Spring arrives

Although the weather may have not been much like spring more birds have arrived back in Shetland. We traveled up to Sumburgh head where a pod of 7 Killer Whales had passed by four hours before.

The two Lapland Bunting showed well down to around 12 feet, these were both male birds one of which had a jet black head.

A few Wheatears the first of the year dived bombed the buntings, while several Skylark sang away and Oystercatcher flew passed piping loudly.

Down at Grutness a few more migrants had arrived, in the garden a Redwing appeared, then joined a Song Thrush in the paddock. A Chiffchaff called and was later seen on the beach beside the house. A Robin , Pied Wagtail (2) White Wagtail (2) joined a large flock of Starling feeding near the Shetland ponies.

Back on the pool Herring and Common Gulls scared off a pair of Mallard and then a pair of Gt Skua flew over, returning birds.

In the Bay just a few birds including a pair of Red Throated Divers in breeding plumage, Shag (6) and a couple of Long Tailed Duck.

At West Voe a Gt Northern Diver coming into breeding plumage caught a couple of fish and a flock of 18 Turnstone worked hard to find food along the rocky coastline. Lots more Skylark sang overhead.

Over at Hillwell just one Whooper Swan, Wigeon (86) Tufted (8) Mallard (15), Shelduck (2) Teal (4), Moorhen (9) and among the gulls a nice Iceland and 2 Lesser Black Back gulls.

Just then a Common Crane flew over heading north then quickly descended towards Spiggie. Just wondered whether this is the same bird that spent several months in the area last year.

Birds
Common Crane, Iceland Gull, Lapland Bunting (2) Wheatear, Rock Pipit, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Curlew, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Stock Dove, Gt Skua, Gt Northern Diver, Red Throated Diver, Long Tailed Duck, Wigeon, Tufted, Teal, Mallard, Shag, Song Thrush, Redwing, Robin, White/Pied Wagtail, Gannet,Puffin,  Sparrow, Starling, Raven, Fulmar, LBB, Gt BB, Herring & Common Gull, Chiff Chaff, Moorhen, Greylag, Whooper Swan, Common Guillemot, Redshank, Snipe, Shelduck, Wren, Blackbird, Twite, BH Gull

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Early April

We headed down the hill to Sandsayre, a short drive from the house.On arrival we found around 20 Herring Gull on the beach with over 50 starling searching for food among the seaweed.

Small flocks of waders moved to and from the nearest beach, these mostly consisted of Turnstone (26) Redshank (6) Purple Sandpiper (4).

Out in the bay several Gannet dived for fish and several Shag also joined in. A Mallard and a few Black Guillemot could be seen but little else.

On the grass in front of Sandlodge more than 100 Starling congregated,(Inc the part Albino which had been present since last year)  joined by Redshank (4) , Snipe(2) Blackbird (4) and several Oystercatcher.

Elsewhere Puffins returned to Sumburgh Cliffs on the 7 April and Siskin, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Wheatear and Chaffinch have been reported in gardens. In Unst the Surf Scoter is still present and a Common Crane & Lapland Bunting have also been present for the past few days.

The Mousa Boat out for a practice before the season begins

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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

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