I know I mention the weather quite a lot here, but it has to be said we often get quite a lot of it. After what seems like months of cold northerly or north easterly winds and rain, things are now improving. Last night was - for me at least - the first of the 'simmer dim' evenings with it still being very light and with a colour in the sky at midnight. I looked out again at around 3.30am and saw the starting colours of a sunrise - magical !............

Down at the shore at 9.50pm with the camera phone

 In the last posting I finished off by saying that I'd re-found the 2 Common Cranes at Burrafirth. Well, by 10am in the morning they'd gone, only to be seen again the same afternoon down at Eshaness on north west Mainland. The following evening I got a message to say that there was another crane up at Lamba Ness and so despite seeing two really well over the previous couple of days I thought I'd still go and take a look. Getting there just before 7pm, I saw the bird feeding some distance from the road in not too brilliant a light; but, as I often do, I took some record shots...........

  The following morning (10th May), I headed off over to Lamba Ness fairly early (no kids at home) with the hope of getting the crane with some early morning sunshine on it. As I approached the Lamba Ness turning on the road to Skaw, I saw the bird walking in front of me and just about to cross the road. I was very aware that if I went too far the bird might take flight and go even further from the road,  so I pulled in to watch the bird instead. Despite it was obviously very aware of me, it didn't seen too bothered and started to feed as it walked. It covered a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time - mind you, with long legs and feet this size I'm not surprised................

What I believe to be crane footprints next to my size 9s

 I know that herons, storks and cranes will eat a very varied diet, this Curlew which almost certainly had a nest nearby was taking no chances and didn't like the bird in the area. The crane however, was totally un phased by the curlews flypasts...................

 Last week I did a couple of bird surveys up here. One was over on Uyea Isle to the south of Uyeasound (more of that at a later date) and the other was not far from the house in area of grassland, marsh and a little bit of rocky hillside. I'd not done any bird surveys as such since leaving the Cotswolds and hadn't really intended on getting back in to it. On being asked to do this one however, I didn't take a lot of persuading. It was a really nice day - although a little breezy at times - and I have to admit, very nice to do. All around me were waders calling - Redshank, Curlew, Golden Plover, Snipe, Lapwing and best of all, Whimbrel. It took a while to remember the BTO codes after so long but the next one in early June should be a piece of cake................

  Whimbrel at Lamba Ness

  I must add that Whimbrel (like a number of other breeding waders here) are protected by law and a license is required to photograph them near to their nest site (which I don't have - or want) . This bird was photographed from the roadside at Lamba Ness earlier on in the month - in fact I think it was one of the first I saw this year.

Looking back north to Balta Sound -our house is dead centre (camera-phone)

 During the last couple of weeks we've had a few birds come through the garden, three of them (all of one species) are much less common than the others. These birds were Tree Sparrows and we were lucky to have them feeding for over a week on the seed-feeder........

  Tree Sparrow

  The two other species were Pied Flycatcher and Dunnock (No. 104 for the garden list), the Dunnock didn't hang around, but the male Pied Flycatcher spent 3 days feeding around the garden during a spell of windy and wet weather..............

Pied Flycatcher

 Another nice sighting was that of several flocks of migrating Knot. The first one was of over 450 in Baltasound on the morning of the 14th, followed by at least 70 at Haroldswick. Later on in the day Mike P counted at least 650 as they roosted at high tide in Baltasound...........

 Part of the Haroldswick flock

Part of the Baltasound roost

  I know that these small amounts of Knot are nothing compared to the thousands that roost down in Norfolk during the winter, but they're still nice to see nonetheless.

  Last week I was on my way down to Lamba Ness when a bird flew in from my left across the road and landed a short distance away in front of the car. My first thoughts were 'Snow Bunting', however, on taking a few pictures it didn't look quite right. After lots of thought - but not enough as it turned out - I assumed it was a ?????? (to save any embarrassment). Contacting several others later - with much greater knowledge than me - I was given the correct identity. The phrase 'marriage in haste. repent at leisure' could quite easily be adapted to this occasion  :)

 a pale female Snow Bunting

  While looking for the bird along the cliffs, I came across some resting Tysties (Black Guillimots), I'd been looking for a while for a suitably accessible site - most I'd seen before were either too far down the cliff face or in a not very safe location to view them from........

Tystie

    Something that I've just seen via Facebook and if it gets the go ahead will be very controversial - and totally ludicrous is the proposed 'management' of the UK Buzzard population - with Government backing and funds, read on here .The only things that need controlling are some of the pillocks in the Houses of Parliament !

  I recently upgraded (long overdue) my pc monitor to a 24" LED HD one, so if the colours etc don't look right (do they ever?) bear with me :) Hopefully later in the year, I'll do the same to the pc - now almost 7 years old and a lot slower than me !

    Robbie