All change again !

  Well there's nothing quite so fickle as the weather (apart from maybe, children) so after having a few nice days, things have changed again and we are now back to wind and rain - and today (9th March) snow showers.

  It had been forecast for last Thursday (3rd) to be a sunny and fine day - and it was ! I had been given the chance to go across to the uninhabited Uyea Isle (a short boat trip from Uyeasound) for a few hours and so jumped at the chance. It really was a cracking morning, so much so, that for a while I was down to just a fleece top (plus trousers of course) as the sun beat down taking the temperature soaring to a pleasant 8 degrees C. It is a lovely island, so only spending under three hours there was not nearly enough time - but it certainly whetted the appetite to go again sometime. Right in the middle of the island is a very large derelict house; which, in its day, must have been splendid. Sadly now it's minus its roof and in time will most likely crumble to the ground.............

Looking east along the north shore of Uyea Isle

  There is a brief description of the isle here

  Returning back to Unst, I took a look at the beach at Westing and sat and had my lunch - which I'd made to take to Uyea thinking we'd be there longer. Apart from the glorious weather, there wasn't much else happening there apart from this Shetland Wren which was too close for the camera (hence the cropped off feet) but if I'd had the time I could have rotated the camera to frame it vertically................

  The only other bird shot of the day was a Grey Heron fishing at Haroldswick Pools.............

Saturday 5th March

  After being delayed out of respect for someone who passed away last week, this evening was to be Norwicks Up Helly Ah procession etc. The weather was fine, the wind had dropped and all was set for a good evening. Unfortunately due to the postponement, there were less squads than there should have been, but even so, a good time was had by all..................

 

Down the 'Broken Road'

The torches are thrown in

The 'Hot X Bunnies'

  The day after Up Helly Ah, the weather turned again and was pretty foul for a few days. Strong wind and driving rain was the order of the day(s) with a few light snow showers thrown in. Fortunately I was going to be working inside at a job on the Monday (7th) so I did manage to keep dry. Tuesday (8th) was even worse, the rain was very heavy and driven by a strong wind. I was to have a meeting with the councils Listed Buildings dept here at the house, but it wasn't particularly pleasant walking around outside talking about the harling (a bit like rendering) or roof slates and getting blown all over the place as we talked.

Wednesday 9th March

 Over night we had a covering of snow here on Unst - even down to the shore line. My plan was to go to the job for a while (there wasn't enough for all day) and then have a quick walk up to Hermaness to see if there was snow on the cliffs and also gannets. From the car it takes around 40 minutes of brisk walking to one part of the gannet colony and so despite the cold, the walk kept me warm. A few pictures from on the way up...............

Looking east

North to Muckle Flugga lighthouse

South to one of the Gannet colonies

Travelling on around towards the cliffs in the picture above, there was snow on the cliffs and also gannets, unfortunately not as much snow as I'd have liked. Watching the birds sitting around in the snow it did make me wonder if they thought that they'd arrived back a bit too early !...........

I've often heard it said and seen it written that a sea bird colony - and especially scores of gannets in flight, often looks like swirling snow; well today that was particularly true...........

A Gannet in a snow storm

                       

                                   Robbie

UFO over Unst ?

   Yesterday (26th Feb) there was a strange and rare sighting over Unst - it was the SUN ! After almost a month of wind, rain and cloudy days, the sun came out.

  The previous day (25th) the wind had dropped and it felt milder but would the forecasters get it right ? Rona was off school for the day, so between cleaning our previous house (before it gets handed back to the landlord) and trips back and forth to it moving boxes, Rona and I had a quick drive around north Unst. The Moorhen was still around the Houb and as usual was very nervous and tried to use every available bit of cover to hide - although some places were more successful than others !...................

  After that, we headed along the shore road past Buness. Half way along, I spotted a 'white' gull with some Black-backs' bathing in a patch of flood water. My first thought was Iceland Gull as it just didn't look big and heavy weight enough to be a Glaucous. I managed to fire off a few shots before it took flight and headed west. Whether it was just a slim one I don't know for sure, but a couple of other guys who saw the pictures later were also not quite sure. It certainly wasn't a typical Iceland nor was it a typical Glaucous...................

 

  From there, we had a quick visit to Haroldswick pools as there were a pair of Gadwall there as I'd not had a good view of one up here for a while (there was one in Uyeasound a couple years back)...............

   On Saturday (26th) it was a fantastic day, so much so that Rona our youngest came in at 7.15am and insisted that we got up and took a look at the sunrise from the landing window - it was rather nice. After two years of living in a bungalow, it is still quite strange to be living in a house with an upstairs again although I am starting to get used to it. I spent the morning along at the bungalow having a bit more of a clear out and a wipe round. We didn't move all of the stuff out when we moved as we wanted as much clear space in Ordaal for the house warming as possible, which in the end worked out a treat.

  After lunch, we had a family walk around the coast from the end of the road from the house. The sun was shining, the sky was clear (without a cloud in sight) and the wind had dropped completely ; I could almost say it felt warm, well after the last month I suppose it was ! We had a lovely walk around the coast, Curlews were calling, Oystercatchers were piping, it really did feel like it was spring. A number of times I had to remind myself that we hadn't got on a plane and gone away on holiday to a sunnier clime and that we were only a five minute drive from the house. Out in the sound sound there were at least seven GNDs (Great Northern Divers) and as they congregate in the coming weeks, I may get to hear them calling - a truly evocative sound.

 Later in the afternoon around 4pm, we were just returning home when I got a call from Rory, there was a bat flying around at Skaw. Not that unusual farther south when they come out of hibernation, but to get one up here is not that common. At first I didn't think it was worth the drive over there as the chances are that it could have moved on, however, with a little bit of persuasion from Catriona and Rona, we headed off over there. Fortunately it was still there - along with Rory and co - and was still flying around the croft. It must have hibernated there as the wind and rain of the past month wouldn't have been particularly good for a migrating bat. It was some kind of Pipistrelle bat, but without a bat detector or having it in the hand its difficult to tell......................

Bat at Skaw

 Sunday 27th Feb

  Another fine morning - although just a tad cooler. For most of the morning I was back and forth along to Voesgarth putting the finishing touches to handing over. After lunch, Catriona went out for a walk and I stayed at home doing jobs etc . Both girls had a great time in the garden building a den which also involved me as they couldn't hit the nails in to the timber. I managed to get one of the strimmers working after only a few pulls on the cord and this was after it being in storage for two years. There are around 8 acres of ground  here and most of it will carry on as before, ie one part will be cut for either hay or silage, another will be used for grazing some ponies or sheep etc. Other areas will be left in a semi wild state which should be good for nesting birds like Snipe, Redshank and Curlew and also for migrants in the autumn. Hopefully by this time I will also be able to plant some willow cuttings to encourage passage birds in the future.

The front of the house from the 'croquet lawn'........

.....Yes, believe it or not that lumpy grass area used to be a croquet lawn !

Looking east along the foreshore  (the next picture was taken from the small patch of water right of centre)  - and looking back west to where the previous picture was taken.............

Tuesday March 1st

Another fine day, but still a little cool (7-8 degrees)After going to see a guy about some work, I took a drive over to Lamba Ness. Walking around the eastern cliff top, I spotted a small black and white auk down on the sea. My first thoughts was that it was a Little Auk but something didn't seem right. Fetching the scope (and camera) I was really surprised to see that it was in fact a Puffin. Still in its non breeding plumage ie no brightly coloured (and smaller) bill, it was certainly and early bird................

Along the cliffs were also many pairs of Fulmars catching a few 'rays'

  The last few weeks have had good aurora forecasts, but due to the wet, cloudy weather, we've missed out - until tonight. I'd been checking on the website and had seen it was building up for a show. About 10pm I got a text from Rory to say that it was starting, going outside I could see a nice green glow and a few 'curtains' of white light. It took me a few minutes to set up the camera at the side of the house, put it on 30 seconds @f4, ISO800, set the shutter to continuous mode and locked the remote lease open and went inside (after I'd watched it for a while of course). I stayed up until 1.30am, went and retrieved the camera only to see the card was full and only 198 frames taken. I'd done it again, I forgotten to change the camera quality from Raw to Jpeg. This meant I only had half the amount of shots that could have been possible if I'd changed the setting. The first shot below is a stacked picture of 198 images (using Star trails) the second is the same number put together as an AVI video (which looks better at the smaller scale).........

  I still have a lot to learn about doing this type shot and having the right conditions is half the battle. Also getting the right location is just as important. With more forecasts over the next few days, hopefully (weather permitting) I can get some more practice in.

       Robbie

How far off is Spring ? ....................

  That's a question that lots of folk often ask at this time of year. A while ago on Martin and Dave's blog , Martin mentioned that he'd seen Magpies carrying nest material and that spring wasn't far away. I've just read in my daughters junior RSPB magazine 'Bird Life', that if spring arrives at Lizard Point in Cornwall on March 1st, it won't arrive at Muckle Flugga (a few miles north of here) until May 8th.  Apparently spring moves north at a rate of half a mile per hour - it's going to be a long wait ! However, spring is on its way - even if it is coming slowly - as the Shalders (Oystercatchers) have started returning in numbers and are now feeding back around the shorelines and on the short grass fields. The first proper breeding migrant to return however, will be the Lesser-blackbacked Gulls, which head south for the winter from these islands.

  On the bird front locally, things are still pretty quiet on Unst. In Uyeasound the Coot and Goosander are still on Easter Loch and in Baltasound the Morehen is still around. Brydon had the immature drake King Eider again on Bluemull Sound this morning - I've not yet seen this one :( and he also had a Glaucous Gull at the weekend over at Lamba Ness

  Just looking at Magicseaweed it looks like the strong wind and gales are going to continue well in to next week which is a pain.

   While I was sitting having my breakfast this morning and watching the news, I heard strange noises coming from the chimney (which has a board in front of the fire place to stops the draught). My first thoughts were that it was the wind playing tricks with my hearing until I turned off the tele and realized it was a Raven sitting on the chimney stack making a sort of gurgling noise. Something else that I've still not yet got used to when I come down the road and that is seeing Fulmars sitting on the chimneys - I don't know why but it just looks a bit odd.

                 Robbie

It's still windy !

  Well we moved in to Ordaal 3 weekends ago and it was windy then and it's still windy now - and it's getting a bit tedious. The wind has been south or south easterly now for over two weeks (apart from two separate days when the wind did drop briefly) During the week, there were some big waves coming in to Norwick again, the light was foul and the wind was so strong it was a job to hold the camera still. The pic below is a poor record shot of the sea state, just look at the size of the gull and it may give an idea of the size of the breakers...........

Norwick 'beach'

  Last Friday (11th Feb) was the first of two Up Helly Ah celebrations here on Unst and that was down at Uyeasound. Even though the evening was dry (the weather that is ) there was a very strong south-easterly blowing which didn't help the torchlight procession and the burning of the galley due to the sparks being blown everywhere. Last year I had a number of large holes burnt into a fleece coat by wind blown ash and sparks. The basis of the event is the same every year but with different 'acts' in the hall after the burning of the gallery. Below are a few pictures from this year at Uyeasound and here is a little more detail about the event from last year...........

  This year there were 18 'acts' in the hall  which meant it went on until after midnight - and then there was a dance ! A lot of folk wouldn't have got home until the early morning but we left around 12.30am with two very tired children.

  This last week has been another very busy week as we were  going to have a joint house warming/ celebratory party with some friends. A friend of ours has just taken over as the Unst GP so we combined the two occasions and invited a 'few' friends around for a bit of a party on Friday (18th Feb) To say a few friends and a bit of a party isn't quite true, had everyone come that'd been invited (some were working, some were away etc) then we'd have had just over 100 folk here on Friday evening, as it turned out the numbers were in the high 80s, including 23 children. For me it was brilliant and it showed how great folk are that live up here. In the living room at one stage there were six fiddlers and two others playing acoustic guitars, the atmosphere was something I'll remember for a long time. I finally turned in around 2.30am and woke the following morning with a slightly sore head :)

The 'house warming' fiddlers

  With just a few more boxes to move from our previously rented house and the house warming having taken place, I can now start and look at the multitude of jobs that need to be done around the place. If I can put it one way, the previous couple of owners, weren't the greatest at DIY. Apart from jobs that need to be done which are basically due to the wear and tear on an old property, there are quite a number of jobs that if they'd been done properly in the first place, probably wouldn't be needing to be done now, hey ho.

                  Robbie

'I don't believe it' ! ...............

  That was a catchphrase that was used by 'Victor Meldrew' from the BBC's series 'One foot in the grave', well today (8th Feb) I've used it more than once. We moved here to Ordaal over a week ago and so on Tuesday last week, I contacted BT to move our phone and broadband to the new address. They told me it would be 5 working days and we may be able to keep the same telephone number - I said to them at the time that I'd believe that when it happened. When we moved the last time - around 16 months ago, I had to re-order the 'broadband move' 3 times and in the end I threatened to cancel our BT package, it was then done the following day. Well, today was to be the reconnection and guess what, it happened ! Both phone and broadband (and our old number) were done this morning by 11am, so this time BT have done well ( I still don't know why it should take 5 days to process the order though)

  The last week has been pretty hectic with the move and so I've not been out that much apart from when I'm doing the school run - I can't complain (and won't !), as now I can have a 10 minute walk around the field and along the shoreline. The end of last week was pretty wild here, over night on the 3rd and 4th, we had a gale where the wind reached Force 11, which on the Beaufort Scale is classed as a violent storm. Off the west of Shetland there was a swell recorded of up to 16 meters (52ft) and needless to say there was some damage around the place. Here in Baltasound, I heard of one family loosing the roof off of their kitchen and we (getting off lightly) had two 6ft x 4ft doors ripped off one of the sheds - it was lucky the roof didn't go as well. Going down to Westing after I'd dropped off Sula on the 4th, I parked briefly in the turning area but decided it would be a good idea to move as the waves were crashing on to the car. The light was pretty bad so I left after only a very short time. Returning there again later before the afternoon school run, the turning area was covered in stones twice the size of a house brick - just where I'd previously parked briefly ! What a westerly storm here does produce is lots of feeding gulls and today was no exception. There were hundreds of Common, Great-blacked Backed, Herring and a few Black-headed Gulls all feeding in the crashing waves.

........ same view on a nicer day.

.....and these islands aren't that small

 Whilst standing there talking to another guy that had come down for a look, he nudged me and said with surprise, 'look, there's an otter'. The was an otter coming down a small burn next to where we were parked and then went down in to the sea without even a glance in our direction. I grabbed a shot with the 500 with out any time to check the exposure etc........

 

  I watched it fishing (very successfully) for quite some time, until finally it set off in one direction and came out of the water, scent marked and then headed off along the rocks and out of sight......

  It was certainly a very difficult situation to be photographing in, a gale force wind blowing straight towards me from the sea, constant spray being blown onto the camera lens and getting a soaking every 7th wave - aaah, the pleasures of being out in the elements !

  Later on in the day, the weather cleared up a bit and for a time, even the sun came out. Around 7pm, I got a call from Rory to say that there was a prediction for an aurora so keep a look out. On going outside, we had the whole of the northern half of the sky glowing green with the Northern Lights. At this house, we are lucky to have and uninterrupted view of the sky around us apart from the lights of the village to the west and the pier lights to the north across the sound. I quickly set up the camera in a spot out of the wind and took a number of pictures. I then decide to move it slightly to get a better silhouette in the foreground for some time-lapse shots but, unbeknown to me, I'd knocked the focusing ring and forgot to recheck the focus (I was manually focusing) so all I got was this one picture, hey ho, better luck next time............

(the orange glow is the light from the pier)

  By 9 o'clock, it had clouded over and I thought that was that and went in, wrong ! Next day when I spoke to Rory he'd said at around midnight it'd been one of the best auroras he'd seen for years.

  The following day, the wind had dropped off quite a lot, but I still called in to the west side. At the beach there were quite a few Common Gulls feeding amongst the breakers so I spent half an hour trying to get some shots of them on the wing.........

Common Gull

 Back at the house/garden/field etc, after just over a week, my bird list is starting to grow and is now 24 species, including - Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Slavonian Grebe and Little Grebe. It is still only February and things won't really get moving until mid April at least. I've been seeing otter almost daily and only yesterday Sula saw one from her bed as she was off from school feeling unwell. I was fortunate to have been given a 'trail cam'  (a remote camera that records anything that moves in front of it both day and night) by the previous owner of the house.Last week I set it up and left it over night and then the following day reviewed the images (a short video) to see an otter moving out of the picture at 1.30am in the morning. The following day I moved it to a better location (so I thought) only to see it - or more to the point, not to see it - under 12 inches of water ! It was the morning after the storm and the heavy rain had flooded the freshwater pool, we live and learn so they say. At least I hadn't just bought it  :)

                            Robbie

The next chapter

Well, after a number of months of frustration and waiting, we finally got the keys to our new, old house - as I said previously the cottage part of it dates back around 300 years. We were formally handed the keys by the previous owners on Friday the 28th Jan, but we didn't move in until Saturday 29th Jan. Before we moved in last Saturday, I had a few hours out looking for the Rough-legs again, this time with four friends one of which was hoping for his first ever Rough-leg. Despite the fact it was pretty cold, it was quite a nice day - apart from the quite strong wind. It wasn't long before we saw both the birds and had some good views of them as they soared past us along the hillside.

Rough-legged Buzzard(s)

As we had just moved house, there hasn't been too much time to get out and about. Despite the very unsettled weather this week so far, there have been some really nice atmospheric type shots to be had (well I thought so anyway) Mostly with the sun low in the sky, shining through rain or mist................

A second brief vist to the west side, produced another sighting of one of the Rough-legs' and this time it was on the ground. It was impossible to get any closer due to the open terrain and as I didn't have the time to do 'wait and see' type photography, I had to be content with a large cropped picture. It was so far away I couldn't even see that it had its head turned away !......................

While out this morning doing some shopping (2nd Feb), I saw a Peregrine flying over which is an uncommon sight here. On returning home later I took a walk down the field to the foreshore and was delighted to see it perched on a fence post a couple of hundred yards away - a good 'garden' tick. It was being constantly harrased by gulls and Hoodies so it only stayed for a short while before it headed off across the sound.

Going back down the field later, I walked around a small area of marsh that floods with every high tide.I then noticed just over a low shingle bank, an otter curled up on a small group of sea weed covered rocks. The wind direction wasn't good but I decided to go and get the camera anyway. Returning to the pool, I plotted my route so as to not let the wind carry my scent across to the otter. Unfortunately my plan didn't take in to account the feeding Redshank that had been out of my view, it exploded into the air calling loudly as it sped away. The otter then lifted its head and even though it couldn't have caught my scent, crept into the water. I then managed to lie down behind some boulders for cover but it was too late, the otter had decided to leave and was heading east along the shoreline. Seconds later it passed in front of me and caught my scent, it stopped briefly before diving and wasn't seen again...................

 'I know you're there'

                                Robbie