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3rd June - ferry to LerwickWe were celebrating a significant birthday this year, so a treat was in store. Neither Euan nor I had ever made it to Shetland, so this was to be our first foray.
We hired a cottage on Yell, and decided Yell, Fetlar and Unst would be our focus as well as a quick explore of some of the mainland on the day we arrived. Of course, we're in the midst of this devastating bout of avian flu, so we knew we'd be seeing some tragic sights, and sure enough it was the talk of the islands, everyone feeling wretched and helpless in its wake.
On our ferry crossing from Aberdeen, which was smooth as smooth can be, we watched guillemots, gannets diving and following the boat, dolphins too, but we also saw the occasional gannet, stock-still on the water, its beak pointing to the sky as it awaited its fate.
011 Immature gannet and turbine 012 Dolphin008 Poorly gannet Down this way, we've been all too aware of the geese suffering at the Solway Firth, and I've come across poorly gannets on our south Ayrshire coast, while up in Caithness and Sutherland we've seen guillemots in rising numbers that have come a-cropper. Just horrible.
4th June - some Mainland exploring002 Fishing boat and Fair Isle 004 Approaching Lerwick Our first stop on arriving on a sunny morning at Lerwick was to head south to St Ninian's. (
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/shetland/st-ninians-isle.shtml)
Down at the tomobolo were various little waders scurrying about, the most charming of which were the sanderlings chasing and running from the little waves.
009 Sanderlings 011 Tombolo to St Ninians All around, fulmar were nesting, and as we walked round the island's perimeter, past black rabbits, brown rabbits, arctic terns and the most resourceful, hardy starlings I've ever seen, the fulmars, we realised, were accompanied by puffins.
Out in the sea, we could just make out the fins of a basking shark, once plentiful around where we live but not any more, so it was a joy to find one out here.
012 Fulmar 017 Turnstone 024 St Ninians rabbits 034 Shetlands enterprising starlings 039 Puffins046 Puffin and fulmars 050 Shag with feather 055 Razorbill 063 Gannets and shark 062 Basking shark The landscape was breathtaking, from the elegant sweep of the tombolo itself to the skerries and voes, it was a superb welcome to the week's visit!
026 Tombolo032 St Ninnian skerries After a wonderful walk, we were back at the tombolo and dropped into the chapel grounds for a nosey. I couldn't help thinking how thrilled the schoolboy must have been when it was discovered what he'd found in the little wooden kist.
068 St Ninians chapel From there, we headed to Jarlshof...
071 Shetland ponies at Jarlshof by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
073 Looking over Scat Ness to Fitful Head ... which was such an excellent example of good archaeological decision-making, I was reeling. I mean, the self-control to leave Viking period buildings excavated to a degree and not dig further down to see what's underneath - not sure I have that
.
Info here:
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/jarlshof-prehistoric-and-norse-settlement/ 072 Viking longhouse and settlement We spent a long time here, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It put me in mind of Delos (of all places!), just because it's been such a thriving settlement for so many cultures at so many times with so many international connections. And as for making bronze weapons up here, when the nearest tin is in Cornwall and your boat is fairly rudimentary - impressive.
Finally, it was up to Toft to get our ferry to Yell. And here we saw our only bird of prey for the week. A white-tailed eagle being seen off by some geese, overhead at the ferry terminal.
077 WTE and geese 078 WTE(...and another arctic tern with sand eel).
080 Arctic tern and sand eel5th June - Fetlar and the Hunt for Red-necked PhalaropeThe red-necked phalarope breeding season was what dictated our timing for this trip. For the rest of the year, they're pelagic, and although they occasionally fetch up on Scotland's mainland and even Norfolk, Fetlar's a pretty sure spot for them, and for some reason Loch Funzie in particular. Quite what Loch Funzie offers that other Shetland lochs don't I have no idea, but there we are.
So off we went, with car. One of its brake-discs had lost its shoe though, so we were driving on gears to avoid gouging too much metal out of the disc until we could get it back home and to a garage. Thankfully, you can do that in Shetland, pretty stress-free. On arriving at Fetlar we beelined to Loch Funzie where we were greeted first by dust-bathing larks and then by loads of drumming snipe. I've never been around snipe in such numbers, hurling themselves up in the air and making a mesmerising drumming sound as they descend. Have a listen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gallinago_gallinago.ogg027 Snipe in calling flight Those little sticky-out tail feathers produce the drumming - fantastic.
On the loch were some red-throated divers, and like the snipe, they were fairly unbothered by us, but they too were breeding, so we kept our distance so as not to stress them.
006 Divers 007 DiversThey flew from Loch Funzie to the other little lochans uphill from the Loch, and we kept encountering pairs of them, swimming in parallel and behaving pretty much like great-crested grebes in their courtship dance. It was a grey day, but this quiet spot, which we were lucky enough to have to ourselves, was absolutely enchanting.
004 Greylags and lapwing Then, very briefly, three phalaropes appeared, in a flurry of activity, two females (the more colourful ones) and a male trying his best to attract one - or maybe both.
012 Phalaropes [We found them later in the day nearer to the ferry, though I'd left my camera in the car because it was raining. We came back another day and spent a while with them in the little lochan there - they're very 'tame' because they're never normally near any people, spending so much of their time out at sea.]
027 Female phalarope015 Male Phalarope on Loch of Urie We were also treated to arctic skua today, along with the great skuas.
023 Arctic skua 041 Great skuaLeaving the loch, we wandered to the hide along the burn and watched the divers and snipe from there, including some very cute snipe chicks.
031 Snipe 034 Snipe chicks I saw a placque dedicated to Bobby Tulloch, who'd discovered snowy owls here, though they've long since gone, so we weren't going to see any today sadly. That would have been amazing.
028 Plaque to snowy owl man So far the skies had been very grey and the light really poor, but we walked up to the cliffs and the weather began to clear.
049 Muckle Birriers Geo Out at sea, I saw a minke whale doing its thing.
What a place.
055 Minke whale056 Minke whale060 Shags Looking down I could see puffin, black guillemots, seal and fulmar on the water, including one casualty sadly, and looking up, red-throated divers flew over us.
052 Bird flu fulmar casualty probably 058 Black guillemots 065 Chillin seal064 Diver in flight 070 Dunlin And eventually we headed back towards the ferry, allowing some time for a walk along to the Loch of Urie, watching an otter swim/lollop along the rocks below us as we crouched, and phalaropes hanging out here too.
071 Phalarope at Loch of Urie [pic on phone camera]
6th June - Breckon Beach and Gloup NessToday was a much sunnier day, and we decided on a walk and a swim at Breckon Beach on Yell, a short hop from our cottage. There were a few dead gannets and guillemots on the beach here, but in the bay were two more red-throated divers (alive) and an arctic tern diving. We walked along the beach first and headed up to Inna and Mid Ness - a landslip blocking our route to Ousta Ness.
002 Wick of Breckon looking to Gloup Ness 004 To the beach 010 Red-throated diver at Breckon Sands 013 Arctic tern 014 Inna Mid and Ousta Ness Over to our right we could see the north of Unst, and specifically the brilliantly named Muckle Flugga lighthouse.
017 Muckle Flugga lighthouse And right here, the shoreline had its own dramas, and some unexcavated settlements.
019 Settlements 020 Birrier Stack 021 Brae Wick and Skaevi 022 Birrier Stack from southeast 023 Looking back to Breckon Sands Then it was down for a swim, and bloomin' freezing it was too!
After our dip, we headed round to the Gloup peninsula, past a little bay I scrambled down to, but with more dead gannets, I didn't fancy another dip here.
025 Our mini-bay026 Watermill burn and marsh marigold It was glorious weather, helped by Breckon Sands area being nicely sheltered from southwesterly winds. The sun was picking out the spring squill and the orchids.
028 Spring squill030 Marsh orchid The clarity being what it was, you could see the gannets at Hermaness on Unst from here - a visit which awaited us the next day.
035 Muckle Flugga and gannets We hugged the cliff edges, looking out for more sharky, whaley-type fins, but none were to be seen today.
037 Gloup walk cliffsRinged plovers were out and about enjoying the sunshine though.
038 Ringed plover 039 Alpine thrift And on we strolled, up to the coastguard's hut - no longer in use - at the top.
040 Gloup Ness041 Gloup Ness folds Euan quipped he fancied an order of chips when we got to the top. Well, quite!
046 Not a chip-shop048 Coastguard and Gloup Voe behind [That's not a Shetland jumper, surely.]
049 Jagged rocks 051 Shags nesting After hanging about up here for a while, we moseyed back to cook an evening meal and enjoy a beer - nice easy day!
056 Hauled out seal7th June - Hermaness gannets galore at UnstThe next day, another scorcher - but for the wind! - we headed to Unst and to Hermaness to see Muckle Flugga close up and have a gander at the gannets. I'd mentioned the boardwalk to Euan, but I don't think either of us appreciated quite how extensive the boardwalk is here, to protect the peatland and the many nesting bonxies. Apparently there were divers nesting up here too, but they were keeping an understandably low profile with so many hungry skuas around.
001 Hermaness boardwalk 005 Bonxies in flight Also around were lots of dunlin, quite happy with the footfall here, and very unbothered by us as we passed.
007 Dunlin 008 Dunlin On arriving at what must be Toolie, we hung a left to head rouind to Neap and Salto...
009 Info board...and just WOW!
018 First view of massive gannet colony 019 Gannets020 Gannet antics 026 Gannet antics 027 Gannets and rocks and grass That was the view from Neap, and as we swung round the top to Salto, the smell of the guano rising up your nostrils up here on the cliff suddenly made even more sense.
031 More visible from Saito 032 On slope034 Gannet windy cliff landingHaving had our fill, gasped our gasps, and trying not to think about the many poorly and ex-gannets that are inevitably down in the water, we headed back round and up to Hermaness Hill for a closer view of Muckle Flugga, passing many puffins at their burrows as we walked.
038 Flugga crags and puffin 039 Tammie Nori042 Puffins I love the one on the left resting its chin and contemplating... what, I wonder:
044 Snoozy puffins I was surprised how few guillemot colonies we were seeing this week, and here we found just a tiny colony in amongst the noisy gannet neighbours.
041 Tiny guillemot colony Soon we were up close to the lighthouse, past a superb natural arch...
047 Towards Muckle Flugga 051 Muckle Flugga ...and as we rose up the hill, we had a beautiful view of the skerries.
052 Da Waithing Skerries Up at the top of the hill we found the remains of the old signalling station below Saxa Vord, and then a good view of the radar station itself.
055 Old semaphore signal station 058 Saxa Vord Then it was back down the boardwalk towards the Burra Firth, past nesting bonxies, dunlin and co...
056 View down to Burra Firth and Harolds Wick 059 E above Burra Firth 060 Nesting bonxies together 062 Bonxie and cotton ... and a quick touristy shot of the UK's northernmost bus shelter, in jubilee-garb, on our way back to the ferry.
063 Bobbys bus shelter Baltasound 064 Bobbys platinum jubilee puffin8th June - back on Fetlar, this time on foot with a walk round UrieI failed to photograph the otter again. S/he gave us a good pose (she I think), and then slipped into the water - but birds and seals abounded.
These massive bulls were hauled out as we headed out on the ferry.
003 Huge grey seal bulls and family 004 Grey seal family from ferry 008 Four sanderlings This grey seal watched us at Loch of Urie and then followed us round the coast for most of the day.
010 Bottling grey seal and whiskers But mostly we'd come to revisit the phalaropes and co.
012 Phalaropes019 Dunlins 020 Gannets trysties and co in feeding frenzy 022 but no fins 024 Six phalaropes in loch 028 Female phalarope feeding They're called peerie deuks, because they spin to stir up their food to the surface, but they were managing without doing that today.
030 Shetland curling stone 031 Preening female phalarope - see its lobed foot I took tons of photos of the phalaropes, but won't repeat them all here!
039 Turnstone camouflage As we headed back, we came across a lost gosling, whose parents had taken the rest of the babies into the sea. It was dangerously visible, with bonxies flying about all over the place, so I'm not sure I fancied its chances much, but we didn't hear any squealing...
040 Lost gosling And inevitably, there was a lot more of this:
044 Dead shag or diver Back at Loch of Urie we met a couple who were hoping to see phalaropes, but hadn't, so we showed them where they were, had a lovely chat with them and then left them to it.
047 phalarope corner 052 Six of eight phalaropes 050 Puffin054 Three seals hauled out Back at the ferry terminal, the otter was jumping about in the sea, fishing - and again, disappeared before I could catch her on camera. So it was back on the boat for us, and a beer with our dinner at the cottage.
056 Guillemots9th June - by the Horns of Hagmark!Our last walk of the week was back on Unst for another cliff-walk up to the Horns of Hagmark. At the Gutcher ferry in Yell, we watched merganser, swans, eider and gulls and then we were off.
002 Merganser at harbour 004 Swans at Gutcher ferry 006 BHG and eider at Gutcher ferry At Unst, we parked at the Kirkaton Cemetery and headed off, through the farmland - the track well signposted so we could avoid the sheep - and up the hill, hugging the cliffs and exploring the geos as we went.
007 Cliffs at Hagmark 008 Geo 009 Geo I was a bit mystified by the rusty brackets attached to the rock. The first one looked like an anchor for abseiling, perhaps (?). But the second was higher up, so what do I know.
010 Climbing anchor above geo012 Mystery anchor higher up 016 Precarious rocks017 Sphinx and people 019 Hovering fulmar022 Moss campion At last the horns appeared, and I could see how distinctive they'd be from the sea, like a punky little crest.
024 Horns of Hagmark jumpy pano 026 Fulmar nesting in horns Quite entertainly, if you're feeling vertiginous and want to hang back from the edge up here, tough. There's a fence with an opening that pushes you seawards.
027 Surprising fence opening 028 Horns of Hagmark from behind Above the horns we saw the trig, and wandered up to it for some coffee and a bun.
031 Trig ahoyThe cloud was coming in, but we could just get a view of the landscape around from up here on Clibberswick hill. Below us was the island of Balta, and I think I'm right in saying that I saw something in the Unst fishing museum later that day that said the herring girls called it Alcatraz, or maybe "Baltatraz" - I don't think I've made that up!
034 Alcatraz from Clibberswick hill With the views disappearing, we drank our coffee and headed down, lucky enough to catch a quick glimpse of a whimbrel on or way, and having a peek into the kale yards on the hillside.
036 Whimbrel 041 Kale yardGeese, curlew and co saw us into the fishing museum where we spent an age before heading to the tea shop and then to the Viking ship and longhouse at Haroldswick before our final farewell to Shetland.
043 Greylags over Norwick 044 Curlew and mallard at Haroldswick 050 Seal and eider chicks 076 Half eleven pm