Shetland - Mainly Puffins!!

 We paid another visit to Sumburgh Head, the wind had dropped significantly, Tina even said as we got out of the car, there's something strange today..... then realised it was no wind! 😂

So here you go......Puffins!

There were other birds about of course:

Meadow Pipit,

Guillemots and Razorbills,

and of course Fulmars.

Then for some heavy metal birds, good views of Sumburgh Airport:

So that's it! Back to local birding....................................

Shetland - A Good Start

 So after an overnight crossing from Orkney we arrived at 7am in Lerwick and were off the ferry by 7.15. We had found a cafe in Lerwick that opened at 8, so we went there for breakfast, we couldn't believe the queue, it was a 'proper cafe' and the breakfast was great. As we couldn't get into our AirBnB until 3pm and it was only 30 minutes away we decided to go down to Sumburgh Head and do a bit of refamiliarisation,  as it was 10 years since our last visit, almost to the day. I also have to admit that we were really tired, we didn't get much sleep on the ferry and we had a nap in the car down at Grutness.

Of course the wind was decidedly 'up' so the birds were keeping a low profile. But a Wheatear showed for a while.

A view of the lighthouse and visitor centre.

The cliffs at the bottom revealed:

Gannets passing by,

Plenty of Guillemot

and Fulmar

with the odd Razorbill hidden among them.

But the stars of the show are the Puffins, although there weren't that many out of their burrows:

Too windy for this one!

 Great Skua (Bonxie) sailed past as well, shame I wasn't quick enough to get a decent photo

but the Fulmars will always put on a show!

So a really good start to Shetland and we still hadn't got to our digs yet!

South Queensferry - A Short Visit

 We were out and about on Thursday running some errands and were passing Queensferry and decided to drop in for the first time. We bought a snack from the Co-op and had 20 minutes by the Marina.

This was the first time since moving up that we had been to South Queensferry, obviously seen it many times when crossing the bridge, thinking that looks good, but usually we are always on our way somewhere and never get the chance.

It does offer a unique view of the new and old bridges:

The birding wasn't bad either, bearing in mind we weren't there long!

Black-headed Gull

One of two Wheatear,

There were lots of Guillemot in the harbour and marina,

as well as Herring Gulls of course.

In addition Sandwich Tern, Lesser Black-backed Gulls (of course!), Oystercatchers, Pied Wagtail and Starlings.

A Birding Trip to Northumberland - The Farne Islands

 So, as I said in my previous post we couldn't land on the Farnes this visit, so we opted for a two hour cruise around the islands instead and actually it was great, we did miss being dive bombed by the Terns, but didn't miss them drawing blood, even when wearing a hat!

We had some great views of the Terns, Kittiwakes, Shag and of course Puffins, so here are a few of our pics (Sorry there's so many):