One season ends, another starts

  Well here we are on the 1st September and summer seems to have gone and the autumnal wind and rain has arrived with some vengeance. I'm sure that a few folk would disagree, but I don't think it's been a bad one at all. The main concern for us was that we wanted it dry and relatively windless for doing the roof and, as I mentioned in my last post, we did alright on that front. All in all, it took 4 weeks to do the roof and another week to finish the guttering, downspouts and some re-pointing.

  On the 31st July, we fitted the last of the old slates on the front of the house and as we were doing it, I had the added bonus of a garden tick (now at 122 species) in the form of a Common Kestrel which, by the look of it (wet and tired), had just arrived in off of the sea....

Kestrel at Ordaal

  A few nights later, I had my first evening walk of the year up to Hermaness. It didn't look like it was going to be a fantastic sunset, but never the less, it's still great to get up there in the evening. Basically, by the time I'd got to the end of the board walk, it was long before the sun was nearing the horizon and in to cloud at that. Below are five pics from the evening...

Drumming Snipe

Displaying Bonxie

'Clear to Land'

'Evening Stroll'

  The last one could be titled - 'The Sand Eel was this big, honest'

  The following morning was a cracking morning so I decided to spend the morning up at Hermaness and go 'down the banks' to one of the gannet nest sites. Despite the at times, rather precarious route down, it is well worth it just to sit just a few yards from them and to be accepted - as long as the 'circle of fear' is taken in to account (the minimum distance at which an animal etc will be at ease). I could quite easily spend all day down there with them, but unfortunately reality always kicks in and it usually ends up as just a couple of hours......

 

  I was back down there again a few days later hoping to get some shots of gugas (young Gannets) being fed by their parents. There was quite a size variation between the young, some still small and very reptilian like, others were quite large and covered in down, and even some where showing signs of feathers. I did get some photos, everything seamed perfect - light, angle etc; however, once home I was disappointed to see that all of the images were ruined by heat haze. I knew it was quite warm by the number of panting gannets and their young, but I hadn't noticed it over the distance of only 15 or 20 feet.

  By the middle of August, the first sign of a bit of autumnal migration was showing with a Green Sandpiper at Lamab Ness, shortly followed by a Shelduck there and also a Knot. On the 11th of the month, I saw my first Minke of the 'summer' off of Lamba Ness and on several days saw up to three feeding just off the headland. It coincided with huge numbers of Gannets fishing along that bit of coast (presumably on the same fish as the Minke) and the Gannets were also closely followed by the piratical Bonxies who constantly harried the Gannets for their catch......

 Minke Whale

'Unfair odds'

Seconds before the Gannet disgorges its fish

  On the 22nd August, I had a couple of 'spare' (?) hours (and it was a nice day) so I thought I'd go 'down the banks' again. I'm now sorted as to what I carry down in my smaller camera bag (+ a lens case on my belt) which makes the scramble down a lot easier. I'd rather not have to take a tripod down but I do find the ease of using the long lens for close-ups worth the extra weight. Unfortunately on this occasion the midges were a pain but this time I was using 'Smidge that midge' repellant which worked a treat (I've run out of 'Skin so soft'). Just a few more Gannet pics........

   On the bird migration front, a few things are now starting to come through - although a bit less than down on Mainland (Shetland). We've had quite a good passage of Black-tailed Godwits, with 34 today (1st Sept) just along from Ordaal. There was also a Med' Gull in Baltasound which Mike (Pennington) found and Brydon and I found a Greenish Warbler at Skaw (there have been 8 or 10 so far this autumn in Shetland).....

A record shot of the Med' Gull on the Houb

Greenish Warbler at Skaw

  On the 28th Aug, early on in the evening, I had an aurora alert come through to my phone. I didn't have much hope as it had been quite cloudy, it was a bit breezy and also there was a half moon. Looking out around 11pm it looked promising so I decided to head off up north to Lamba Ness. The cloud had cleared a bit, but the moon was quite bright - it didn't look too promising. However on arriving at the end, there was a nice green glow to the north and there was some shelter from the wind by the old RAF buildings. Setting the camera up and locking the remote release on, I retired to the car to watch the northern sky. Glancing around to the east I could see a fantastic light show of long green 'tentacles' reaching down towards the bright moon - what a shot that would make! It took several minutes to retrieve the camera and set it up again in a different spot by which time unfortunately it had subsided a little, hey ho.....

  The last one looks like it's been manipulated in 'Photoshop' or similar, ie taken in black and white and then selectively coloured; it hasn't, that's almost straight out of the camera.

      Robbie

Busy, busy times....

  Here we are at the end of July, the breeding season is all but over for most birds up here (Gannets will be the last to fledge - in September). I knew that once we started the roof that it was going to be a very busy time with some long, hard days. Having been in the building trade for nigh on 40 years, 12 or 14 hours doing manual work is a hard day and those that dismiss it, probably have never done anything like it.

  Once the scaffolding was up, we stripped the back of the roof over two days.  We started replacing any rotten sarking boards, then re-nailing all of the boarding and as we progressed, we re-felted the roof. Once this was done, the lead flashings to the skews (gables/copings) were fitted and then the brackets for the new cast iron guttering were fixed. 'Behind the scenes' so to speak, I'd also been punching nail holes in the new slates (over 4000 of them) and loading up the scaffold ready to put them on the roof. At the end of each day I'd move the 'cripples' and planks up the roof ready for the next lift and then load up the planks with slates ready for a good start the following morning. I have to say that we were very lucky with the weather. For most of the time when we were working on the back roof (the eastern side of the house) the wind was in the west. Also during that time, we only lost one day due to wet weather.

  We were pretty confident the back would go well once we got in to our stride, the front we thought, would be a different matter. On the back we were allowed to use new slates, on the front however, we would have to use slates we'd saved from both sides. These slates would then have to have the old rusty nails removed and, as was the case with most of them, be re-drilled for fixing. During the slating of the front, fortunately for us, the wind changed direction to the eastern side. While mostly this was welcomed, for two days we wished it was on the same side as us. This was because it was two of the warmest days of the year when the temperature reached the dizzy heights of over 20 degrees C. It gave me pounding headaches and Andrew really bad hay-fever, so much so, that on one of the days we finished at 3pm. The warm weather can stay down south as far as we're concerned! 

  The cast iron guttering was ordered from a company down in Northamptonshire and I must say they did a cracking job as far as delivery times, customer service etc. My only reservation however, was getting it delivered to Shetland due to the delivery cost (many because of the weight). This was overcome by having it delivered to Aberdeen (which meant we'd get free delivery) and then get Northwards to bring it to Lerwick. Also, knowing the nature of cast iron guttering, I had concerns about breakages but thankfully there were none - phew!

  At the time of writing (July 28th) we have one more 'lift' to slate to reach the ridge - which hopefully we'll do tomorrow. All in all, it's been less than a month to do most of the roof although we still have some pointing to do and other 'bit's and pieces'; I've also got the guttering on the front to put up this week at some stage. Once that's done, the scaffolding can be cleared of the remaining old slates and then it can come down. That will be a special moment for Ordaal as it will be the first time in over 70 years that the house has had guttering. The lack of it has been one of the main sources of damp in the house which, hopefully will be greatly lessened.

 Stripping the back roof

 Starting to re-slate

Half done (the 'cripples are the triangles with planks on)

The back completed (minus guttering)

 Some of the rot in the front sarking

 It's hard to believe it's July !

Just a few of the old slates to be 'processed'

  Away from 'house work', I've not had much time to 'get out and about'. During the last week of June, we had a much welcomed visit by my sister and some of her family for a week which I really enjoyed. I did get to go to Hermaness for a couple of visits, one on my own down the cliffs and one with Clive (my brother in law). I think Hermaness is a really special place and as far as I'm concerned is one of the the wildlife spectacles in the UK to savour, smell and 'drink in the view'. So personally, when someone stands up there virtually speechless, taking it all in, is a great moment - such as it was for Clive.

...... one from 'down the cliffs'

  ............and from the day there with Clive...

  Despite the really hot weather that has had to have been endured down south, we have only had a few nice days or evenings over the last month, so below are a few pics of those moments....

Sunset over Flugga from Saxavord

Baltasound sunset 11.15 pm 24th July

'Dollar Mist' over Baltasound from Ordaal 10pm 25th July

  The main interest migrant wise around Unst recently has been the influx of Common Crossbills to Shetland which has recently been followed by the arrival of two (possibly three) Two-barred Crossbills which were found by Brydon in Haligarth. and over 15 or so throughout the islands......

Two-barred Crossbill

  On the odd sunny, calm evening it was a treat to watch the Arctic Terns down at the shore fishing and doing the occasional food pass. It's not always easy to capture as it relies on the wind and light being just right in order to have them facing towards me at the shore at any particular time of day....

Arctic Terns

  The injured Common Crane is still surviving - although it it will have problems later in the autumn - and has now spent the last month in the same field on the south side of Baltasound. There are several opinions as to what should be done - if anything - regarding the future welfare of the bird. One side suggests it should be caught and maybe sent down to Slimbridge where there is a captive breeding programe - with a view releasing the offspring back in to the wild. The other is to just let nature take its course which would mean the bird starving once the autumn and winter arrives. My view is that if it can be used in the breeding programme, then that's fine, but I'd rather it didn't just go to a zoo and become an exhibit.......

Common Crane in Baltasound

              Robbie

  Well yet again it's been a long time since my last post and it's certainly not that I've lost interest. I have been finding it difficult to find the time and sit and spend several hours going through what we've been doing and what's been seen around here. So, what I'll have to do this time is just a brief run-down of the last month with pictures rather than an extended story which some may find even a tad boring.

  The day after I arrived home (26th April) I traveled with Sula down to Lerwick where she was singing at the Shetland Music Festival. She sang solo and also several duets with a couple of her friends. They all did well, getting silver 'merits' for the duets and Sula getting a gold for her solo performance. The day after, I started work again on the house which is why there's not been much blog activity recently.

  On the 5th May, my first Arctic Tern of the year returned to the shore at Ordaal and was a really welcome sight and gave the feeling that spring had finally returned........

  For a few days after the 7th, we had up to four Tree Sparrows in the garden daily - which made a nice change to the ever present House Sparrows......

Tree Sparrow

  A few days later I had a trip to Lerwick and on my return home, went and saw the pair of Garganey which had been on the pool near the school.............

Male Garganey

  On the scarcer side of things, during May there were a number of Red-backed Shrikes around, including this lovely male I saw over at Haroldswick for a few days........

Male Red-backed Shrike

  Below are a few  pictures of some other migrants that past through Unst during May and also some residents......

 Common Sandpiper at Skaw

 Cuckoo at Valyie

 Grey-headed Wagtail at Skaw

 Marsh Warbler at Skaw

 Roosting Blackcaps in Baltasound

Wood Sandpiper at Inner Skaw

Female Red-backed Shrike at Norwick

  Apart from working on the house - inside and out - I have done 3 day trips guiding for Brydon,
the first being a joint one taking a group of BP workers on a 'team building' walk on Hermaness (in not so nice weather), the second was an individual from Qatar and the third was a group of 4 as Brydon was unwell so I stood in at (very) short notice.

  Also around the middle of May, a Common Crane turned up at Haroldswick. It soon became apparent that the bird had injured itself (possibly on wires) as it seemed to be unable to fly - its left wing hung downwards. Despite this, the bird seemed to be thriving, walking all over the north side of Setters Hill. Last week the bird disappeared for a couple of days and then reappeared in Baltasound - several miles away.........

Common Crane and Lapwing at Haroldswick

  Towards the end of May, we all went over to Fetlar for the night to see a folk group called Vamm fronted by Shetland fiddler Catriona Macdonald. All I can say is that it was a cracking evening. On the way over in the afternoon, the ferry passed close-by to a lovely summer plumaged Great Northern Diver. For some reason there has been quite a few close inshore this year - Mike P had over 80 at Muness earlier on in the Spring.......

Great Northern Diver

  Probably the best Spring migrant of the year so far has been a cracking male Woodchat Shrike that Mike and Margaret Pennington found not far from 'Bobby's Bus Stop' . It was a lovely bird and one that quite a few people got to see - despite the fact it didn't stay for long. I even got it on the 'garden list (119) which was a bit extreme as I put a telescope adapter on my 500 + 2x converter which made it a 100x magnification telescope - extreme to say the least !.....

 Woodchat Shrike (not taken from the garden!)

  At the end of May I had a visit from my friend Graham Goddard who stayed for a week. Graham is a cracking photographer and seeing the photographs on his website confirms this. Unfortunately I didn't have much time out with him this time as I was pretty busy with one thing and another but we did have a very enjoyable day on Hermaness.

  I'd been shown the start of the cliff path down to one of the Gannet colony's a while back but had never gone down there. One reason was timing and the other was I didn't want to tackle it for the first time on my own. So with a bit of encouragement from Graham, I descended down and to be quite honest, I've done a lot more scary routes years ago in the mountains of The Lakes and also Scotland. However, for the reason of safety of others, I'm not going to either describe the route down, or show any pictures - just the birds and the view taken on the 1st visit and another visit last week on my own........

       Robbie