Here we are at the end of March and a couple of days ago it really felt like spring was here.  Down south folk were sweltering in around 20 degrees, while the temperature here was around 12 degrees and I was outside in just a jumper - I know which I prefer. I've been pretty busy over the last two weeks with different things so getting out and doing any wildlife related stuff has been lower down the list of things to do. I continued with making around the base of the shed watertight which is now almost complete apart from a coat of bitumen paint and also started to fit the two new wooden windows I'd made in to the porch. I also had work in the cottage to do as we now have 'Dr Phil' staying in it for two weeks as he works up here as a locum at the surgery.

   On the subject of the cottage, I had yet another example of the postcode surcharge rip-off. I ordered some blinds online, paid for them and thought that was that. The following morning I got a call from the company down south saying there would be a surcharge to send the parcel to Shetland by courier. When I asked why it couldn't be sent by Parcel Force (the package would have been 3 ft x 6"x6" or there abouts) she said 'but we don't use that courier company', 'so what's the cost?' I asked, '£50' came the reply. When I told her to cancel the order, judging by the silence, I think she was quite surprised. The following day, I found another online store that on their 'home page', stated 'Free UK delivery', great I thought and placed an order. When I got to the point of clicking 'buy', it then came up with ' UK Mainland only', no surprise there then !

  Last weekend on the Saturday morning, I got a call from a friend of mine to say there was young seal (a last years pup) on the beach at Norwick with some fishing net around it's neck. Going over a short while later with 'Dr Phil', we found the seal on the beach not far from the tide-line. My immediate thought was that if we tried to approach it, it would shuffle straight back in the sea and that would be that. I decided to try again later as the tide was dropping and then maybe it would be further up the beach and I'd be able to get between it and the sea.

  On the way back later, I met someone who asked me if I knew what to do with a seal caught in a net, replying that I was on my way over there, she said her partner was still there and she'd follow me over. Arriving at the beach the seal was nowhere to be seen and on asking her partner where the seal was, he said that when he walked down on to the beach with their dogs, the seal went back in to the sea - who would have thought that would happen ! I decided to go back again later when things had quietened down a bit and so went to Lamba Ness for a walk.

  It was a lovely afternoon, sunny, fairly calm and a clear sky. Walking around the end of the headland, I heard the unmistakable call of an otter cub somewhere down off the end of a rocky outcrop. Shortly after, I saw a female climb out with a very large Lumpsucker fish, joined shortly after by a very large cub. The wind was blowing from me to them but I thought I'd be ok as I was quite some height above them on the cliffs and also around 100 yds away. I was wrong however and she was very uneasy and kept sniffing the air and after only a couple of minutes slipped back in to the sea followed by not one, but two large cubs. They swam below me in the relatively sheltered water and fortunately they now wouldn't catch my scent. Then I saw something I've never seen before (and had longed to see for years) and that was an otter swimming under water - and not one but three! In the calm, crystal clear water, I could see them swimming through the kelp looking for food, leaving a trail of rising bubbles behind them. It didn't last for long but will be a memory that will last for ever. I only had my camera phone with me but they were in the shadow of the cliffs anyway so I would have been disappointed with the results.............

The left side of the red line marks the spot where they were.

  Returning back to Norwick there was no sign of the seal, so I will check again in the morning.

Sun 25th March

  The clocks changed in the night so one hour less in bed. I headed off to Norwick at 7.30am (6.30 really ) Arriving at the beach, there was no sign so I headed off along the sandy beach to the east. In the distance at the far end, I could see a dark object lying up the beach - it looked like a seal. Five minutes later and I was approaching it and had come to the conclusion it was dead, then its flippers twitched. Quickly throwing my coat over it, I managed to keep it still by sitting on it and holding the back of its neck with one hand. Despite this it still managed to turn and try and take a bite but thankfully it missed. It only took 5 minutes to cut the piece of net away but it wasn't easy only being able to use one hand with the knife and then carefully pull away the cut nylon. The net had cut in to the neck quite a way but hopefully the salt water will help it heal up quickly. I thought that monofiliment nets had stopped being used a while ago, but I suppose it could have been floating around for ages. Everyday this past week, folk have been checking the beach there and there's been no sign of it so hopefully that's good news...........

 Those teeth look sharp!

 The wound

The cause

  Also last weekend was the Sport Relief Mile here on Unst. There were a variety of walkers, runners and 'novelty' participants who undertook the 1, 3 or 6 mile course in aid of charity. This year they raised around £1500 pounds............

  Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to see something that possibly only a handful of people have seen (certainly here in the UK at any rate). It had been an idea that I thought of over fours years ago and finally the effort has paid off and I was rewarded with some close up moments. I'll keep you guessing for a bit longer as to what it was until I get some video - hopefully in the next week or so.

            Robbie

Yet more auroras

  As I mentioned in the last post, most of the last week had been pretty poor weather wise, I also said that we were due for a clear day/night.  Well on Thursday it happened, the sky had cleared and was due to stay that way for most of the night, fingers crossed. Keeping a close eye on Spacew, I waited for Catriona to come home and then I headed off northwards. I decided to go up to Saxavord first to see what it looked like towards Muckle Flugga lighthouse. There was a bit of activity but there was too much wind and also to much open moorland 'in the way'. I decided to go to over to Lamba Ness where at least the old RAF buildings could act as a wind break. I spent over two hours there and it was one of the best auroras I've seen - almost as good as last September. It wasn't that there was lots of colour, more the constant changing shapes of the curtains or veils. I'd not seen them swirling around quite so much before. It reminded me of maybe 'stage ice' being blow around or maybe a timelapse film of cloud movement except that this was in real time. I think on this occasion I'd have been better off leaving the camera for 2 or 3 hours doing a time-lapse rather than single images......................

Looking north over to Skaw from Lamba Ness at 11.30pm

  Despite it being quite sunny over the last few days, its been deceptively cold - which has been down to a wind chill. Checking the thermometer at the side of the shed the other morning, the coldest its dropped to has only been -3 degrees but it's certainly felt much colder. Yesterday morning I was very surprised to see a powder coating of snow on Setters Hill and Clibberswick, it didn't last and had gone in an hour...................

The old jetty - minus the sheep fence :)

  Last night (17th March) there was yet another alert for the 'Mirrie Dancers'. I looked out just before 11.30pm and saw the green glow to the north from the house. I took this one from the field to the south just before I headed up to the north of the island and away from the street lighting.......

  Getting up to Lamba Ness just before midnight, it clouded in, poured with rain for 10 minutes, then cleared up again,  but no aurora - time for bed I think !

   Robbie

  Well here we are at the end of the second week in March and it does now feel like spring is on the way. Oystercatchers are back in force with quite a few back in areas where I've seen them breeding over the last few years. Only today (13th) I saw one bird which has returned to the same nesting area for the fourth year - I know this as it is ringed (assuming it is the same ringed bird!) - and the pair were getting down to re-bonding and displaying etc. Also today, I noticed there seems to have been a large arrival of Common Gulls as there have been lots of flocks around the island feeding in the short grass fields. Lastly, today I saw my first Lesser-blackbacked Gulls of the 'spring' here in Baltasound, I'm happy to be corrected, but I think most leave Shetland during the winter months.

  At the end of last week, I went down to Westing as we'd had a bit of a storm. I was hoping for some gulls to be feeding there in the breakers and found a handful of Commons', 2 Icelands and a few Blackheads. One of the Blackheaded Gulls in particular looked rather splendid in that it had possibly the pinkest hue to its breast that I've ever seen on one of these birds...........

  Blackheaded Gull

  Inevitably, while I'm parked there, the local seal population will always come and inspect me - or maybe the car - depending on the state of the tide and how rough the sea is.

  A short way along the beach was a dead ewe on which at least a dozen Ravens were feeding when I arrived. These birds are so wary and as far as they're concerned the long lens may as well be a gun - it was almost 45 minutes before they first landed and then only briefly. If I turn up with the window up, they will often stay put, if it is down they are gone in seconds. From time to time a bird or two will soar or glide towards me along the beach, on reaching the car, they turn and go back to the far end of the beach again and perch - they are sussing me out..................

  At the weekend, I saw my first spring passerine for this year in the form of an early Reed Bunting at Haroldswick.............

Male Reed Bunting

  As is usually the case, it was the weather that dominated things here again. Over the last week, we've had a mixture of some ok days, a nice day and some pretty foul days. On top of this, the last week there has been quite a lot of auroral activity - but not seen here by me ! Some of the recent activity from one of the sunspots has apparently been the best for 5 years - in Iceland they've had almost 2 weeks of auroras. Just after sunset over the last two nights, Jupiter and Venus have only been around 3 degrees apart at sunset, it was something I was hoping to see but again it was cloudy. Looking at the local forecast we are due for a nice day and clear night at the end of the week - which will be a nice change..................

One of the nicer days at Skaw  taken with the camera phone

  Work around the house etc continues with the main focus last week being on getting the stables more water tight. I think I may have mentioned it before, but the stables were built directly on to the concrete without a course of bricks first. This has meant that when it rained (which it does very frequently) the water just ran straight under the bottom timber sole plate. Hopefully with work I've now done it will prevent that happening. Also the boards need painting with some timber treatment as when the rain is combined with a strong wind (most of the time) you can stand inside and see the water soaking through the 1" boarding as though it was a sponge. The stables are now my workshop as I manged to persuade the girls to give up their 'den' which was in one of them (I've made them another one in the other shed) So, by taking out the timber dividing wall, I now have one shed around 12ft x 20ft which is great for working in. The other jobs I have on the go at the moment are getting the cottage ready for renting out (having a gas cooker fitted etc) and starting to organize having the roof re-slated this summer - scaffolding, slates etc etc. It's going to be a busy year - but I'll still find time for the wildlife - I hope.

Up Helly Aa and auroras

  Last Thursday (1st March) was a rather nice day weather wise and the evening was set to be good also. In the late afternoon we had a friend come round who had walked along from Baltasound. Just as she got near to our house, a helicopter landed in the next field to the house and the pilot got out and ran up to the road to where Helen was - he was after directions ! At around 6.30pm I took her over to Haroldswick and on the way back it was one of those magical evenings that could have been mid summer (apart from the temperature). The sun was setting, there was no wind and down in the bay at Haroldswick an otter fished silhouetted against the orange reflection of the sky on the water. There was another aurora forecast, not a strong one, but one non the less. I missed the strongest part which was around 8pm, but managed to get out a bit later; the moon was shining but not too brightly. However, at the pier across from our shoreline, there was a fish-farm ship tied up with all its lights blazing. I decided to head off up north to try and get some shots from either Lamba Ness or Skaw. By the time I'd got there the aurora had subsided and was just faint glow, so I headed down to Skaw and try some moonlit beach pictures. In theory, digital makes taking this sort of picture much easier but I'm still not particularly good at it so it's a case of practicing when the opportunity arises....................

 Skaw beach - 63 seconds @ f5.6, ISO800

  Leaving Skaw sometime around half midnight, I headed home. Had I used my 'give it another 10 minutes' way of thinking, then I'd of had some better pictures; as, on arriving back at home, the 'light show' picked up again..................

1am looking north to the pier.

  Saturday (3rd) was to be Norwick Up Helly Aa. During the day, the wind picked up, it poured with rain and it looked like it could be cancelled. Fortunately early evening the wind dropped very slightly and also the rain. Going on the forecast (and 'live' conditions) if Catriona hadn't been in a squad, I think I'd have given it a miss; however, in the end it wasn't too bad. A few pictures from the evening............

Sula and Rona - the shield Sula designed is on her left side

  After the burning of the boat, most folk go to the hall for the acts etc and then the dance. We left at around 11.30 as Catriona was off away in the morning and had an early start, but many folk didn't leave until 3am!

  Catriona left early on Sunday to go to Zimbabwe for a 2 day meeting ( + 2 days travel each way) so I was at home with the girls. I made most of the time by doing some work in the sheds and then later on going for a fish and chip supper in the village hall - very civilized as there's a bar there as well.

  Yesterday (5th) was another of those sort of days when (if possible) you just have to get out. Now I've taken down the fence at the jetty, I thought I'd have a go at the Redbreasted Merganzers that often feed down there. Previously when the fence was there, they'd have to swim out and around it at high tide (which is when they are the closest) so now I hoped they'd stay nearer. Unfortunately on this occasion they stayed quite a long way away from the shore and all I had was a couple of Fulmars...................

  Back in the garden, the almost resident Rock Doves ( they don't visit quite so much in the summer) were either sitting around waiting for some food or strutting their stuff trying to impress the females. Down south, folk would be complaining about the 'dirty, messy, pigeons' but here these are the 'real McCoy' wild birds from which all town, feral and racing pigeons have descended so I'm only too happy to have them in the garden.............

Rock Doves

  Yet again, there was another aurora forecast, however the moon was now almost full so any show would be watered down somewhat - if it was visible at all. The two websites that I have been using for aurora alerts were not showing the aurora maps but one did have a link to another site that is in the testing stage which is here . I think the overall view is better than the others but I prefer the colour bar on the other ones as it is immediately obvious what strength the aurora is.................

 Faint glow, 11pm March 5th

       Robbie

  Towards the end of last week we had a couple of days of pretty horrible weather. Strong winds and rain from  the west resulted in a gale and a big sea running in at Westing. I went over on Friday to take a look and found a few gulls feeding in the breaking waves, amongst them were a couple of Iceland's, a Black-headed  with the rest being mostly Common and Herring Gulls. The wind direction and state of the tide was just right for watching them feeding - westerly and it was at high tide. Unfortunately the light wasn't, it was from behind the birds which meant most of the time their heads were in shadow. Black-headed Gulls aren't particularly numerous around here so I wanted to get some pictures of it feeding..................

  and the sea at the edge of the bay taken with the 500.................

  By early evening it was blowing a real gale - but it was a lovely clear night. An hour or so after sunset, over to the south west from our house, I could see the lovely sight of Jupiter, Venus and the moon in a perfect (if diagonal) line. I would have loved to have taken a photograph of it but as the wind was almost taking me off my feet, putting a camera on the tripod was out of the question. Unfortunately, the way our windows open, I couldn't even do it from inside through an open window.

  The following morning was one of those days you step outside and feel 'wow' - there was no wind, not a cloud in the sky and .............. sunshine ! We decided to have a family walk and Catriona suggested that we could leave the car at Helliers Water and walk over to the deserted village of Colvadale and then up the east coast and back to Ordaal............

Helliers Water looking north west to Valla Field

  Helliers Water is where Unst's water supply comes from and from here it only travels a couple of miles to the tap and in my opinion it's some of the best tasting drinking water I've ever had. As we approached one of the old croft cottages at Colvadale, a small herd of Shetland ponies came to give us the once over. These incredibly hardy ponies spend most of the year on the hills in all weathers. I have heard of a story of a person (who lived on Unst a while ago) regarding Shetland ponies. The person concerned had a horse of her own and basically reported several folk for leaving their ponies out in the fields and on the hills during cold weather without putting a blanket on them (the ponies that is). Needless to say, nothing was done about it by the animal welfare people...............

 Sula, our eldest and 'friends'

..... the wall is over 5ft high

  My father built dry stone walls in the Cotswolds so I know what goes in to building a traditional wall down there. The ones up here - also called drystane dykes (or versions like it)  are like nothing that you can see down south in the Cotswolds. All of the walls down there are built in 'courses' ie each course is a similar thickness stone and are laid in a horizontal line (the next course is often stones of a different size to the previous course) and then usually finished off with vertical 'toppers' across the width of the wall. The ones here are totally different and I can't begin to understand how long it must have taken to build the wall in the picture above. Without wanting to sound rude, I think it could be called 'random rubble' - which is in fact a type of walling technique.

A Shetland dyke

  Continuing up the east coast of Unst, we had a cracking walk, I even had my coat off for an hour and it must have only been 7 or 8 degrees, but due to the lack of wind it felt warmer. As far as wildlife goes we only saw one 2 Iceland Gulls (plus a variety of other common birds) but I also counted 10 Great Norther Divers between Colvadale and home..................

........... not a bad place to be on a sunny day.

  Later on in the early evening it was still clear, this gave us good views of Jupiter, Venus and the moon. However, they were no longer in a line but still looked good but alas didn't make for a good picture, so I took one of Venus and the moon instead for the record. By March 12th/13th Jupiter and Venus will have converged to be only around 3 degrees apart..............

Venus and the moon

  Another event occurred on Sunday which will bring a bit of piece and quiet to our shoreline for a while (hopefully); one of the neighbouring crofters has moved their sheep back to their croft over to the west of Baltasound. For much of the winter during very low tides and also after the fence was destroyed in the Christmas gale, its been an almost daily chore of rounding the sheep up and sending them back along the shore. Due to the weather and low/high tide times (sometimes low tide was during darkness) I'd not manged to repair the 'sea' fence, thus the animals would come along to our grass - well they do say the 'grass is always greener' etc etc. What this has meant is both the birds (Merganzers etc) and otters have been disturbed on a regular basis - I only hope they settle down again quickly........................

'Go home' - or words to that effect !

  My next job down there will be to take down the existing fence and relocate it a hundred yards to the west where it's less rocky and also less seaweed (the combination of the weight of seaweed on the fence wire and the wave action is what wrecks the fence). While I'm doing that, I'll also reinstate a 5ft length of post back in the water by the jetty ready for when the Arctic Terns return at the end of April or early May.

  Today (28th Feb) I went to Lerwick with Sula so she could get some physio' on her  knee which she hurt last summer during sports day. As with all trips to Lerwick, we try and do a multitude of shopping tasks etc and today was no exception. My Subaru Forester is in need of an MOT at the moment and one of the things needing doing is a new cat' converter for the exhaust. Getting one through the Suby' dealer  would be rather expensive - at least £250 + so I thought I'd get one through one of the other tyre/exhaust dealers in town. I ordered one a couple of weeks back and as it was due to arrive at the end of last week, I thought I'd pick it up today. Going in this morning, the guy looked rather embarrassed and then said he was sorry that he'd had another Forester in yesterday needing one, so he put it on that one instead !  Sometimes I do wonder if folk in Lerwick actually realize that Unst isn't very far away and that yes, we do have phones up here. Needless to say, I was not a happy chappy.

   Robbie

First taste of winter

   After the very, very wet Up Helly Aa night, it was almost a relief to have a forecast of snow for Saturday/Sunday. I'd already said if we did have any, then I'd head back off over to Hermaness and try and get the Gannets in snow. During Saturday evening, I could hear the snow on the windows and so from time to time I checked outside. During one of these times, I noticed a definate glow to the north, was I seeing things? - surely it can't be an aurora as there wasn't a forecast for one. Unfortunately I seemed to have missed the peak at around 10pm on Saturday evening, but I kept checking for a clear sky and around 3am, I could see the glow to the north of Balta Sound. Unfortunately, by the time I'd got dressed and got the gear set up outside, it had started to fade. Another problem was that as the wind was blowing quite strong from the north. I couldn't shelter the camera and tripod from the gusts of wind which resulted in most of the images being blurred - a 30 second exposure time and a force 6 wind doesn't bode well for sharp pictures. If it had of been brighter it would have been nice as we had snow on the ground.................

....... I wish someone would turn the lights out !

  Sunday morning and we had snow - or rather a covering of it. Despite the thermometer only reading minus 2, with the wind chill it was more like -6 or 8 - this caused my car door to freeze up for the first time in ages.

  To this 'southern softie', it really did feel cold and instead of a gentle walk up to Hermaness,  it felt like I was back in the days when my friends and I used to go to the Highland mountains in winter and be quite happy in temperatures of minus 15 or so - and camp on occasions. Not long after leaving the car, I had a very brief view of the Rough-leg' as it flew north along the cliff top of the west side of Burrafirth. I know you should always 'expect the unexpected', but on this occasion I hadn't got the camera out and despite looking I didn't see it again. In a recent post I mentioned the relatively new board walk - here - well, when they designed it, they obviously hadn't thought it would get used much in the winter. All I can say is that it's lethal to walk on when its icy. After a couple of too close an inspection of the frozen moss and grass, I decided not to use it...................

Hermaness can be a bleak place in winter

A snow shower approaches Muckle Flugga

 

  As you can see from the picture above, there was very little snow on the cliffs and what Gannets were around on the cliffs, were keeping their heads well down in the rather strong, cold wind. Despite the cold wind it was a good walk and one I hope to do many times this coming spring and summer.............

 

  I've said it numerous times before, one of the great things about being here (like many places) is that you never know what you might come across when you're out and about. One place I do go to frequently is the headland at Lamba Ness. Often its just passing Gannets or Fulmars, Turnstones feeding in the clifftop turf or flocks of Starlings that I see; but, I always think I could see something different. In the past that has been Orcas or Minke Whales or a scarce bird or two. Earlier today just after I'd done a quick bit of work, I had the same thought going through my head as I walked around the headland. I then noticed a strip of sheep's wool right at the edge of the cliff where I know the turf is undercut and is certainly not a place to walk..........

 

 

  Going around to another piece of the cliff to get another look (thinking a sheep had gone over) I then saw something down below in the water. My first reaction was 'it's a sheep' but on closer inspection with my binoculars, I could see it was a fairly large dead fish. It was wider than it was long and had a very large mouth. Not knowing my sea fish, I took some photos and on checking them at home it looks to me like an Angler Fish (also called Monk Fish) - not as common around Shetland as they once were apparently  - according to the internet..............

  Apart from the sad people that sit in front of a pc and create computer viruses, one other group or type that really annoys me are the ones that copy or 'cut and paste' articles from the net and pass it off as theirs. This maybe from blogs or forums or even bird club newsletters etc. A bird club I belong to down south once had some of its sitings and articles almost pasted word for word in to another 'local' newsletter without even an acknowledgement or credit. A while ago, I came across some of my pictures (and article) that I'd done for a couple friends blog that had been copied on to another website again passing it off as his. On investigation by Martin and Dave, this guy had been ripping off loads of their stuff - here. It seems that this sort of thing has now progressed to Facebook, I heard only yesterday of a person gleaning (copying ?) wildlife sightings and information from one wildlife Facebook page and putting it up on another with no credit - which is certainly different from 'sharing' on FB. I don't know how the guy sleeps at night.

        Robbie