No blog for the last couple of weeks as we have been on holiday in Shetland so I thought I would share one or two sightings from this wonderful place. We stayed again in the Taing, on the west side of Shetland, where the cottage is almost on the beach. This meant sightings of Otter from the living room and birds like this in, or from, the garden…
Twite
Despite it being a far from ideal time for scarce birds I
found Black Tern, a Shetland rarity, and also saw Bonaparte’s Gull…
A beautiful Long-tailed Skua…
And an albino(?) Great Northern Diver…
But undoubted pick of the birds was a Black-winged Pratincole, only my second British sighting. We had booked the ferry for Fetlar before the news came through of its discovery so the birding gods were smiling on us and whilst waiting for the boat we had Otter running around the wharfes.
The bird showed exceptionally well, hawking for insects
literally above our heads, so it’s a little disappointing this is the best I
managed!!
But just to show what an amazing place Shetland is this wasn’t
the best species of the day! As we enjoyed an ice cream in the sunshine the news
came through that a Fin Whale had been seen from the Fetlar ferry. It was
reported moving south out of Bluemell Sound. We headed off to that end of the
island and spent a fruitless 20 minutes looking for it.
As we were quite near the terminal we decided to take the
next ferry back rather than our booked one. We were scanning half heartedly as
we sailed back when I spotted it! An impressive blow and then a great rolling back.
It was huge! Only the Blue Whale is
bigger.
We then watched it moving across the sound and then turning
back north. Thanks to my daughter’s excited squeal every time it reappeared everyone
on the ferry was alerted and managed to see it. This was one of four species of
cetacean we saw on this holiday.
We also went on a boat trip to Noss, third largest sea
cliffs in Britain and home to a large Gannet colony. We had the stunning
spectacle of 100s of birds diving for fish within inches of the boat
Add in a couple of new plants - the lovely, and scarce, Oysterplant…
And a target for this holiday, Bog Orchid…
Despite having a very precise grid ref. and supposedly 300 plants at the site, it took the two of us an hour to find this single tiny flower but well worth it!
Needless to say we will be back…
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