Toft

Had a trip north this weekend, to Toft ferry terminal. You may think that this would not be a good place for wildlife as it can be very busy.

Well the otters who have a holt under the pier don't seem to mind. It is possible the best place to see otters close up. On this visit I was watching a Red Throated Diver which had come close in the bay, it then suddenly flew off in a bit of a panic.

An Otter suddenly appeared very close to the shore, about 15 feet away and started to dive for food. After a few minutes a crowd had gathered and it at first it didn't seem bothered, but as soon as some noisy children came for a look it dived and disappeared. I have had several otter encounters here including  one memorable one where two otters came up onto the road and walked down beside a line of cars towards us, then when about 6 feet away split up and went back into the sea

A good number of terns seem to catching large sand eels which they brought back to young birds on the beach and jetty, it looks like a good year for all seabirds, certainly excellent news lets hope next year and the following years are good as well

Apart from a few Herring and the odd Gt Black Backed gull it was virtually easy going for the terns, only one Gt Skua passed chasing a Herring Gull. It may be that with many birds bringing in food the Skuas may not be travelling far from their nest sites .

Only one Kittiwake was seen and it spent the whole time resting on the jetty, with numbers so low in Shetland it will take them time to recover

A young Rock pipit made an appearance as did Sparrow, Starling, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Wheatear,  Hoddie, Raven, Snipe, Curlew, Gannet, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Black guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin, Common Guillemot and Shag.

An enjoyable few hours before we went to see friends close by. They had seen the pod of Killer Whales in Mossbank which have been seen close up over the past few days, a lot of people seeing these either at Sumburgh or near Tesco in Lerwick, as usual we missed them.

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