that followed, took a similar pattern. Tim would go out for a walk before breakfast, I'd then take him out in the car around the island, trying to cover most off the likely spots for any migrants that may have dropped in; Skaw, Lamba Ness, Norwick, Valyie, Haroldswick, Burrafirth, Halligarth, Westing etc. I think over the week, we saw the same birds at the same locations, Pied Fly' at Valyie, Blackcaps at Norwick and Willow Warbler in Baltasound etc etc. Probably the only surprise for me was a late pale phase Arctic Skua at Lamba Ness midweek.

For Tim however, unlike many of our other visitors, he was very fortunate in one area, otters. Over a couple of days he had 6 sightings, including a very close one at Westing..................

While I've said there hasn't been many scare migrants around, earlier on last week, we did have a large number of Redwings and Fieldfares pass through. Most have now moved on south, but there are still a few about. The first one I saw this year was way back in early September in Haligarth.

Robbie

Just a quickie

2011-10-11T20:00:00.001+01:00

Just a big sorry if anyone has received a suspect email/link that has come from me. It appears that I've had a worm or virus get in to my email address book and is sending out a link to a website which has nothing to do with me at all. If I do get any emails with a subject called 'Business Week' just delete straight away, for the time being I'll reply using my ipod which hopefully will be ok.

Back here on Unst, things are pretty quiet - in fact it's quite poor - with regards to any migrants, the winds have been wrong for several weeks now and so it seems that the autumn migration is over for this year. There is still time for some birds to come through - Waxwings for instance and maybe a few buntings or finches. For the last two weeks we've had either relations or friends staying so I've not done much solo wildlife stuff. Hopefully next week things will be back to normal - what ever 'normal' is !

Robbie

Far eastern 'Flava'(our) !

2011-10-06T21:08:00.000+01:00

Lots of Shetland birders will tell you that one of the exiting things about being here is that you really don't know what's around the next corner. The other week (29th Sept) was one of those moments........

I was just off to take Rona to Brownies at 6.30pm; we had only driven 15 feet on to the drive from in front of the house, when I saw a bird out of the corner of my eye. All I saw was a grey and white bird fly off a short way but I had no idea what it was. Quickly stopping the car, I saw it was a wagtail - but not a White or Pied; so the first thought was Citrine. Grabbing the camera, I got some shots in the by now, rapidly fading light. The bird flew off a short way again and landed on our boundary wall to the west. Approaching the bird carefully, I got to within 20ft before it flew off again, emitting a loud 'shreep, shreep' sort of noise. I found it again, this time on the road at the top of our drive, unfortunately it didn't stay there long as a car came along and so it took off and I lost it.

Listening to the Citrine Wagtail call on my Ipod it certainly sounded similar, but the plumage of the bird didn't quite fit. So I thought it must be a race of Yellow Wagtail, but there was nothing in the Collins book that came close to it. An hour later I managed to send some pics to Brydon and he thought it probably was an Eastern Yellow Wag' but would ask Martin (Garner) for his opinion later. Martin is leading a wildlife tour for Brydon up here at the moment and is an expert in the finer details of bird id. If I'd had the chance to sound record the bird, then a more accurate location of where the bird originated from would have been possible using sonagrams etc. As it is, Martin suggested that this bird could possibly have originated from far eastern Siberia; wow, and it ended up by our front door ! ('Flava' is part of the Latin name for Yellow Wagtail).........

'Eastern' Yellow Wagtail - at 2000 ISO

A few days later, I returned to Belmont House to try for the Black-headed Bunting again now that the 'crowds' had gone. I had seen it the previous week but had only got a really poor record shot and so wanted to try again. Getting down there around nine on the Sunday morning, the sun was out and still fairly low in the sky and I had the place to myself for a while. While I didn't get the bird on a natural perch I was happy with this as when it was on the ground it was very difficult to see.........

Imm' Black-headed Bunting

I finally managed to get a short avi sorted of the aurora we had here just over a week ago, it's straight out of the camera - so there's no sharpening etc but I though it would give an idea of what it was like. Again its 174 images, put together at a rate of 8 frames a second approximately......................

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned here that the otter family had lost one cub. Well sadly it seems that they haven't been reunited. Yesterday I had two otters pass the trail camera and they are possibly the mum and other cub..............

Chatting to Brydon about it, he said that anything thing could have happened to it - and often does to young cubs - and that if it was a male, it could easily have been killed by a dog otter who felt threatened by the presence of a young male in the locality.

Since the sighting of the Pallid Harrier, there have steadily been more and more sightings of Hen Harriers around the island. It now appears that there at least 3 here as they have been seen roosting communally in the north of the island. After a brief view of one across the sound from the garden last week, I had one fly across the field and north over the sound at 6pm this evening (as I was talking to the BT guy) presumably on its way to roost somewhere.

Robbie

BT or not BT that is the question

2011-10-06T16:50:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I had started one but last Friday our broadband went down and still isn't working. Contacting BT last Monday, they came up with the usual remedies of un plugging wires etc. This was despite me telling the person that there were numerous people here with the same problem (I learnt today there were 30 folk with no Internet ) BT finally came up and fixed the problem at the exchange, but we still have problems with the line. I spoke to the engineer at the exchange who tested the line and confirmed it was their problem. My problem is that I now have to ring the call centre again to report a fault and spend another 30 minutes answering questions to which I already know the answer.
Robbie

Aurora

2011-09-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

As said in the last post, we had a spectacular aurora last night. It started with a green glow and a few 'curtains' which then transformed in to a single line across the sky from the east to the western horizon. If it hadn't been for the fact it was green, it could have been mistaken for a very wide jet vapor trail. This then changed in to a sort of rosette almost immediately above the house with long streamers hanging down in all directions. Gradually, almost the whole of the northern half of the sky turned green and then over in the east a narrow column of red and pink appeared. This then also grew. I think in future I'll set up two cameras, one to take time lapse and the other to just take single pictures. Last night, there was so much going on and there were so many possibilities for trying to get images, one camera wasn't enough - time to dust off the 40D I think.

The pictures below don't do it justice or convey the 'out of this world' experience, I had hoped to put up a short avi (video) of it, but for some reason the pc just won't process it this time. The pictures were taken using a tripod, 30 seconds exposure @ f5, ISO800, 10mm wide angle lens. The last one is 174 images 'stacked together using 'Startrails' - I'm not too happy with the result but very happy to get the opportunity !........................

'First light'

174 'stacked' images

From looking on the internet, here in the UK it was visible at least as far south as Northumberland. With more auroras forecast, I'll certainly be looking skywards. Last night I turned in sometime after midnight as it had clouded over, so was very surprised this morning to see a relatively clear sky at sunrise - and what a sunrise it was (but it didn't last). I grabbed the camera just as it was coming up over towards Balta Isle at 7am....................

Robbie

2011-09-26T23:29:00.000+01:00

Well the weather and winds did produce a few rare birds around the place but not here. A few more Yellow-broweds' were around the place and that was about it for Unst, the rest were birds that had been around for a while and had stayed put. Over the weekend I also stayed put so to speak as Catriona was working and I was to be 'in charge' of the kids. I took advantage of that and did a bit more fencing in the field for next year when I want to plant a few more trees and maybe a few berry bearing strubs. Putting in the strainer posts (9 inches in diameter and 7ft long) is very hard work in most of the ground here; no machinery for me, just a long metal bar and a post hole tool - like a long pair of tongs but with a pair of narrow spades at the end. Some of the posts (I've got ten to put in) took an hour and a half to 'plant' due to the rocks, thankfully I've only got four more to do.

While outside, I saw a small wader fly in to the tidal pool at the eastern end of the field, it was quite along way off but I couldn't put a label to it. Going back to get the scope, I returned to discover it had been disturbed by the otters - I never thought I'd be annoyed at otters being present ! However, one of the cubs was calling, so I assumed it had lost its mum. I was wrong, it had lost its brother or sister as mum was there also. Both of them were anxiously looking and the young cub was constantly calling. They were heading in my direction and as the wind was wrong I was going to be rumbled no matter what I did; even if I retreated back up the field, they'd still catch my scent. I lay in the grass and just hoped the wind would carry my scent over their heads, but no, even though they didn't see me, they got a whiff and headed back eastwards - but not in a panic but still all of the time looking around for the lost one............

Later on in the afternoon, I saw a small wader again over near the pool. Fetching the camera, I managed to get a few shots of the bird in the now very poor light. It certainly looked like a Dunlin, but it wasn't really behaving like one. As it moved around, it would constantly move its head back and forwards in the same rhythmic manner as say a wagtail would move its tail or a Common Sandpiper would bob up and down. It was a piece of behaviour I'd not seen before.........

Dunlin

Not long after seeing the Dunlin, I heard the call of the otter cub again, the cub and mum were still looking for the other one, lets just hope they get reunited before too long. I've now done a short compilation of some of the otter trail cam videos which, for the moment is here on Youtube

This evening (26th Sept) at around 9.45pm, I looked outside as there was an aurora prediction. Sure enough, there was a green glow to the north east with a few 'curtains spreading down so I went and set the camera up facing north east. Over the next hour, to an hour and a half, I, along with Sula, had a wonderful sight of the aurora from east to west directly over Ordaal. I can't really describe it but it was almost a 'Joanna Lumley moment' as we now call it - like when she saw the aurora in northern Lapland in a tv documentary a few years ago and was spellbound by it. It's now 11.30pm and the pictures are downloading to the pc, so I'll post a picture etc tomorrow evening.

Robbie

What storm ?

2011-09-20T21:47:00.001+01:00

Last week, we were all getting ready for gales, which, according to the weather folk, were on their way. They were due to come from the south east and so, some folk at least, were rubbing their hands with the thought of some wild weather bringing some wind blown rarities to these islands. Wind, what wind ? It passed us by, heading out in to the North Sea much further south and all we got was a force 5 and a bit of swell. There's another weather warning for this weekend, again from the southeast which is then going to swing around to the northwest, we'll see if that happens or if anything turns up.

On the wildlife front it's been a bit of a mixed couple of weeks up here. There has been a few things around but much of it is stuff that's been here for a while. The day my father in law left and Catriona went away for a few days (last Tuesday), I took a quick look around up north for an hour and found a female Pintail in the pool at the end of Lamba Ness and four Snow Buntings (the 1st for me for this winter) and also a few Bonxies sitting around in the rain...........

Female Pintail

Bonxie

Going on down to Valyie, I found a Yellow-browed Warbler, Barred Warbler and later on in the fading light, I had a Yellow-browed in the garden at home - another garden 'tick'.

By the following morning, the Yellow-browed had departed from the garden which was a shame as it should have been relatively easy to get some good shots of it. It was forecast for another windy couple of days and the wind was to be in the south east again, so maybe a few more migrants ? While up at Lamba Ness watching the passing Gannets as they sped past in the brisk south easterly, I saw a whale feeding a few hundred yards off from the headland. There was something about the way it was surfacing which didn't seem to be like I've seen Minke Whales behave. Instead of it briefly showing its head and then going 'over' in a quite fast dive, this one seemed to hold its head up and slightly out of the water, leaving it exposed for several seconds before dropping back down below the surface. When I've watched Minke feeding, there often isn't enough time to get a headshot before they disappeared again. There had been a Sei Whale down at Firths Voe, North Mainland a couple of weeks ago, so I'm wondering if this could have been the same one. If it was a Minke however, maybe it was the sea conditions that caused it to surface like it did, I'll have to try and find out...............

Minke Whale ?

In many parts of the country down south, House Sparrows are in a steep decline; however, the same can't be said for here on Unst. Since I started putting food out for birds in the garden last January, the numbers of House Sparrows coming has steadily risen from just two to over twenty at a time. The seed feeder I use is a six port one (around 18 inches long) and that often gets emptied by lunchtime - often only 5 hours after filling it up. Hopefully these birds may bring in a passing Tree Sparrow - they do turn up annually despite the lack of lots of trees. Quite a number of crofters grow oats for their ponies and when it is cut, the oats are stacked in the traditional way in stooks. These also attract quite large flocks of sparrows and other finches and also Skylarks that forage around the bases.

House Sparrow on an oat stook

Around the garden, the willow 'whips' are doing really well and are growing at a rapid rate of knots. Some of them in the better soil, have now grown between 12 and 18 inches since they were put in back in early May. It's been suggested to me that in October I should cut them back hard in order to encourage growth lower down the stem. The thought of this is quite hard to take on board considering how long it normally takes plants to grow up here, however, seeing how these have done this year, I think I'll give it a go.

I still get a visit from a solitary otter past the trail cam; at the moment however, it seems to be coming past in the same direction each day so it spends less time in view than if it were travelling the other way. I could move it, but then I'd have to either cross its run to get to the camera or take a long walk around and along the shore to get to it. I think I may try the second approach and leave it set for a week. I saw the otter family again today along the shore. They seemed to be really enjoying themselves playing down in the water but due to the strong southerly wind, I resisted trying to get close as they'd have picked up my scent a long time before I'd got close.

I was recently talking to someone about some of the large vessels that we see travelling past the island. Apart from some rather large cruise ships (which are usually either going to or from a visit to Lerwick) there are some pretty impressive working craft that we see off shore. Three of the largest I've seen so far have been in the last twelve months or so. The first one was a mobile drilling rig called the Stena Carron, which is one of - if not the - largest mobile drilling rigs in the world. It was this ship that Greenpeace members attached themselves to the anchor chain last year in protest to drilling exploration - more here, and more info on the ship is here ................

Stena Carron (no apologies for the quality)

The next one which was around for a while was the 'Audacia' which was laying gas pipes to both east and west Shetland - more info here ...........................

'Audacia' in Yell Sound

Finally the last and most certainly the biggest, was here on the east side of Unst on the 1st July this year. It was the Saipem 7000 floating crane and is the 2nd largest in the world. I woke up one morning and looked out over towards The Keen of Hamar and this thing was showing above it (the Keen of Hamar is 89 metres at the top). I then went around to Haroldswick to take a look and to be honest was amazed at the size of the structure.............

Saipem 7000

I'm not really in to engineering stuff normally, but when I read the specs' and see the scale of these things I find it amazing. The ship alongside is the 'Normand Cutter' which is 127.5 meters long and is 10,979 tonnes; so to put it in perspective, the Northlink ferry the Hrossey is 125 metres long and is just over 11,000 tonnes and can take 600 passengers and 140 cars. For more facts about this have a look here .

Robbie

Calm before the storm ?

2011-09-10T22:09:00.001+01:00

After having a few good birds around during the past couple of weeks, this last week has been relatively quiet. We've had my father in law staying for a week so although I've still been going out daily, we've not seen that much around. The wind has been mostly north or westerly and generally cloudy with showers. At the start of the week, we headed over to Skaw and Lamba Ness and had over 20 Sanderlings and a Bar-tailed Godwit at Skaw and a new Shetland bird for me in the shape of a Grey Plover out on the headland at Lamba Ness.................

Grey Plover

The Pallid Harrier has still been on the island for most of the week although it eluded us - Ian (my father-in -law) particularly would have liked to have seen it. However, from N-in-S sightings it seemed to have moved down to the south of Unst around Snarravoe. This area is quite large and isn't easily accessed, only by a long walk from either the Westing road or down by Belmont.

We did get a few other birds though, namely Rosefinch, Barred and Wood Warbler, Spot' Fly' and a Whitethroat at Skaw. It was this last bird that caused me (yes, I'm happy to admit it) a few identification problems for a while - until I was brought down to earth by a friend ! When we saw it a Skaw it looked very pale and, as is often the case when you see something out of context, I thought it must be something unusual. However, looking back, we should have really noticed that it does indeed have a - whitethroat ! ..............

Back at home one morning, I was out by the shed when I heard the faint sound an otter calling from down towards the sound. Going down to the noost, I could see them along the shore some way away to the east. Both cubs (which are now quite large) were playing amongst the seaweed as mum fished just off shore. In the past I'd have gone straight back for the camera but as it would be quite difficult to get close with out disturbing them, I decided to just watch them instead - the otters welfare must always come first. After five minutes or so of play, mum came ashore with a fairly large Lumpsucker fish, it was immediately grabbed by one of the cubs, which was then chased for another five minutes the other cub who wanted a 'piece of the action' so to speak. After five more minutes I left them to it, still chasing around amongst the seaweed.

Friday 9th September

The morning of the 9th of September was a lovely morning. It was also my birthday. I wasn't allowed to get up around 7am as I normally do, today I was to have breakfast in bed, made by my eldest daughter Sula (with help from Rona). So I waited, and waited, until around 7.45am she arrived with a freshly made pancake - and very nice it was too. This was all well and good, but it was also a beautiful still, calm, sunny morning and I could see otters out in the sound - they too must have known it was my birthday. Finally, just after eight I managed to get outside. I was on my way to check the Rosa for any possible overnight migrants, when I saw the otter family down the bottom of the field, just over the wall. The kids were still playing (the otter cubs that is) and mum was constantly scenting the air and looking around in the direction of any nearby loud noise - which on this still morning could have been half a mile away across the sound. I could have watched them for ages as they fished just off shore, however, a quick look at the time and sadly it was time to do the school run. (returning an hour later they were still in the vicinity)

The rest of the day was spent either out and about with Ian or, later at home enjoying a nice birthday meal and then time outside with the family as the sun set over towards Valla Field at around 7.45pm. It was a lovely evening, as the sun sank down, Grey-lag Geese circled around calling, silhouetted against the orange glow and Curlews called from down by the shore. The temperature had a distinctly autumnal feel about it - any warmer and the midges would have been out - the calm before the storm maybe ? (gales are forecast)

Returning in later, I checked my emails to discover an aurora warning from here which is one of several sites I check, the other which I've mentioned before is this one - http://www.spacew.com/www/aurora.php. In early September I wouldn't expect to see an aurora as if it was to be a clear night, there could still be light from the setting sun until quite late, plus on this night, there was an almost full moon. I looked out again later around 11.30pm (after several whiskeys - well it was my birthday) to see a definite glow to the north. I wasn't seeing things, there was an aurora although not particularly spectacular. On any other occasion I'd have gone up north to Lamba Ness, but due to the 'night cap', I thought it best not to. While I certainly wouldn't encourage drink driving, we are still without a policeman here after more than a month - but soon to get a new one.

As it turned out, the aurora was actually quite a good one - but as I said I didn't see it for long. This evening while we were out for a meal, I met a couple on holiday here who I'd met last year over at Lund. The had camped (in a Landrover) over at Norwick last night and had seen the auroral curtains and all, they said it was fantastic show. (by coincidence, they now live 2 miles from where Sula and Rona went to school in the Cotswolds - small world).

8pm looking west from home

Robbie

Pallid' take 2

2011-08-30T20:43:00.000+01:00

I did say I wasn't going to post for a few days but after this morning I couldn't resist it !

It was a fine morning and after having two trips to Uyeasound school (Sula forgot her fiddle, but at least I did see two Slavonian Grebes on the 2nd trip) I headed around to the shop in Baltasound for some milk and stuff. Just as I was leaving, Willy - the crofter from Northdale - pulled along side and said he'd had a harrier there down by the burn. Asking 'how long ago?' , he replied 'about 10 minutes' - I don't need telling twice, I was off !

Getting down there, I started scanning the fields and fence posts but to no avail. Driving along to the pull-in by the burn, I scanned the fields and marsh again, straining my eyes to the distance in the hope of seeing the bird but to no luck. After a further 5 minutes I decided to drive on up to the croft and have a look around there. Just as I was about to start the engine, I looked in front of me (as you would I suppose when you move forward in a car) when suddenly it hit me. There in front of me less that 50yds away was the Pallid Harrier, it was sitting quietly on the small dead tree at the side of the burn preening. When Willy had said it was down by the burn, I presumed he meant it had been flying along by it ; when he drove down the road, he would have been less than 12ft away from the bird. I had been totally engrossed in looking across the fields and marsh I'd not seen it right under my nose.

All I had to do now was to try and get the car door open without spooking the bird, easier said than done. With the door open and the bean bag resting on the hinge point, I managed over 60 shots in around 5 minutes, all with the bird totally at ease. I don't think it can get any better than that, a quality experience..................

Juvenile Pallid Harrier

Robbie

Wet, Wet, Wet..........

2011-08-28T21:12:00.000+01:00

........ although not as wet as 'across the pond'.

Two posts today as I'm just trying to get up to date with stuff - so there may not be another for a few days.

Saturday 27th August

Just as it was forecast, it has been a very wet and windy weekend here on Unst. It was a great shame as it was the annual Unst show here in Baltasound and a lot of time and effort had gone in to the event. My two had been planning for months what they wanted to enter in to the various competitions and as always, they left it until the last few days to actually do anything about it !

The morning started off reasonable - drizzle and a force 4 or 5, however, by midday it was pretty horrible and I felt for the folk who were exhibiting livestock outside. I had 'volunteered' to do a stint on the burger stand (inside a largish covered trailer) for two hours but that was cut to one after I had been asked and then me offering, to stand in for the photographic competition judge who couldn't make it.

I'm not sure of the number of entries for the photo comp, it must have been 70 or 80, so I take my hat off to those who judge 100s at a national level. The standard was quite high with all sorts of sizes, mounted and unmounted, colour and black and white entered in to the nine competition categories. Even though there were no names on the pictures obviously, I knew a number of the photographs from either the subjects ie their children or even one or two, by the style, so that didn't help either.By far the highest number of entrants was for the sea scape category with around 30 images.

A couple from a very wet Unst show

Sunday 28th August

Another wet day with wind still in the north and is set to be so for most of the week, although the strength will die back. As it was the monthly Baltasound farmers market today, the kids were up early doing some baking to help Shalder House crèche as they were providing 'tea and fancies' (cakes etc) in the hall. As usual they were a bit behind with their timing so I went to set up the trail cam' down the field. I'd not had it set up for a few days due to the heavy rain as I tend to get too many false triggers from the rain in front of the motion sensor.

Walking on along the shore, I reached the remains of the old wall which formed part of a shed by the noust (a cleared part of a beach where boats were hauled up). Suddenly I had a very strong smell of fish being wafted towards me by the north wind, carefully I looked over the 4-5ft wall and saw two otter cubs feeding below me in the seaweed with the female not far away on the slipway. I returned to the house to fetch the camera hoping they'd be still there when I returned - which thankfully they were. Taking a few pictures (and some video) I didn't want to be discovered as they've only recently started using this piece of coastline. As I watched, I suddenly realized that one of the cubs had come up on to the grassy bank just 10 ft away and was looking me in the eye. It turned in a flash and was back in the water, blast ! Fortunately it didn't spook the other two and was soon back by its brother or sister, then moving over to its mum to groom just beyond the sheep fence by the jetty.

At that moment, my phone rang. Double blast ! At least the sound of a Great Northern Diver as a ring tone is less likely to spook them than a piece of pop music or similar. They carried on as before fortunately. Next I heard one of the kids calling from up the field, it was Sula and she was running down the field, triple blast! I managed to tell her (without me shouting) to be quiet and so she then had really good views of the family. as well. We left them to it and went to the farmers market...................

Feeding Otter cub

Despite the weather, I didn't want to spend 2 hours at the market and as the girls were helping, I decided to go over to Skaw for a quick trip (15 minutes each way didn't give me long). On the way over, Mike P sent me a text to say he'd just had the Pallid Harrier at Northdale, which was good, so maybe one or two other folk may get to see it. Reaching Skaw, I walked over the bridge and up the hill past the croft, a Barred Warbler took off and circled around below me shortly followed by the Yellow Wagtail which I'd seen a couple of days ago. I then saw a very pale warbler fly off around the back, time to go and get the camera. A few minutes later and I'd 'nailed' the bird, but what was it ? I'd had to hand hold the long lens, so I hoped that it would be sharp enough for a semi decent picture considering the lighting etc. The bird turned out to be a Booted Warbler, almost certainly the pale bird that both Brydon and Mike had seen last week but didn't manage to pin down for a positive ID....................

Booted Warbler

Booted Warblers breed from central Russia to western China and winters in the Indian subcontinent as far south as Sri Lanka, so it is quite a long way off course.

Robbie

'Fall' time?

2011-08-28T11:40:00.001+01:00

I believe that in the States, 'The Fall' is the autumn when the trees loose their leaves, well for me here on Unst where large trees are non existent, 'The Fall' could or should be when the autumn migration starts. From now on at this time of year, almost all birders up here on Shetland are watching the weather forecasts with a hope that the winds will be in the south east quarter to blow migrants heading south down through Scandinavia (and further east) across to the islands. The forecast for part of the week was just that and coupled with a forecast of rain, gave hope for a 'fall' of migrants - when more than the usual numbers appear. After a couple of days of fine weather early on in the week, Wednesday night provided the rain and so for Thursday it looked promising. Late on the Wednesday evening I got a call from Brydon to say he'd had a brief view of 'something different' at Skaw, a warbler of some kind but he wasn't sure what as he couldn't pin it down in the fading light.

Thursday morning was fine and bright, the rain had passed through, so after the school run I took a look up north to Skaw hopeful that there maybe a few migrants in. There were certainly migrants around - mainly Willow Warblers and Wheatears - but also Garden Warbler, Reed Warbler, Whinchat, 11 Sanderlings, Common Sandpiper and a Cuckoo; but no 'unusual' warbler................

Wheatear

Cuckoo

Sanderling

Leaving Skaw, I had a quick look in at Valyie down in Norwick. The garden and surrounding vegatation there is a real magnet for migrants. Its' on a south east facing, hill side gully which is sheltered from most cold northerlies, hence the abundance of shrubs and small trees - planted by generations of crofters living there. The wind had dropped off considerably so now there was the midge menace to contend with. So on getting sprayed up with 'skin so soft' (best midge repellent as far as I'm concerned) I headed off up the hill. Up in Valyie I had Spot Fly', Garden Warbler, a brief view of a Barred Warbler and a stunning close up of a Wryneck as it fed 15ft from me on a fence post.

Returning to the car, I then heard the unmistakable sound of crows mobbing something. Looking across Norwick Meadows (roughly south), I saw 3 Hoodies mobbing a harrier and they were heading straight for me. Fortunately, they came right over my head which gave cracking views and also enabled me to fire off a load of pictures. It was no 'ordinary' harrier however as the underside of the body was very orange in colour and un-streaked. The only harrier recently recorded on N in S was a juv' Pallid down on Noss a few days ago, maybe. just maybe this was the bird? Unfortunately, as I was in the Audi, I didn't have a guide book with me so I phoned Brydon for his opinion, he agreed - as I'd hoped - that it sounded like the Pallid. The only other harrier it could be due to the colouring was a juv' Montague's which however, is subtlety different. Montague's Harrier is even rarer on Shetland than Pallid despite there only having been around 27 or 28 sightings of Pallid in the UK. On getting home later, I checked the books and was convinced it was a Pallid but was even happier when it was confirmed by Mike and Brydon later. It's without doubt, that without me having a digital camera with me at the time, the bird would have been recorded as a 'possible' record.

Digital photography has revolutionized bird recording enabling quicker and more detailed identification of the trickier species. I have since learned that two of the key ID features of juv' Pallid Harriers are the pale neck collar and just behind it the dark neck 'boa', so without a picture I'd certainly not have picked up on them. But then that also comes down to experience with a species or groups of species. Someone I know who is the editor of a bird journal, said a while ago that with the arrival of digital SLRs, peoples ability to write a good description of a sighting is being lost. All I can say is thank goodness for digital as I wasn't very good at doing that in the first place !

Back at home, I was just as delighted to get two more garden 'ticks', namely a Pied Flycatcher and a Wryneck...........

Wryneck

The nice weather was not going to last however as there was heavy rain and very strong northerly winds forecast for Friday night and Saturday; time to get the grass strimmed and mowed. The afternoon was spent (school run aside) at home mowing and waiting for the boiler man to come as we have problem with the boiler. Thankfully, despite opinions from local folk that he wouldn't show (he has a reputation for being VERY difficult to get hold of) he did arrive and is hopefully coming back on Monday to repair it. At least it started playing up now rather than in the middle of winter. I had discovered from the previous owner that it hadn't been serviced in years, a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' ? There is a regulation for gas boilers that (if the house is rented out) they should be serviced every year, maybe it should be the same for oil ones to ?

Robbie

'The best is yet to come'

2011-08-22T19:09:00.001+01:00

17th August

Getting back in to the 'swing' of life here, I spent most of the afternoon cutting grass and doing a spot of strimming. While I want to keep a lot of the land around the house fairly wild (some would say abandoned) I still need to keep some of it under control otherwise the front lawn etc will soon be back to how it was. During a quick trip to the garage, I came across a rather nice Ruff near Buness. At first it was quite nervous but soon started feeding again and came relatively close to the roadside....................

Ruff

By Unst standards, it was now quite warm - at least 17 degrees! - so even some of the birds were 'taking some sun', the two birds below were quite un-bothered by me......

Immature Blackbird

Immature Wren

19th August

I can't remember who sang it, but I can remember a pop song with a tag line something like 'it can only get better' or words to that effect. Well at the moment it'll take some beating. I went out mid morning and watched an otter at Haroldswick that just seemed to be enjoying in the water, it was rolling around and just lying on its back in the still, blue sea without it seemed, a care in the world. Returning home, I got a text from my friend Brydon, 'did I fancy a boat trip?' , too right I would. So, getting my 'pass out' for the afternoon from Catriona (thanks Catriona), I met up with Brydon at just after two pm. I then had a shock to find I'd lost two 8gb cf cards, I couldn't believe it as I'm usually so careful about such things. Oh well, looking for those will have to wait, we were off to Burra Firth.

Brydon had arranged for the two of us to go out with Peter Hunter from Uyeasound for a few hours off of Muckle Flugga and try and get some shots of the Gannets/Bonxies etc and maybe Minkie whales which had been feeding there over the last couple of days.

At around 2.30 we set off out from the Shore Station jetty and across to the east side of the firth. Across there is a very large sea cave/tunnel that in very calm conditions can been sailed through and today was one of those days. It wasn't our intension to go through it, but on arriving at the larger entrance, Peter decided to go for it, all I can say is WOW. Putting the wide angle on, upping the ISO to 1000, I thought it would do the trick. I was wrong and hadn't allowed for how long the tunnel was, so the shots were a little shaky to say the least.

Going in, we were already under a large overhang

Coming out the other end

I can't begin to imagine what the force of the water must be like coming through there during a winters storm. From here we rounded the Hermaness headland and headed down the west side to the gannet cliffs around The Neap. As far as I'm concerned, these gannet cliffs are only bettered by those of the St Kilda group, so these are pretty good. Seeing them from the sea gives a totally different perspective and this alone makes trying to capture them in a picture even more difficult..................

A couple of shots of the west cliffs, the place most photographers go to get in-flight shots is the right hand end of the lower picture (do you recognize it, Graham and Sue ?)

I took this using the 500 from the boat (not easy). Overall I was unhappy with the pictures of the birds in flight as the pictures looked almost blurry despite the fact I was using at least 2000 second shutter speed with the 70-200. Dave C mentioned on his blog a while ago that he was wondering about the image stabilizer sometimes making images un-sharp. I'm wondering if this was the case here, combined with being on a boat as well. Peter had brought along a large bucket of fish to try and get the gannets to dive near the boat but unfortunately they were quite reluctant and only the odd one or two dived. Bonxies however weren't quite so shy..............

The experience of hundreds of gannets and scores of Bonxies overhead is impossible to convey here so here is just two pictures taken with the wide angle...........

After the best part of an hour, we headed back up past 'the Flugga' to have a look in the area that the Minkie's had been feeding the previous evening. Sadly they were nowhere to be seen. We headed back towards the lighthouse to have look around that area.............

Muckle Flugga lighthouse

This is where another line from a song comes to mind - 'the best is yet to come' (from a Clifford T Ward song I think). As we got closer to 'the Flugga', Peter asked if I'd ever been on there, 'no' was my obvious reply. We then headed for a rusty vertical ladder on the side of small rough concrete wall that descended in to the calm(ish) blue water. Double Wow !

Landing would have been a lot easier if I'd had the use of both hands as my right hand was holding the camera - I don't usually use a neck strap, preferring a hand strap. Once up the ladder, it was a short walk along a concrete pathway, down a 5ft rocky step, another short walkway and then a climb of over 300 steps up a galvanized stairway to the top. Landings on Flugga don't happen too often due to the weather and any swell from almost any direction can make things quite tricky. In the days when it was occupied and before helicopters, men could be stranded there for several months if the conditions were against them. The task of building it must have been a colossal undertaking, more info about it can be found here . We only had around 15 minutes on there, but it will be 15 minutes I'll remember for the rest of my life............

The landing point with Out Stack in the background

The route up (marked red)

Looking back to Saxa Vord and Hermaness

In no time at all, we were soon down and back on the boat and heading away from Flugga, Peter opened the throttle of the engine and we started to speed back towards Burra Firth. Suddenly he shut the engine down and shouted to us, there was a Basking Shark just next to the boat. We grabbed a few shots as it swam towards some rough water between Flugga and Out Stack and it was then soon lost. A brief encounter but a great way to end the day. Thanks guys...........

Basking Shark

Robbie

15th August - another early start

2011-08-20T18:53:00.000+01:00

After several days back in the Cotswolds, it was time to start our journey home. Over the last few days I managed to catch up with a number of my friends and even managed a day out in the Brecon Beacons birding with the NCOS (North Cotswold Ornithological Society - soon to have a website, watch this space). There along with Tony, Martin, Nigel and myself, we managed 6 raptor species along with Ring Ouzel and a number of other hill birds.

I had decided that we should leave Moreton early to give us plenty of time for the long drive to Aberdeen for the 7pm ferry back to Shetland. So, getting up at 4.15am, we had breakfast and loaded the car. Saying our farewells to my sister, we were off almost on time at just after 5am. It was a clear sky, full moon and the promise of a good sunrise.

The usual busy stretch from Birmingham to Liverpool was just that, busy with a lot of traffic. However once we'd past the turn off for the Lake District the motorway became much quieter. I have to admit to not really wanting to do the trip up in one day but practicalities made it more sensible. We made good time and arrived at Stonehaven sometime around 1pm or maybe 1.30 and to fine weather. Aberdeen was now only a few miles away so we had plenty on time to have a walk around town and to go to the supermarket.

As is usual, the Northlink left on time at 7.30pm (no stop off at Orkney tonight) and as we left the harbour, 5 or 6 Common Dolphins showed at the entrance, although too far for any reasonably sized pictures. The journey was fine, almost flat calm and as we arrived in Lerwick the following morning, the sun shone brightly.

What I hadn't prepared for - or expected - was a welcoming partly. As we walked across to catch the bus we were swamped by hundreds, if not thousands of MIDGES ! It was horrible, welcome back to Shetland.

The journey back to Unst by bus (Catriona needed the car down in Lerwick) was rather pleasant - going across Yell Sound was almost like a lake crossing - but the 'wee beasties' as I've often heard them described - were still relentless in their pursuit of a meal. As we waited at Gutcher for the 'Bigga' to leave, we were treated to a number of Gannets diving not far from the stern of the boat. We were too close for any chance of shots of them diving (I was using the 500) but I did manage a few as they took off..............

It was an almost perfect day, flat sea, blue sky and hardly a breath of wind. I suggested to the kids that after lunch, we should head up to Lamba Ness as I thought it was a good day for looking for Minke whales. Two hours later and there we were watching at least two, possibly three feeding off shore from the headland.

Minke whale, Lamba Ness

One of the problems with trying to photograph cetaceans is that often they are only visible for a couple of seconds at the most and then are down for several minutes and can then re-surface anywhere. I've found it much easier to have the camera mounted on the tripod when land-based but unfortunately on this occasion I didn't have it with me so had to make do with hand-holding the 500. We sat and watched them for what seemed like hours (but was probably only an hour) and was later joined by Rory.

Returning home, I then had another bonus of a new garden tick for Ordaal in the shape of a Garden Warbler. It was good to be back.

Robbie

Spain 10th August

2011-08-20T10:14:00.001+01:00

Today three of us head back to London - Catriona and the girls leave tomorrow. It's a stunning morning with a clear blue sky and just a slight breeze and already at 10am it is quite warm. There seems to be a movement of hirundines through the high part of the valley. For the first time this week I saw a small group of House Martins feeding around the house and fields, they spent an hour feeding and then they were gone.

I mentioned before that the valleys around here are very important migration routes through the Pyrenees for birds. In September there are quite large numbers of raptors move through - especially Honey Buzzards. Again as I mentioned before, the main interest in the autumn (apart from fungi) is the annual passage of Wood pigeons through the mountain passes. One of the traditional ways of taking them is by using large nets set up through the lower woodland valleys. To ensure they descend down, the hunters hide in their tower hides (Palomeras) and as the birds fly over, the hunters throw dinner plate size flat discs out over the birds which cause them to drop down in to the nets in the valleys below. That's the general idea from what I could glean from the translation !

A Palomeras

Late morning, Catriona, the girls and I took a walk up the hill behind the house. There was a brief flyby of a Red Kite and a couple of Griffons soared pass high overhead. Lower down, we had numerous lizards, small brown butterflies and large unidentified dragonflies.

Bracken cut and stacked to dry

This fly was at least an inch and a half long and looked quite menacing

Returning back an hour later we had lunch before our departure time of 5pm for the airport.

The time went quickly and it was now time for Liz, Lily and me to head for Bilbao airport. Saying our farewells to both my family and our hosts, we headed off up the narrow road which then leads to the main (but still narrow) mountain road down into Extalar. It was here that we had a shock. Just around the bend from the junction were 8 or 10 Civil Guards, complete with automatic weapons across their chests. Asking us to stop (which we were only too happy to do) I quickly said 'Ola, English' and they waved us on. Sitting in the grass beside the road was a rather seriously looking 'stinger' - the sort of thing the police throw across the road to puncture tyres - they certainly meant business ! Further down the road was another vehicle, but no road block. Thankfully the rest of the journey to the airport went without a hitch, arriving at around 7pm and soon having a cool beer . The flight left on time and in what seemed like no time at all we were arriving at Stanstead, just before midnight.

After the rioting that had been taking place in London over the last couple of nights, we were wondering what we were going to find. Things looked fine apart from one group of four police officers patrolling the street on foot.

Getting to my bed at just after 1am was a really nice feeling I have to admit.

Robbie

Spain 9th August

2011-08-18T22:09:00.000+01:00

Blimey, here we are already at the last full day here in Navarre, the time seems to have flown by. I went out for a walk up the hill behind the house for an hour or so which was really refreshing - I didn't even take the camera bag. I saw my first flock of small birds foraging just above the house and amongst them I got my first full view of a Crested Tit of the trip. Up on the hill, I was glad to finally ID a pipit I'd seen up there a few days ago. By a process of elimination and seeing some key features, I came to the conclusion it was a juv' Tree Pipit.

Walking on around, I passed someone looking for fungi up in the woods. Finding fungi is taken very seriously here and it seems everyone is always on the lookout. Our friend and host Javier, is also very keen and went in to great detail to explain the differences between the various species and what are and are not, either good or safe to eat.

This is good to eat, locally it's called a 'Cep' or something like that

Whereas this is a definite 'no no', it's a Death Cap

What would be thought of as a poor mornings fungi foray

And something we couldn't identify (even by the local) it looks like a carnivorous plant of some kind

Back at the house I sat on the balcony and had breakfast while watching the family of Black Redstarts and also several Serins feeding in the field below. Views from around the house.....

The house in which we were staying, is the large one lower right

And the view from behind the house looking towards where the previous picture was taken

Later in the morning, we all headed off to the coast for the afternoon to a town called Hondarribia While the others went to the beach, I took a short walk of a couple kilometers around the coastline. It was now rather too warm for my liking and probably also the birds. Despite there being lots of scrub and pine trees I only saw a few birds and only one of those was a new species for the trip, that being a calling Cetti's Warbler.

Returning back to the harbour, I heard the unmistakable calls of several Sandwich Terns searching the harbour for food.

Getting picked up by Javier, we returned to town for a late lunch (it was now 3.45pm) with the others. The remainder of the afternoon was spent walking around the old part of town which has some splendid traditional buildings and also outdoor escalators which seemed a little 'over the top' - no pun intended !'............

....... there aren't any escalators on Shetland !

Robbie

Spain, 8th August 2011

2011-08-17T20:28:00.000+01:00

After quite a long lie-in (most days were like that) we decided to split into groups for the day. I was to be in a 'group' on my own (they weren't trying to tell me something - it was my choice) and so I intended to return back up the hill we went to the other day to see if I could get some better shots of the Griffons in slightly better light. It was a nice morning with fluffy white clouds and warm sunshine - let's hope there are some Griffons soaring.

On the way up, I saw a few birds (nothing new) and took a few pictures of the trees etc and also some of a dragonfly - it looked like a miniature Golden- ringed like we get in the UK.

The hill up which I was heading - just over the border in France

A little further up, I heard a loud sort of hissing or wheezing coming from just over a rise ahead of me, combining this with some quickly descending Griffons, I assumed they must be feeding. I was right and a little further on, I could see there were a number amongst the bracken but only got brief views as they lifted their heads up. They didn't hang about and soon took off - albeit in a rather ungainly manner - and in total there were at least a dozen with a similar number overhead.

As I walked on up, they circled overhead and as at the time, I was feeling tired and a little thirsty, I felt like an extra in a spaghetti western just about to become vulture fodder ! The vultures didn't hang about and in fact during the next few hours I only saw a couple of birds when I was at the top.

A big bird, full frame - in horrible light (both from the previous visit)

While at the top I was scanning around the sky, when I noticed a number of large birds flying / soaring over near La Rhune (the mountain we were up yesterday) which was some distance away. I quickly realised that they were in fact, migrating White Storks - 16 of them. As they passed La Rhune, they caught the wind and eventually drifted over the hill I was on - right at the moment I ran out of space on the CF card ! It didn't end there, as I tried to change the card in a hurry, I dropped the empty 8gb card down in to the gorse and rocks 15ft below, blast - or words to that effect . ( I did recover the card in the end) As all this was going on, a Frenchman who'd just arrived at the top was wanting to know what I was doing and also to see the pictures - and what I can say in French would fit on a postage stamp !

Looking towards La Rhune from 'my' hill

'Flypast' of White Storks

The only other bird that I saw of note was a distant Short-toed Eagle hunting over a beech wood, legs hanging down as it hovered in the wind.

Returning back to the house, the rest of the day was spent taking it easy - that's what holidays are for isn't it ? Later on in the evening after dark, Javier called me saying 'nightingale' , I didn't think for one minute there'd be a singing bird but it turned out to be something I'd not seen for around 20 years - a glow worm. There it was, just below the house glowing like one of those kids glow sticks, same principle I suppose. Even when I shone a torch on it to show Sula it didn't stop glowing. I'll remember that little insect for a long time.

Robbie

Spain 2nd August

2011-08-11T18:19:00.002+01:00

Well, I was up at 3.30am (after only around 3hrs sleep) and then left at 4.15 for Standstead airport. The sky was showing the first signs of a sunrise over to the east as we drove up the M11. By now the roads were quite busy with lots of traffic heading for the airport.

Going to check-in, I was now wishing I had done it online as there was a very long queue. By the time I reached the desk it was(over half an hour)almost time to go to the boarding gate.

The flight was straight forward and arrived on time at around 10am local time. Quickly picking up the hire car, we were soon off north wards to the foothills of the Pyrenees.

Apart from only one deviation due to turning 100 meters too soon at an exit, we were soon heading up the final stretch of road from the village up into the hills through dense deciduous forest. It was this last stretch of around 5 or 6 kilometres of road that was the most nerve wracking for Liz who was driving - it was almost continuous hairpin bends with only just enough space for another vehicle to pass. We soon arrived at the house which by now was early afternoon.

Due to it being early August, there weren't any birds singing but lots were calling, the most obvious were Green and Great-spotted Woodpeckers and also Nuthatches. The region is well know for its bird migration (especially Woodpigeons, more of that later maybe) and in the Autumn it gets quite large numbers of raptors passing through. Within a very short space of time I'd seen my first BoP (bird of prey) and that was Griffon Vulture. This was soon followed by several more and in less than an hour I'd probably seen over 20 soaring over the house. Other raptors during the afternoon were - red kite, goshawk, honey buzzard, sparrowhawk, short-toed eagle (2). Nearby I also saw common buzzard, hobby and kestrel. By late afternoon it was now in the high 20s - too warm for me so it was time to take some shade and a cool beer.

Over the next few days we had a number of trips out including one to a nearby village in the evening for a traditional festival and another was to San Sebastian.

For the first part of the trip at least, there was very little or no wind. Possibly for this reason the raptors weren't seen soaring usually until mid morning or later until there were plenty of thermals.

5th August
This morning I had 5 species thermaling together ( honey and common buzzard, red kite and a pale phase booted eagle and Griffon Vulture ) not a huge number but good to see none the less.

Later on, we took a short drive of around a kilometer up to the French border for a walk. We were going on a up a nearby hill which is a local view point. It wasn't particularly steep - more of a long plod really - but in the heat of the day it was quite hard. On the way up, the only new bird was a family of Stonechats. Reaching the summit, the view was fantastic but for some reason I forgot to take any photographs. I took a walk to the edge and down below me several hundred feet away was a Griffon Vulture sitting on a rock -it looked huge ! I quickly grabbed some shots (I knew it would be worth lugging the 500 up the hill) and the others had good views of it through the bins' just in time before it launched itself off effortlessly high over the valley. It was soon joined by more and for 15 minutes or so, we were treated to over 20 soaring all around us giving everyone some cracking views.

Photographically, I was a little annoyed with myself for not bringing several pieces of kit. I was now wishing I brought my macro lens and the ball and socket tripod head as there were probably more opportunities for this type of photography than birds (I'd only used the wimberly as somewhere to put my beer can when having a drink at the house ! ) I also wished I'd have packed some filters, but overall I had most of what I needed. The sole reason for leaving stuff behind was that I was concerned about the weight of my carry-on camera bag. I mentioned previously that I'd stopped off in Aberdeen, well that was to pick up a new bag which I'd ordered from the States back earlier in the year. I could now pack more gear and still carry it on the plane - I still had my concerns about a weight limit, but then discovered when it was too late, that Easyjet had no weight restrictions for carry on as long as you could lift the bag yourself into the overhead lockers. Hey ho.
I must say that I'm very happy with the new bag (called a Kiboko 30L and made by Gura Gear) it will fit my needs just perfectly and is really comfortable to carry and great to use - I'll do more about in the future if anyone is interested.

The place we are staying at is high above the village of Extalar (pronounced Echalar) in the Navarre region of the western Spanish Pyrenese. The landscape is made up of high sided, long valleys covered in dense woodland. This is interspersed with small fields and at the top, bracken. Travelling around on anything but the main roads in the valleys means using the much smaller hill roads. These smaller roads are around the width of two cars - with a six inch gap between them - and virtually no verge at the side just a deep ditch. Combine this with a hairpin bend every hundred yards or so and cars and manic sports cyclists suddenly coming down around one of the bends, demands 100% concentration ( well done Liz for all of the driving). Most of the woodlands are managed by the community which has meant that the woods are in a good condition. Our friend Javier (where we are staying) has some woodland and recently had a note to say that some trees needed trimming along the road. If he doesn't do it within a certain period of time, then the council will do it and charge him for it, there is no choice and so the system works. Everyone is very aware of fire in the woods as if there was one, it would take generations for the area to recover due the the soil layer being so shallow.

Robbie

Down South

2011-08-01T17:29:00.001+01:00

1st August

After a couple of days in north Glos, I'm now heading to London for the night before going on to Spain. Thankfully I don't have to go in by train etc as a friend (who is also going to Spain) happens to be not too far away at the moment and can give me a lift.

Over the weekend the temperature reach a sweltering 23 degrees here in the Cotswolds (it was by Shetland standards anyway ). I managed to meet up with relations as well as a number of close friends which was really great. On Sunday I was lucky to spend several hours just sitting and talking and at one place I saw 4 (possibly 5) raptor species - buzzard, kestrel, sparrowhawk and several hobbies in less than an hour. The 5th 'possible' was most likely a 'probable' (I didn't get my bins' on it in time) and that was a distant Red Kite - one had passed over an hour before I'd got there. Despite the fact that for a number of bird species that I'd not seen or heard for several years, their calls were still thankfully instantly recognisable.

Leaving for London around midday it was now getting really warm. Travelling down the M4 and then the M40 I soon caught up with the raptor I missed yesterday - Red Kite - and saw literally dozens of them along the roadside.

It didn't seem to take too long to reach north London ( as I wasn't driving it didn't seem too long) arriving at the house at just before 3pm, it was now a blistering 30 degrees - 17 degrees warmer than when I left Unst around 4 days ago .

I was now a world away from Unst (some might say in the 'real world', but I'd disagree) . There were still helicopters overhead, but now they were police ones and not ones off to re-supply the north sea oil rigs that I'm used to.

Tomorrow we have a 4am start so I probably won't update for a few days.

Robbie

Lucky or what ?

2011-07-28T16:21:00.001+01:00

Thurs 28th July
This morning I had a quick drive up to Lamba Ness to have a quick walk around the headland. I was surprised (and , selfishly a little disappointed) that I wasn't the only one there. Right down at the bottom corner was a car and with it a tent pitched just back from the cliff edge. It's the first time I've seen anyone camping down there and I don't think they'd have done it a few days ago when there was a big north easterly swell coming in. In the past I've seen waves breaking up on to the cliffs there right where the tent was pitched.

Well, here I am now sitting in Lerwick having a cup of tea and recovering from a big shock ! I don't mind admitting to mistakes and I just made a very big one. Sometimes living on a crime free island can lead you to get complacent at times. I just had a quick walk around town before checking in for the ferry and on returning up the hill to the car park I saw a car door open. My first thought was 'that's like our Audi and it's got a roof box just like ours'. Well of course it was ours, not only had I left it unlocked, but I'd left the door open as well ! Thankfully everything was still there (I won't say what was in the car but it was worth more than the car). If it had been at night it would had been a different matter but also if it had happened down south in the daytime I think things would have also been different.
The ferry journey was fairly ok, not brilliant as my cabin was the very last one at the stern of the ship right over the engine room, so all night long there was the very heavy vibration of the engine which kept me awake.

Friday 29th July
The ferry docked bang on time at 7am so I was soon on my way to find the main PO sorting depot on the outskirts of Aberdeen. I had to pick up a parcel which was being held there (more of that another time maybe) and so by 8.15 I was heading south - but feeling rather tired - it was going to be a long day. At first the drive went well as far as the Lake District, from just south of there the traffic built up and from then on it was like a slow moving car park - I'll never moan about the queue for the Bluemull ferry again when there are 20 cars lined up! I've heard it said numerous times regarding driving fast, 'that it's better to arrive 10 minutes late in this life, rather than 10 minutes early for the next one'; well, on the motorway a hearse went past me doing over 90 in the outside lane - at least it was empty I suppose.
I finally arrived in the North Cotswolds around six pm, so with the Aberdeen side trip and the traffic it added just over two hours to my normal journey time.
It was strange being back in the area again - not just the fact that there were trees - but more that it felt like a different country, rather than somewhere I'd lived for over 50 years. I've got two days here before I head for a night in London and then on to Spain.

Heading to the sun

2011-07-27T22:22:00.000+01:00

After several weeks of seemingly endless driving, I'm off for a two week break and even more driving ! Tomorrow I get the over night ferry south, drive south from Aberdeen, two days at my old home, travel to London, fly to Spain and then, HOLIDAY ! - and no driving. We'll be staying in the Spanish Pyrenees for just over a week which I'm really looking forward to. The last time I was in that area was way back in the 80s when I travelled down there by motorbike (a 1100 cc Honda Goldwing).

Back home, the kittens were sorted with a house sitter (that should be cat sitter) and while I was sorting out the car I saw my first otter from the house in a long time (not counting the trailcam images). I went down the field to try and get some shots but the wind was wrong and it soon caught my scent and swam further offshore. Two nights ago I set the trailcam up and captured a close (and in turn quite brief - it only shows for 8 seconds) view of it down at the pool......

By the time I return, summer will be over (for the breeding birds anyway) and the first few migrants will start to trickle through. There are already returning waders around such as Turnstones, Sanderling and Knot - last weekend I had an early Purple Sandpiper at Skaw. After that maybe a few Willow Warblers or maybe the odd one or two Crossbills until the autumn migration kicks in during early September.

Robbie

Large Ships and Tall Ships

2011-07-24T16:30:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned in the last post, Sula was to dance at the Tall Ships opening ceremony in Lerwick and it would involve a lot of driving, well, it did. During the nine days of rehearsing and the actual day of the performance (and some 'side' trips with Rona) we did over 1200 miles - and that is only traveling on three islands, phew !

While Sula was rehearsing, Rona and I had a few trips around including some trips down to Sumburgh Head. Thankfully, mostly the weather was fine (although not particularly sunny) and the only wet day enabled me to take Rona to Clickamin leisure centre for swimming.

During the summer months, Lerwick harbour is very good for getting fairly close to three of the auks that occur around Shetland, these being Tystie (Black Guillimot), Guillimot and Razorbill. They often come in to the relatively sheltered waters around the quays to feed on the often large numbers of small fish. This time it was the turn of Razorbills, several were feeding and with a little patience, they would end up quite close to the pier. They had a feeding routine where they would move around the harbour in a rough circle, so, in time they would end up passing where I waited. Waiting would be fine if I was on my own, however this week I had Rona with me who, it has to be said, isn't always the most patient. Thankfully on this occasion, she was very interested in watching the birds and made a sort of game at guessing where and after how long, the bird would surface. This interest was added to by the fact we could see the bird swimming underwater at times pursuing its prey. One thing I did notice was that Razorbills seem to take an obvious breath just before they dive - obviously all diving birds do this, but not all are so noticeable. With the Razorbill, it actually opened its beak, made even more noticeable by its bright yellow gape. With Tysties, I've not seen this just a slight backward movement of the head before they go under..........................

.........on the look out

......deep breath

.................dive, dive, dive.

Also around the harbour there are usually a number of Tysties although if the sun is shinning I find them a pain to photograph due to their bright wing panel, so I usually go for a head shot or try something different...........................

Tystie (virtually full frame)

During the 'summer', Lerwick has numerous cruise ships visit the town in various shapes and sizes (and good for the local economy it is too). Last week the 'Marina' paid a visit and looked huge compared to some of the nearby boats, this ship however isn't the largest to visit having only around 1200 passengers (plus around 750 crew) with another ship due soon that can carry several thousand passengers..................

The 'Marina'

Despite its size, the ship below - the 'Columbus' - 'only' carries 450 passengers ................

As the days progressed, more and more sailing vessels arrived in port for the opening day of the Shetland leg of the tall ships race. At first it was smaller vessels and then as the day arrived, larger vessels arrived.............

'Pelican of London'

'Alexander von Humboldt'

'Christian Radich'

Due to the size of the ships and the obvious space restrictions (I find it difficult to walk on water ) it was quite difficult to convey the shear height of some of these vessels. My other regret (photographically) was to have forgotten my filters to help with the overcast sky, hey ho.

Ships at Victoria Pier

Of the larger ships, they were roughly devided into two groups between Victoria Pier and Holmsgarth (where the Northlink ferry comes in) In all, there were over 50 'Tall Ships' with many other smaller boats taking part in the 'Cruise in Company' for more info have a look here at the website.

...........now I know where the saying 'learning the ropes' comes from ........and they all lead somewhere......................

All of this was leading up to the opening ceromony at around 5pm on 21st July. Catriona had our two guest passes (the other for Rona) with almost front row seats, so I had to make do with viewing from the sideline. As the procession of crews filled in to the front of the stage, the general public gradually got moved further away, although I still had a relatively good view.

......the crews arriving in, many in fancy dress

The end of the opening dance - I videoed most of it (Sula is 'C' - 5th from left)

Sadly the following day we returned back up to Unst and with it the weather also deteriorated. There was to be a 'parade of sail' today 24th July, but that has now been postponed due to heavy rain and strong northerlies. While I didn't see any ships under full sail, just going down and seeing these magnificent craft (and Sula dancing of course) was worth all of the past two weeks driving.

Robbie

2011-07-14T22:13:00.001+01:00

Before I went to Orkney, I'd heard a number of people say (and read it in books) that Shetland was known for its wildlife and Orkney was known for its archeology. Well I think think that both places has plenty of both. I've never really been in to archeology, most likely because I could never 'get my head around it' so to speak - or to be more precise, understand it. I suppose it is a bit like wildlife in that it takes time and lorry loads of patience to learn and understand how it all works and pieces together - maybe I don't have quite enough patience for archeology ? Saying that though, I do appreciate it and also the work that goes in to it by both amateurs and professionals alike.

As I mentioned previously, we stayed at Skail House and only a few hundreds yards away was the site of Skara Brae. Being rather lazy, there's a link to it here which will give far more detail than I can put up here. However, here a a couple of pics below from around the grounds..........

Skara Brae (with Skail House in the background)

Skail House

Unlike, Shetland - (well at least Unst, as Mainland has Mountain Hares) Orkney has a large number of Brown Hares so it was a common site to see them out in the freshly cut silage fields. Despite them being common, it didn't make it any easier to get close to so when I slowly rolled up in the car, often as not they would hurry away. The one below was one of the very few more obliging ones..................

Brown Hare

At one of the regular places I'd stop to look for SEO's, I would see a number of Swallows, flying around or perched on a fence. The behaviour was if they were nesting but the only structure was man-made and was a sort of small bunker covered in grass on the roadside. It turned out that they (there were two nests) had built under a small overhang above a doorway that obviously suited their needs.........................

One sad piece of information I got from Orkney, was that there also, seabirds are doing very badly again this year - especially Arctic Terns -and it is the same here on Shetland. Earlier this week I was down at Sumburgh Head with Rona for a few hours and was talking to a guy who is doing a long term study of the auks there. He said that Puffins, Guillimots, Kittiwakes and nearby terns had had a terrible breeding season with scores either failing (loosing eggs or chicks) or not breeding at all due to the low numbers of Sand Eels - how long can this go on ?

With being way on Orkney last week and in Lerwick most of this week (and next) I've not spent much time around the house and surroundings. Sula is taking part in the opening ceremony of the Tall Ships visit to Lerwick next week and so we have to be down there every day for rehearsals. This has meant leaving here at 6.15am and not getting back until just before 7pm and with Rona as well it's a long day. Even though I'm not here, the 'trailcam' still is and I've been getting some more footage of a variety of subjects. I've now had the camera triggered by - Otter, Hedgehog, Rat, Rabbit, Cat, Hooded Crow, Starling, Wheatear and a Peacock Butterfly - and off course, hundreds of shots of the wind blowing the grass! The butterfly just shows how sensitive the camera can be - although the sensitivity can be adjusted to suit what ever you need.............

Once it rains again, the pool will fill up and the number of rabbit 'triggers' will decrease as at the moment they use it to feed on the grass shoots coming up through the mud.

One problem I have found with the camera, is that if it is placed too close to a background, then the resulting image is 'blown' and so I'm now wondering if I can reduce the output of the infra red light by using a Ngrad filter or similar taped on the outside of the camera................

The 'action' happens around 16 seconds

And one final piece from last week while we were away.....................

As you'll have seen that most of the otter vids are of it sprainting, for the time being this is the easiest way of getting any vids. Later on in the year once the grass dies back, I'll be able to move the camera to another location and hopefully get something different.

Robbie

Harriers and an 'Old Man'

2011-07-12T20:47:00.001+01:00

It was without doubt, the biggest treat for me as a birder, was to watch numerous Hen Harriers during the week on the west mainland of Orkney. Beautiful, graceful, stunning; these are just three words that could describe these fantastic birds of prey. I believe they are the only raptors to be still in decline in the UK with all of the others doing relatively well. This is almost exclusively due to persecution on the moors that they often share with Red Grouse. While it is acknowledged that they do take grouse chicks, I believe that is the presence of harriers on the moors that make grouse reluctant to fly when they are being driven by beaters for the waiting guns that make them even more unwelcome. After a serious decline in harriers on Orkney in recent years, the numbers are starting to recover - thankfully there is no organized grouse shooting there. Despite them appearing to fly quite slowly, I was amazed to see how quickly they can cover the ground; with just a twist of the tail and from being 50yds away, one could be half a mile away in no time at all. Below are a few pics from the week, again time limitations made me go for any shots I could. I was a little disappointed with the quality but just to watch these birds in the first place was enough. The first few were taken late evening close to the roadside at 9.30pm using 3200 ISO.......................

and a 'ringtailed', so called because in the autumn/winter, immature birds can be hard to tell apart from females - although this bird below is showing some grey in the upper wings it could be moulting in to a male plumage........................

.......just a shame it hadn't turned its head a little.

It obviously wasn't all birding for me and so most days we went out around the island. On one day we had a trip across to the island of Hoy as we wanted to see the sea stack called the 'Old Man of Hoy'.............

....no apologies for the squint horizon !

and my daughter Sula's idea of the 'Old Man of Hoy'.......................

(both the beard and hair have been cut since this shot - but it didn't take long)

Robbie

Orkney SEO's

2011-07-10T20:50:00.001+01:00

We're now at the end of our holiday to the west side of Orkney and for me what a week it's been. As I mentioned previously it was hh and seo's that I particularly wanted to see and I haven't been disappointed. I have now lost count how many of both species I have seen - certainly between 20 and 30 sightings of each species. In the 2010 Orkney bird report it suggests there were around 80 occupied territories for Hen Harrier and around 35 pairs of SEO's. Each morning I have been getting up and out between 5 and 6am and driving over Birsay Moor to the west of Skail. When flying in to a light breeze, both species remind me of a balsa wood glider that I had as a child that would twist and turn in the air. During the holiday, I was lucky enough to see Hen Harriers every day and SEO's most days.

I soon found out that the best opportunities for sightings was to drive slowly up and down the road over Birsay Moor, stopping for a while in several of the numerous passing places and scanning the surrounding moorland. It wasn't practical to just wait in one place as the birds were far roaming in their hunt for prey and also due to the sensitivity of the species concerned, tramping over the moorland was also out of the question. By using this first method, often, after only 10 or 15 minutes, I'd get a sighting and then it was a case of seeing which direction it was flying and then trying to prejudge when and where - or if - it was going to come close to the road.

Below are a few pictures of SEO's from the week, not always in the perfect light or perfect conditions but like a lot of things you take what you can get. As I mentioned before, the most practical time for me was to go out from around 5am to 8am (while the others were still in their beds) although this did mean that even though the angle of the sun was good for lighting, I was often viewing the birds in to the sun...................

These first two were early morning and as you can see were shot straight into the sun. I slowly rolled towards it with the camera out of the car window as it sat on a roadside fence. Just as I was getting in a position with the sun in my favour, a car came roaring past and put the bird up. Both are only cropped at the sides which gives and idea of how close the bird was. On a coupe of the days it was quite windy which as I mentioned in the previous post seemed to ground the owls. I came across the first one as it sat in the sun out of the wind against a peat bank........

The SEO's could be seen down at 'lower' levels as well, often hunting over coastal reed beds and rough grass around the arable fields. This last one was hunting in a roadside field on our last day as we headed back towards Kirkwall ...............

Robbie

A quickie from Orkney

2011-07-06T18:05:00.003+01:00

Well here we are half way through our week long trip down south and I must admit I quite like what I've seen so far of the islands. The trip down on the ferry was great, flat calm and clear skies all the way. Arriving in Kirkwall around 11pm, we soon found the youth hostel where we were going to be staying for the night.

The following day we took a slow drive over to west Mainland to Skail House which would be our base for the week. The house is the former home of the person (whose name escapes me right now) who discovered the nearby site of Skara Brae which is an ancient site - 3000 years bc - and is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland - as is the flat in which we are staying.

My main interest in coming to the islands was obviously birds - or more precisely two species, and they are Short-eared Owl and Hen Harrier. Orkney is a stronghold for both species and for Hen Harrier it is one of the very few places that they are thriving. Over the last 4 days or so, I've been going out early morning and evening and have had Harriers every time - some have been very close. A male Hen Harrier in flight has to be one of the most beautiful and graceful birds we have here and should be extremely proud of them. During the last two days the wind has now picked up which seems to have grounded the SEOs. I'll do another update later

Robbie

saturday quickie

2011-07-02T08:28:00.000+01:00

Just a quickie for now as i didn't have time to post yesterday. We've just gone away for a week to Orkney so i'll post when i get back. Robbie

Golden Glow

2011-06-26T17:47:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had been wondering what had been using a hole down just about the high water mark on the beach. Well, by placing the camera there a couple of nights ago, I discovered two things and both for different reasons have put my mind at rest. If you look at the vid' below, you'll see what is using the hole..................

This did surprise me for two reasons, firstly there are no droppings around the hole or on the grass which is most unusual and secondly, as you can see the hole is at the edge of the beach, so, on very high tides the hole would get flooded - perhaps this their 'summer' residence ! The other thing I learnt from using the camera is how many video clips it can really hold. Over the last couple of weeks, the average maximum number of clips has been around 28 - until this last occasion. From around 8pm in the evening until 8am the following morning there were 250 thirty second videos of these rabbits going about there nightly business, that's a lot of short films to go through.

With that sorted, I put it back to the usual place around 9pm only to see that an otter had been there early in the evening - as it had left some fresh tracks in the ever diminishing small freshwater pool. However, it did come back again later in the evening...............

Spraint marking

Finding Otter where otters spraint mark is usually pretty easy - especially in the summer - as the grass is usually much lusher and greener due to the abundance of natural fertilizer !

On Friday (June 24th) I had a few hours out on my own again and took a look up north to see if the S-t Lark was still around. It was, but due to the sunshine there was an obvious heat haze coming up from the road down to Lamba Ness where the bird likes to feed. I did get a few pics of several other birds including a very close Whimbrel that was feeding close to the track. What was a surprise was that there were 6 birds in total which I thought was unusual for the time of year - they should be well into breeding now. My thoughts were that they were either late returning non-breeders or non-breeders migrating early, a cause for concern either way. There is an RSPB guy doing a Whimbrel survey up here at the moment and apparently the numbers have crashed since last year..........................

Whimbrel full frame, un-cropped, 500+1.4

As we are now in the 3rd week of June, there are a lot of young birds around. This bird below is a young Wheatear, taken from the car again un-cropped and is a bit too close................

Young Wheatear

Later on in the evening, I headed out again as it looked like it could be a good sunset. Going first over to Lamba Ness, I could see there was a large bank of cloud on the northern horizon - no shots of the sun sinking below the horizon tonight then. Coming back, I did stop briefly to take a few pics of the back-lit cotton grass - all it needed was a silhouette of a Bonxie or something to finish it off....

Cotton Grass

I then decided to head off up to Saxavord hill for the evening glow on some Bonxies or maybe a Golden Plover. Graham had mentioned here of Golden Plover up there so that reminded me to take a look. Sure enough, right by the roadside there was a pair of Goldies in the glow of the evening sun. Once I'd stopped the engine, the birds went back to feeding etc and didn't seem bothered by me at all. Eventually the male came right by the car and once again it was too close to get all of the bird in the frame............

'Golden Glow'

Full frame, uncropped

Whilst sitting there watching the plovers, I also had a lovely Meadow Pipit close by the car in lovely lighting which I've often heard described as the 'Golden Hour' - this evening it certainly was.......

Meadow Pipit at around 9.45pm

Alas, I didn't see the sun set as it disappeared into the cloud about 30 minutes before it was due, although it was a cracking evening.

Robbie

Quick Turn Around

2011-06-22T23:14:00.000+01:00

Well that was a bit of a b***er, I'd just spent an hour typing out the blog when it all disappeared (and wasn't saved)! Hey ho, start again.

After returning from our stay at Sumburgh lighthouse, I had a few hours to sort myself out before heading off the following day to Dunkeld in Perthshire with four pupils and two teachers for 5 nights away. Uyeasound school had been doing some archaeological projects involving Scotland's Rural Past and had been invited to attend the final conferance to give a presentation about their work. So, on Thursday 16th June, we set off for the Northlink ferry for the over night trip to Aberdeen. The sailing went well and arrived at just after 7am on a bright sunny morning..................

Arriving in Aberdeen

The journey down to Birnham/Dunkeld went without a hitch thanks to some great travel planning back at Uyeasound during the past few weeks. On arriving there however it was now raining. The following day was spent most of the time at the Birnham Arts Centre however, I did get to the pub to meet up with a good friend of mine for a beer or two...................

The Uyeasound free standing display

The whole day went very well and the Uyeasound kids did themselves proud, with well over a hundred people at the conference, their DVD presentation received a long and loud applause.

The following day was spent on the Blair Atholl estate doing what I would call a cross between orienteering and an archaeological walk. The route was just over 6 miles and at each check point were clues and a grid reference to the next one. Each check point had something of an archaeological interest etc and although I must admit to neither not knowing much about, or having and interest in archaeologically found it very interesting and enjoyable. Below are a few views of the day.....................

The trip back home was as easy as the trip down (including an almost totally flat calm sea) and I arrived home late morning on 21st June. Only home for an hour, I then went out with Ian (my father in law) to see if the Black-throated Diver had returned to Norwick. (I'd got a text the day before to say it was there), sadly it hadn't returned. We then headed off over towards Lamba Ness to see if the 'Blue' Malee (|Fulmar) was around. Not long after turning down the old road towards the head, I spotted a very pale lark fly up from the road in front of the car. It landed not far away, giving me a chance to both take a record shot and check the bird through the scope. It was as, I thought, a Short-toed Lark. Much plainer and also a more sandy brown than our own Skylark, with a distinctively different flight action or jizz. By carefully placing the beanbag on the hinge area of the open car door and then the camera on top, I could slowly drive towards the bird and, hopefully, get some better shots - which fortunately I did..........

Short-toed Lark

I've been using the 'trailcam' quite a bit, with varying amounts of success - I always get something, but not always what I'm after. Recently the subjects captured in various states of illumination have been Hedgehog, Hooded Crow, Starling, cat, rabbit - and several otter shots. Also lots of false triggers caused by the water rippling on the pool. I've now moved it for a couple of nights to try and capture what's using a hole along the beach. It doesn't look quite big enough for an otter but as there are no rabbit droppings near by, I've got an open mind about it. I'll post a couple more vids' next time.

Robbie

A few days at Sumburgh Head

2011-06-15T21:55:00.000+01:00

Sunday 12th June

Well after a late night as Graham mentioned here , I also got up early to see Graham and Sue off (thanks guys for coming up) and also to get ready for a trip down to the old Sumburgh Head lighthouse keepers cottage for 3 nights. We stayed there before as I mentioned here and at the time thought about staying there in the late spring. Thankfully, due to the refurbishment work there starting later than planned, they took some more bookings and so we were able to go there for 3 nights again.

The trip down was uneventful but we had planned a short trip over to the island of Mousa. On arriving at the ferry jetty just before 1 o'clock, it started to rain and the wind got up. Neither I or Ian (my father in law) wanted a soaking so we headed on down to Sumburgh while the others went to Mousa.

Unfortunately the cottage wasn't quite ready but a least there were plenty of birds around to keep us occupied. Shortly after unloading the car, I took a look over the cliffs which are only a few seconds walk from the cottage. As I passed a spot where the wardens put food out for the local Twite, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a cracking male Common Rosefinch feeding with the Twite. Rosefinches are regular autumnal passage birds up here but they are usually rather tatty juveniles. (the bird was still there today 15th June)...................

A male Common Rosefinch

There were also a number of Twite around including a recently fledged family of young birds.........

A young Twite

As well as the finches, there were a number of other birds around including several pairs of Wheatears. The ones below had a nest in an old rabbit burrow and would retreat in to it if a gull or Bonxie flew over too close.........

Male Wheatear

There were also quite a lot of Puffins around and some, like this one, still gathering nest material (quite how it would get it down the hole I don't know) and one or two were bringing in food........

a variation on the theme of 'bird on a stick'

All in all it was a great few days despite the wet weather on one of the days and having to drive back up to Unst for the girls school sports day and then drive back down again all in one day. I hope that in several years time when the work has been completed, it still retains a bit of the charm that Sumburgh has although it probably won't. As it is a listed building, it will have to be done in keeping with what's there already, that said, it does need restoring.

Robbie

2011-06-11T17:04:00.001+01:00

It's been a busy few days again with two of my relations going and then two friends arriving for a week. I've been doing some work in the house (plumbing) which has taken a lot longer than it should have, ie non-standard fittings that had previously been installed. I also wanted to get on top of a problem with leaking out-buildings; again, where the job had not been done properly in the first place. I've managed to fix part of it temporarily until I get get some sand and cement delivered up here.

Last Monday (6th June) Rona had one of the schools 'occasional' days off - the occasional bit does seem to be quite often though ! So, due to Rona being at home, my friends Graham and Sue, went off on their own for the day while I stayed around the house etc. I set the 'trail cam' up again, and this time I inadvertently set it to the still pictures setting, I got a couple of shots of the otter again, this time during the late evening light.....................

Obviously with using a remotely operated camera, I have no control over where the subject is placed in the frame etc, but I do find it interesting to discover what time of day or night the animal is around. There are quite a few false triggers and also a few that are caused by a rabbit running across the field of view.......................

Last Tuesday (7th June), I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon with Graham and Sue up at Hermaness. The forecast was supposed to be ok, but on the way up at around 10am I thought hat the Met Office had got it wrong. It was grey and miserable with occasional drizzle, I thought about going back down but then thought that maybe it was just the timing of the weather that was wrong. By the time we reached the cliffs, the cloud was starting to show signs of clearing and in the end it was a quite pleasant day - although a tad cool. The light was quite bright so I was underexposing quite a lot to try and not blow the whites in the Puffins and Gannets, but on this occasion I didn't get it quite right. Anyway, here are a few from that visit............

----- the wrong place at the wrong time !

Bathing Bonxie

Sadly I didn't get as much time out and about with Graham and Sue this week (apart from a late night dram or two) but one evening we did go up to Saxavord hill to see the sun go down over Muckle Flugga lighthouse. Despite having most of the gear suitable for doing landscapes etc, I seldom do this type of photography seriously apart from a few 'point and shoot' or grab shots as I'm driving around. However, on this occasion I will remember the evening as, despite it being the end of the first week of June, I was wishing I had my gloves on !......................

Bonxie flypast

Muckle Flugga

Robbie

Nocturnal visitor

2011-06-02T18:51:00.000+01:00

Some while ago back in February I mentioned here about a trail camera that I acquired from the previous owner.
Well in parallel with another project I'm doing here, I recently ordered a replacement which is a higher resolution model than the previous one. The camera is a self contained unit that does both stills (8 mpixel) and video (720x480) and also does colour or b&w using infra red at night and is triggered by a PIR motion sensor. With 8 AA batteries and a 16gb card installed it can last for up to 12 months depending on temperature and the in-camera settings. It's the same model that the BBC used in the 'Lost Land of the Tiger' a few months ago.

I set it up two nights ago only to discover the following morning that I'd not programed it properly and so had nothing to show for it - the morel there is to read the instruction booklet more thoroughly . It is a bit of a hit and miss affair as the subject may not pass that way for days or even weeks but with a bit of detective work, the odds can be stacked more in my favour. I set it up again last night and this morning was delighted to see that we'd had a visit sometime after midnight. If still images are taken then it will time and date stamp the pictures, however, it seems that when in video mode it doesn't....................

As you can see the otter looks around nervously as though it senses something there. The post on which the camera is fixed, has been there for 4 months so it would be used to that by now; maybe it was just a very slight different shape of the top of the post which it detected in the semi darkness, as my scent would (or should have) long disappeared. The lighting is infra red so that's not the problem - unless they can detect light from that part of the spectrum. Tonight I may move it again to another post although with this wind it could cause a lot of false triggers due to it picking up wave movement.................

This was the post that in early February, only had 4 inches of the post showing above the water after some very heavy rain.

On the bird front, things have been quite quiet here. There have been a few birds around but most of the northward migration seems to have passed on. There was a Quail calling in the north of the island a few days ago but unfortunately I couldn't go up to hear it for the 'List'. I saw a Redbacked Shrike again today after a tip off from one of the school teachers. My guess is that its the one from earlier in the week. I found a Stonechat at Skaw yesterday which is a first for me for Unst - and an uncommon one for the island.

Robbie

Hits and misses

2011-05-29T09:16:00.000+01:00

Hits and misses ? - that's how I feel this last week has been with regards to wildlife. Just over a week ago, I was over at Westing after the morning school run watching (and trying to photograph) a number of Tirricks that were feeding in/over the breaking waves, that were coming in from a strong westerly blow. It wasn't easy at all and a 'flat' grey sky didn't help, so to be quite honest most of the pictures I got were pretty poor.........

Arctic Tern (Tirrick)

At one stage I was so intent on watching the terns through the eyepiece, I failed to see a small gull fly right in front of me and only saw it as it was going away to my left.......................

Immature Little Gull

I really like Little Gulls, I think they behave more like a tern than a gull when they're feeding and so are a joy to watch.

After finishing a job early (and it was a lovely afternoon), I took a quick look up at Skaw to see if there were any migrants around. On this occasion I left the camera in the car and set off across the bridge over the burn. I hadn't even got across when the movement of a small bird caught my eye, just to the right. It was a bunting and straight away I knew it was a Rustic'. Quickly getting the camera, I managed to relocate the bird and get a few pictures.................

Rustic Bunting

Brydon and Mike P had seen one in Baltasound last week, so this was probably the same one - but it was still nice to find my own. Returning home, I then got a call from Mike to say he'd just rung a Golden Oriole that had been shut in someones porch (which he then collected) and would we like to take a look when he released it. Ten minutes later, the girls and I were looking at a stunning (and often very shy) bird. Mike took a few more measurements before he gave it to Sula to release...........................

Immature male (probably) Golden Oriole

One of the birds that I've 'missed' (not strictly true - but not seen well) has been a Ring-billed Gull that Brydon found down at Uyeasound. Despite looking frequently when I took and fetched Sula from school, I was either too early or too late and 'just missed' it. I did see it briefly last Saturday, but from what I saw of it I wouldn't have identified it myself.

A few days later (23rd May) on the way back from the morning school run, I took a look at Westing for the Little Gull. It was still there and the light was better and the wind was right..............

Now its always been a habit of mine, both when I lived down south and even more so now we live here, to have the camera ready and close at hand when I'm out and about in the car. You just never know when something interesting or photogenic may occur and this happened the other day as I was driving through Haroldswick in the north of the island. Many of the roads pass close to the sea (nowhere is more than a mile and a half from the sea anyway) and Haroldswick is a good example. As I drove around the shoreline, I pulled in to give way to an oncoming car and looked down to the beach at some Mallard that had just taken to the air; and there was the reason, an otter coming up the beach towards the road. I grabbed the camera, quietly got out and went across to the opposite verge. It came out so close past me that my 500mm wouldn't focus and then crossed the road towards some freshwater pools; I grabbed a few shots hand held before it disappeared in to the opposite vegetation. Fortunately the wind was in my favour so it didn't get my scent or hear the shutter going off. For hand holding the long lens the shutter speed wasn't really fast enough but I had a go and the results weren't quite sharp enough - given a bit more time I'd have upped the ISO to give me more speed...................

(the light patch is out of focus grass)

It's not just birds and otters that I like to photograph, so here are 3 other subjects from this week...........

Shetland ram

Common Seal

err........... rabbits !

I've mentioned several times about planting some willows and also about the migrant bird possibilities for the land, below are 3 pictures of some habitat that should be good for small migrants in the autumn. The Rosa Rugosa's are now showing some nice flowers so hopefully by the autumn there'll be lots of nice plump berries for (hopefully) Waxwings when they pass through here; if not, then the Redwings, Fieldfares and Blackbirds will have a feast..................

The Willow 'whips' - with rabbit guards

The willows down to the shore are taking quite nicely (its much wetter ground anyway) but several of the other patches have shown 'die back', however these also should take eventually.

Earlier I was saying about never knowing what I may see as I drive around here. Well on Friday morning as I drove up from the shore road, a bird flew across the road in front of me which certainly wasn't a Wheatear - which is what I see most frequently. All I needed was to see a flash of rusty red/brown to know it was a cracking male Redbacked Shrike. It landed some distance away but I did get a shot - just for the record.............

Despite a thorough search by myself and George - another birder from Mainland - it wasn't relocated. I thought perhaps it had gone to Haligarth but we didn't find it there. I did see the Golden Oriole again, it was hovering and catching flies right in front of me, and where was the camera again ? not in my hand that's for sure !

Robbie

Ordaal Bird List

2011-05-22T11:32:00.000+01:00

Just following on from yesterday when I mentioned the garden list here at Ordaal (birds seen or heard in, from or over the property) The list is below for anyone that may be interested. From 28th Jan to 22nd May 2011 its 62 species (I've included Hooded and Carrion Crow separately) For both of our previous houses here on Unst, the total was in the mid 60's in just over a year at each property. For my garden list in the Cotswolds it was 107 species in over 40 years. It'll be interesting to see how this list progresses, but I probably won't be here in 40 years time!

Red-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Little Grebe
Slavonian Grebe
Fulmar
Northern Gannet
Shag
Grey Heron
Pink-footed Goose
Greylag Goose
Wigeon
Teal
Mallard
Shoveler
Common Eider
Long-tailed Duck
Red-breasted Merganser
Sparrowhawk
Peregrine
Oystercatcher
Ringed Plover
Golden Plover
Lapwing
Purple Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Dunlin
Common Snipe
Whimbrel
Curlew
Common Redshank
Turnstone
Arctic Skua
Great Skua
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Guillimot
Black Guillimot
Rock Dove
Woodpigeon
Skylark
Swallow
Meadow Pipit
Rock Pipit
Pied Wagtail
Wren
Common Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Blackbird
Common Whitethroat
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler
Carrion Crow
Hooded Crow
Raven
Starling
House Sparrow
Brambling
Twite
Reed Bunting

Raptor sightings

2011-05-21T20:21:00.004+01:00

Of the many wildlife (or rather bird) highlights from the last few weeks, it is birds of prey that have 'hit the headlines' here so to speak. We've been lucky enough to have had a female Goshawk (which I didn't see), Black Kite, Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Merlin and Osprey during the month. So, along with a recent Hen Harrier and the over-wintering Rough-legged Buzzards it makes ten species in 6 weeks that I've seen - not bad for a small island in the far north of Britain. Adding on a Sea Eagle, a Hobby and a Common Buzzard over the last twelve months or so, Unst has been very good for raptors - much better than I'd have thought. Despite several attempts to catch up with the Gos' I failed and it also seemed as though the Black Kite would go the same way but thankfully it didn't. When I did see it the light was pretty poor - flat, grey sky - but it was a lovely bird to see and watch............

'Record shot' of the Black Kite

With the Osprey I was lucky enough to see it several times and on one occasion got to see it at eye level. But, yet again, the sun wasn't shinning - but it's not just about taking pictures is it ? .........

Osprey at Burrafirth

And a Kestrel at Skaw............

When ever I go across Bluemull Sound on the ferry, I always stand at the stern of the boat (if the weather is good) with the camera and look for seabirds in flight as they pass by. The Bluemull ferry is good for this as the back of the ship is fairly low in the water which gives a good viewpoint. Occasionally, if the light is right or if the time of day is right I can get some fly-pasts of seabirds - although not always successfully as often there is only a few minutes of opportunity on each crossing...............

Eider Ducks (males, females and immature birds)

If there are no birds around, then I'll have a go at being 'arty' or 'creative'' and photograph the ships wake..............

Up here the birds are well in to the breeding season apart from the Phalaropes which should be arriving any day now. Shetland is well known for its scarce or rare breeding birds and its these birds that lots of folk come to see or photograph. Photographing Schedule1 breeding birds (rare or threatened British species) at the nest requires a license (nest photography is now thought of as being 'old hat' by most anyway) but there are a number of people country wide that still seek out rare birds at the nest without obtaining the legally required license. In a bid to discourage the practice, the 'Birdguides' website (a very respectable and responsible company) have now decided not to publish any photographs taken of Schedule 1 species between March and June each year. See here . While its a step in the right direction, the folk that are intent on getting 'the shot' of a rare bird breeding aren't going to bother about the law anyway.

Another area that's been highlighted recently is that of 'tape luring' birds, ie playing back a recording of the species either calling or singing. Again it is unlawful if the person is willfully disturbing certain breeding birds. Dave and Martin mentioned it here and it can cause a lot of distress or even a failed breeding attempt. I know of one photographer that was tape luring a Schedule 1 bird up here a couple of years back (there are only around 70 breeding males of the species concerned in the UK, according to the figures I saw), when questioned about it, his reply was ' I'm doing it sympathetically' - after that day it wasn't heard again. Now that there are a number of apps' for mobile phones with bird songs and calls on, this method of getting birds out in the open for photographic purposes is on the increase. So much so, that some organizations (including the police) are wanting to clamp down on it and persistent offenders will be prosecuted. Read here (thanks Martin for the link).

Over the last week, I've been planting the willow 'whips' around the property with the hope of increasing the cover for migrating birds that may pass through here in spring and autumn. So far I've put in just over 100, in either small groups or in one area, a strip 3 whips wide (in roughly a 6-8 feet wide and 100 feet long strip of ground ) I also put a rabbit guard around each one and attached it to a small stake to avoid losing them in the first gale (a force 7-9 due on Tues or Weds) Lots of folk had been saying how nice the weather had been and all I could say was I wanted rain - for my trees of course ! (I'll post some pics' next time)

I had been recently saying how I'd not seen any otters around for a while, well I'm glad to say that I've now seen one again around the sound (a male) and even watched it from our shore one evening last week.

The garden list of bird species is now at a very respectable 61 species since Jan 28th this year. With, Shoveller, Redstart and Brambling being the latest editions.

Robbie

Busy times

2011-05-15T22:18:00.000+01:00

Despite the fact that the last couple of weeks have been fantastic in the way of weather etc, it's not been a holiday . With the imminent arrival of some Shetland mares with their foals (not ours, but a crofters) to graze one of the fields for the summer, I had some fencing to replace and also some fence posts to wedge and re-upright. Along with this I had also to finish a piece of fencing down in to the sea to stop some neighbours sheep wandering along the shore and on to our nice fresh grass. With the fence that went into the water, I wanted to have a fairly substantial straining post midway between low and high water to act as a suitable perch for the tirricks (terns) when they arrive back to breed in the area. Putting the posts in was no easy task (due to the close proximity of the stone jetty and lots of lovely large rocks just below the sand) I can assure you..................

The fence will have to go about the same distance again for when there are really low tides but that can be done in a while.

Below are some shots (some taken with the camera phone) of before and after of the lawn and field cutting.................

Before..............

How to cut a lawn................

After

Actually, cutting the front lawn wasn't as easy as it looks. I started off by strimming it which, after a total of around 8hrs over several days, still looked like I'd hardly done anything. Once Dougal had been over it with the tractor mower, it then took several hours with a wheel barrow moving the huge cuts of grass and raking it over 4 times before I could get my motor mower on it - several more cuts with that. The grass is starting to green up nicely now which in turn has given some of the local Rock Doves a place in the garden to look for food.

Part of one of the fields (often called 'parks' up here) had to be also cut as it was now just tussocks of matted grass and was no good for anything. If there were voles on Shetland I'd certainly have left it as it was, but as it was there was no choice but to cut it. Unfortunately, as it had been left for such a long time, there is no goodness left in it and so can't be used for livestock...........

Looking north

Any ideas for several tons of dry grass ?

Earlier on in this latest update, I mentioned the fence posts that go in to the sea, well, only a few days ago the Tirricks arrived and are now using them on a daily basis. If I can find the time, I would like to get a photograph some food passes etc such as the one below which I took a couple of years ago at Haroldswick ..........

And this is from the other day................

Arctic Tern at Ordaal

Sorry for the delay in updating but as I said earlier, things have been pretty busy here. I'll post another update in a couple of days of what's been happening on the wildlife front etc.

Robbie