Robbie's Northern Exposures

Our Easter holiday this year was going to be a return trip to North Zealand, Denmark to the farm owned by Catriona's step-sister, Selma. It's been around ten years since I last visited and were going to stay there for almost two weeks from the end of March.

The journey to Lerwick and the overnight ferry was fairly uneventful apart from a short period as we passed the south end of Shetland. An announcement was made that the outer 'smoking deck' would be closed due to an exercise by the coastguard helicopter, 'Oscar Charlie' who would be lowering a crew member down to take an ill or injured 'person' off from the moving ship. In fact the injured person was a stretcher, whiched back to the helicopter that was hovering very close to the rear port side of the ship.

The following morning we took the train to Edinburgh and then bus to the airport for the late afternoon flight to Copenhagen. Not only did we change our watches/phones to BST, but also an extra hour when we arrived in Denmark.

A short while before we landed, I had that horrible feeling when you feel like you've lost something - this time it was my wallet. Despite there not being much cash in there, there were numerous plastic cards for one thing or another but also personal bits and pieces that were irreplaceable. As we left the plane, I asked the cabin crew if one had been handed in and apart from a short sharp 'no', they weren't very helpful. Not a good start to the holiday.

Selma met us at the airport and by the time we'd reached the farm, it was quite late - time for bed ( and trying not to think about my lost wallet).

The following day, the good news was, my wallet had been found. Fortunately it had been handed in to a member of the security staff and thankfully I'd left some of my cards with my contact details in it. She then phoned for me to confirm it was mine etc. I still had a bit of hassle getting through to lost property, but thankfully it had arrived back at home by the time we had returned.

The flat at where we were staying, has a lovely large picture window looking roughly north east over farmland and over the following two weeks I saw a number of birds including Hen Harrier, Osprey, Merlin, Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Green Sandpiper as well as lots of commoner species. One species of bird that the farm has in abundance is Tree Sparrow. I would think most days there were 20+ around and so I'm told there has been up to 70 in the past. In England, flocks of that number are sadly now a thing of the past in most places.

Tree Sparrow

One other nice sight to see at the farm, was a number of Brown Hares (5) out on the recently ploughed fields. Again, hares used to be a much more common sight in Gloucestershire where I'm from but thankfuly numbers are increasing in some areas. Both of the pictures below, were taken from the flat window.....

Brown Hare

Most of the time we were in Denmark we were visiting various sites and tourist attractions. Including several visits in to Copenhagen, to Roskilde and its Viking museum, Legoland and Tivoli Gardens amongst others. Below are a few pictures from our trips out.....

Roskilde Viking ship museum

'Sea Stallion'

In 2007, the Sea Stallion sailed from Denmark to Dublin around the north coast of Scotland via Orkney. In 2008 it returned to Roskilde via the south coast of England. There is a huge amount of info about the ships and the museum here.

Also at Roskilde, we visited the magnificent cathedral which was one of - if not the first - to be built using brick.

One of the highlights for Rona was our trip to Legoland - I also found the Lego creations amazing; but wasn't too bothered by the theme-park side of it.

The last afternoon/evening was spent at Tivoli Gardens in the centre of Copenhagen....

Tivoli is a large park with amusements and rides, restaurants etc. I did like visiting even if it was to just try and comprehend why folk would want to endure some of the rides. In the ride pictured above for instance, not only does the big arm rotate, but the plane on the end, also rotates - at a fair rate of knots too - it made us feel ill just watching it.

I did get a bit of time to myself however, one particularly enjoyable day was spent at a large lake on the edge of a forest at Alsonderop. Lots of birds - numerous migrating Ospreys, Marsh Harriers and even a small flock of Common Cranes passing over. There is also Sea Eagle breeding in the forest, but that part was obviously out of bounds, although I did hear one call several times.......

Osprey passing overhead

Returning back home on the 12th April, it felt good to be back to the peace and quiet of Baltasound after the frenetic pace of city life. While I still had lots of jobs to continue with at home, I still made time to have a look out and about and even got a couple of walks up to Hermaness. One of which was taking a photographer up there for Brydon's Shetland Nature tour company. Julian is a French photographer who is especially interested in carnivores - he came to Shetland to photograph otters with Brydon - but also wanted to see the Gannets at Hermaness. I had done a 'recce' the day before and the birds were performing well in the updrafts etc. Unfortunately the day we went, the wind direction had changed which in turn changed the way they used the updrafts. Thankfully, as we returned back along the cliff top, there were a number using the change in the wind direction to their advantage and were gathering grass from one of the cliff top slopes.....

In the last Gannet picture, I was playing around with slow shutter zoom (not quite perfected yet) and when I saw it, it conjured up a thought of what it might look or feel like if I took one step too many at the cliff edge !

.... and the Puffins had returned :)

There have been a few nice birds around over the last few weeks, some quite common, one or two less so. One (or rather two) of the handsomest has got to be Slavonian Grebe in summer plumage. We usually see up to six on Baltasound during the winter and occasionally I've seen the odd one that's been starting to moult in to breeding plumage. Just over three weeks ago, two turned up in the bay at Haroldswick; they were pretty nervous however and would swim off out in to the bay if a car stopped and was too close. A week later I was driving around the shore road when I noticed them fairly close to the beach. Pulling the car onto the grass verge, I was really surpised when instead of swimming off, they stayed put just below me in the water. I then spent 3/4 of an hour watching and photographing them.....................

Just across the road from where I took these pictures is Haroldswick Pool which is an area of shallowish water also with a marshy area and a strip of Rosa Rugosa bushes running back at a right angle to the road. Its a favourite place of mine to pull up for a while as the bushes often attract migrants and this year has been better than usual. Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Bramblings and Reed Buntings have been very common but also Wryneck, Hawfinch and Little Egret have put in an appearance over the last few weeks......

Male Brambling

Wryneck

Female Blackcap

It was precisely for this reason that I stopped off there last Tuesday (7th May) - to just check it out and see what was there. Within a few seconds of stopping, I noticed a small bird at the far end of the Rosa that 'shouted out' it was something different; I grabbed the camera and got a couple of shots before it dropped back in to the bushes. Looking at the back of the camera, I can honestly say, I thought it was an American passerine , but what ? For the next fifteen minute or so, I sat looking through my 'Collins' book and also at 'Sibley' on my Ipod trying to work it out, thankfully it showed again and I got some more pictures. I now thought I'd narrowed it down to it being a female of either a Cape May Warbler (the species Mike P had found last year) or a Yellow-rumped Warbler - surely the Cape May couldn't have over wintered? Finally the bird showed really well and I saw its bright yellow rump, its got to be a Yellow-rumped Warbler I thought. Firstly I phoned Brydon (and tried in vain to send him some pics from the back of the camera via my phone), then Chris (Roger) only answer phone and then a message and an email to Mike who was at school.

After what seemed like ages (probably 20 minutes or so) Chris turned up, totally oblivious to my message and what I thought I'd found; when I showed him the pictures he said 'that's definitely a Yellow-rumped' - brilliant ! Later on in the afternoon the bird went missing, so I headed off to have a look around Haroldswick. I couldn't find the warbler, but I did have a very brief view of Subalpine Warbler, not long enough to ID the race, but it was re-found and confirmed by Brydon later to be a 'western'.

Thankfully - for the birders that had come up from Mainland etc - the Yellow-rumped' returned to the Rosa later on in the evening. The bird was still present the following day and good views of it were had by most. Compared to the previous day, it was feeding in a totally different way, yesterday it was quite skulking, today it was 'flycatching' and sitting around on the tops of the bushes and even hopping around on the ground in the open. The bird was a 1st for Unst and a 3rd for Shetland - and I think, the 18th for Britain........

The 1st brief un-cropped view

The following day I had some much closer views as I sat in the car......

Robbie

... 'and finally' ? - I think that was a phrase that was (or still is) used at the end of the ITV national news each night when they had an item of an often less serious nature. In my case the 'good news' was that we at last have had some really nice weather !

Well what's been happening up here over the last 3 weeks or so ? - it's been busy in one way or another. On the 7th, I was out having lunch with Catriona when my mobile went but I as I didn't recognize the number, I let in ring so as to maybe get a message. Shortly after, I checked the phone to hear a message from Dick and Ali Foyster to say that they'd had a Red Kite over near Burrafirth. We didn't hang about and before long I'd re-found it, sitting on the ground several hundred yards from the road. Not very good pictures, but a nice record and both an Unst and a Shetland 'tick'.....

Red Kit at Sotland Unst

Also on that day, I had one of my first Red-throated Divers of the 'spring' on the sea at Westing.....

and a Gannet riding the waves.....

A couple of days later in the late afternoon (9th) I got a call from Brydon to say that two Sperm Whales had been found down at Muness on the south east corner of Unst. Getting down there half an hour later, I have to say I was stunned as to the size of them. I paced it out and one was around 15 of my strides so it was roughly 40-45ft long and, so I was told later, around 35-40 tons ! The theory is that one came in which was ill and the other then beached itself a short distance away, very sad. Over the next two weeks, lots of people went to have a look - I even got a mention regarding it both online, in the paper and a very embarrassing interview on Radio Shetland - that's enough of that then!

It was thought that one had been ill and had come inshore and got wedged in a small Geo and died and then the other one had followed it in and then died on the beach.

The 'powers that be' had decided that they couldn't be left there and had to be buried. Both how they were going to be moved and where they could be buried was going to be a logistical nightmare and after much deliberation it was decided to tow them by boat to a remote beach in the south of the island. Over the period, I made a number of visits to the site and also to their final resting place and I have to admit it was very moving (no pun intended). I could write the whole of this blog about them etc, but as time is against me, pictures will have to suffice.....

........gone but not forgotten.

On one day during the first week that the whales were at Muness, I was on my way through Uyeasound, when I saw Brydon down at the pier. Going down, I discovered he'd seen the King Eider close-by to some of the nearest salmon cages. He had a quick word with one of the salmon boat guys and a few minutes later, we were off to have a closer look. It was one of those occasions when you make a decision and then later regret it. I decided to put the 1.4extender on the 500 thinking we wouldn't get that close to the flock of eiders (which included the King'). As we gently moved around them in the boat, the King took off and flew directly towards me, the lens magnification was now too much and I just couldn't lock on to it as it turned and flew parallel past me; most of what I got was out of focus :( Brydon however had a his zoom lens fitted and got a cracking shot as it flew past him......my efforts......

King Eider at Uyeasound

Over the next few days I had one or two nice wildlife encounters, some photos of which are below....

Water Rail at Haroldswick Pools

Great Black-backed Gull at Baltasound pier

Fulmars at Snarravoe

'Blue' Fulmar at Lamba Ness

For many years ever since I first saw an aurora here in Shetland, I (along with many other no doubt) have had the dream of photographing one over the iconic location of Muckle Flugga - the lighthouse at Britain's most northerly point. Last week there was a forecast for two, fairly low strength ones; one over Sunday night, the other over Tuesday night -Wednesday morning.

One of the concerns with the location is obviously the safety factors due to the cliffs and open moorland etc; but also the conditions need to be perfect ie cloudless sky, no wind and no forecast of rain as it's an hours walk either way from the car park.

On the Sunday, I decided to walk out there in the afternoon (with Rona), set the camera up, turn on the remote and then collect it the following day - hopefully with a card full of auroa pictures. Alas, something didn't work with the remote (it had been tried before hand) and on getting the camera the following morning, not a shot had been taken :(

Right, the next chance was not going to be missed. I contacted Brydon to see if he was up for it (which he was), but due to him being off island, we wouldn't be able to head off until after 9pm. As far as I was concerned, the shortest route 'over the top', was out of the question due to the difficult terrain - lots of peak hags, muddy pools and an indistinct track. We headed up the boardwalk and then followed the cliff-top north - keeping well back from the edge I hasten to add. We finally arrived at our already decided location around 10.30pm and set up the gear. I was using my 7D and Brydon had his recently acquired Nikon D4 - which he readily admitted - wasn't familiar with. Around 11pm, a glow started to show in the north, unfortunately it wasn't that bright, so I had to up the ISO (which my 7D definitely doesn't like). One other problem was the beam from the lighthouse. It was a bit of a trial and error situation to get the timing right as to when to release the shutter. The problem I had was due to my slow shutter speed, the beacon light would rotate several times during the exposure and cause problems, I over came this by momentarily putting my hand in front of the lens as it passed. Brydon's F4 was much better at dealing with noise which meant he could use a higher ISO and in turn a lower shutter speed and was thus less affected by the lighthouse beam.

We were up there until just before 2am, in that time I only took 36 or so pictures and of those, 34 were ruined by wind vibration (it was probably only a F2 if that) unfortunately, out there - unlike at Lamba Ness - there is no shelter at all. I could have taken a heavier tripod but was reluctant to carry it on a 5 or 6 mile round trip - I'll now know better for next time. Overall it was a fantastic experience, probably one that not many have seen whilst sitting right at the top of Britain over looking Flugga'. Below is one of my pictures (one of the last I took as it began to subside) and also a couple of links to Brydons - which are 100 times better than mine :) and he'd only recently started using his D4 and he'd never photographed an aurora before !

Brydons 1 and Brydons 2