Toft

We have been wanting to go to Toft in the north mainland for a while, but the weather has been against us, hwoever Saturday couldn't have been better. Sunny still weather all day

Grey Seals greeted us as we approached the pier

 It was the otters we came up to photograph, ferry terminals are a great place to see them and Toft is no exception. It was looking good, we arrived just after high tide and the ferry has just left heading north to Yell.

 After around 45 mins i noticed one quiet distant, feeding. After 5 mins it started to head towards the pier and I moved closer when it dived. It then started to call loudly to another Otter which i assume came out of the holt among the boulders

After a while calling, one came out and walked towards a metal bridge and curled up and started to go to sleep. I was moving round into a position to get a better photo with the Otter still sleeping, i was also down wind so not to disturb the animal when the ferry arrived back with safety warnings blaring out , this alerted the otter and it quickly slipped back into the sea.

                                                               Turnstone

 There was plenty of bird activity wit a flock of 178 curlew constantly flying back and forth, sometime joined by Turnstone (44) Redshank (18)

 A good sized flock of around 250 starling flew round

 A few Kittiwake joined Herring and GT BB gulls as the ferry arrived back

Over on the far bank a flock of Greylag (86) and a Brent Goose fed. The following day i managed to find a Barnacle goose in Sandwick and the Stonechat arrived back in the same spot as last week. The Killdeer is still in the same field which it settled into 4 months ago and has now started to display to Ringed Plovers.

After giving illustrated talks to two WI groups and the RVS i have further ones come up soon, down at the RVS at Hoswick this Thursday and the Shetland Photographic Club a week on Wednesday

If you want to come on the next Intermediate Photography course, which covers Wildlife, Close Up, Landscapes, Urban, Creative and Indoor Portraits in Scalloway starting 5 June 2017 then contact Shetland Adult Education

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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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