The Shetlands - Part 4

I never intended that I would have so many posts for the Shetlands, but I don't want to make the posts too long, so anyway here's part 4 and we are still on Unst, but after a couple of stops we are heading back to Mainland Shetland and our Hotel at Sumburgh.

So stop one was a rare flower special, we aren't particularly interested in this but I suppose we should be, it was a fascinating hour though, Hugh really knows his stuff, you couldn't as for a more knowledgeable guide.
Of main interest was one alpine that only grows in this area on Shetland and nowhere else in the world, so I had to take a snap!

Edmondston's Chickweed

So back to the Fauna...
After looking at plants we headed off to Saxa Vord for the much awaited Bonxie fest. There is a place on the headland where the non-breeding Great Skuas congregate and practise for the next season, this means they are much closer together and give great views and let you get really close. Now this bit is on MoD land so you have to go with an authorised guide otherwise you may never be seen again!

I wont apologise for the number of photo's (I took hundreds!) Choosing which ones to put here was nigh on impossible:

It was truly amazing among the Bonxies and one of the highlights of the week, if you ever get the chance to do this go for it!

So from here we headed back to the ferry, with a very brief stop for a a Whooper Swan and a record shot on the loch side near the ferry:

The day before a Scops Owl had been seen on Yell and we were hoping it would still be around as we drove through, but it was proving elusive to the local birders and as we had a fair way to go back to Sumburgh we missed out on that one.

Although being Shetland we couldn't miss out on some Pony photos, could we:

The Shetlands - Part 3

So off to Fetlar today so back down to get a Ferry from Belmont.

We headed straight down to the Loch/Lake where the Phalarope hang out, but today they were deciding to hang out somewhere else! It was a good job we had a sighting on Unst yesterday as I would have been so disappointed as this was one of our must sees for the trip.

However all was not lost, we had great Red-throated Diver views and as this was a species that we had never had good sightings of we were well pleased, I'm disappointed with the photos though!

We walked down to the hide on the RSPB bit to see if any Phalarope were visible from there but again no luck, we did have some good Snipe sightings though:

and Redshank:

This Curlew gave me a chance with an in flight shot:

From the hide we also saw some Wigeon and Teal which was nice. So after giving up on the Phalarope we headed back to the lake and the buses, where a Wheatear gave another photo opportunity:

We popped up to the Cafe for a hot chocolate at:

After being suitably refreshed we popped along to Fetlar Airstrip for some Whimbrel action!!

and a bit of Arctic Skua romance:

followed by some more Golden Plover:

Hugh brought out the big guns here, so there are some much closer views on the Shetland Wildlife Facebook Pages. So back to the ferry and onto Unst, we did stop off at a couple of places looking for Otters, but again no luck, I did get some distant Red-throated Diver action:

and some in flight Arctic Skua pics:

We headed back to the Hotel and dinner.
It's easy to forget the more common birds when seeing all this great stuff, so let's not forget our garden birds, so here's a Blackbird busy collecting food in the Hotel grounds:

After dinner we went for a walk down to the harbour at Baltasound on our own private Otter hunt, but sadly to no avail, we did find some roosting Fulmars though:

Decided that I'm saving the Bonxies for part 4!

The Shetlands - Part 2

After a bit of a delay I finally have time to catch up with the blogs again. So after a trip to Lincolnshire for the Waddington ASirshow, followed by a few days in Northumberland and a visit to the Farnes, I can now finish my Shetland blogs, so where was I! Ah yes we had just arrived at Baltasound on Unst and seen the Shrike, so from there it was a 10 minute journey to our hotel.

After dinner there was trip out to look for Red-throated divers, but we decided to give it a miss as we were tired and were sure that we would get other opportunities.

Day 3 saw us get up for a pre-breakfast walk with David Lindo, it was a nice little jaunt with a few birds around although the only photo of note was this singing Chiffchaff:

After breakfast we set out to Hermaness NR and headed for the northern most tip of the British Isles. It was about an hours walk from the small car park (including all our stops to look at something) to get up to the headland, with lots of interest on the way:

Dunlin

Bonxies (Great Skua)

Sundew

Once we got to the headland we stopped and the coffee was quickly summoned out of my rucksack. We stayed a while and admired the Puffins:

 and a some passing Bonxies:

 a Rock Pipit

 and great views out to Muckle Flugga

After our rest stop we walked on a few minutes to the Gannet colony and stayed there a while:

 and plenty of Puffins too:

We then went back down to the mini buses and off to lunch and a nice Shetland Wren (sub-species):

After a late lunch we headed back towards Baltasound stopping off at Westing Pools to look for some rare Orchids, but whilst there we spotted two Red-necked Phalarope on the small lake just below us, we couldn't get close so after great views through the scopes a record shot:

We were delighted as these were our first ever Red-necked Phalarope and a very rare sighting on Unst and takes the pressure of the next days trip to Fetlar where better sightings are supposed to be had.
This was followed by a distant Golden Plover:

Before back to the digs and dinner.
That will do for part 2, part 3 will cover Fetlar and a Bonxie fest!