If you have been reading my previous blogs you will have noted they are mostly of the outer Isles (North Isles, Noss, Foula) along with an amazing encounter with Orcas. Well in this post I will wrap up what we saw on the mainland along with a late night trip to Mousa for the Storm Petrels. Throughout this time we were staying at the excellent Voortrekker accommodation which made a great base for birdwatching.
Sumburgh Head
Sumburgh Head is the most southerly point of mainland and the cliffs host a strong variety of birds.
Well let us get the pictures of Puffins out of the way. Don’t get me wrong I love this bird, but it is almost too easy to capture an okay picture of Puffins and very hard, if not impossible to get a great picture of Puffins. What do I mean? Well Puffins are so well photographed that once you get a sharp, technically correct and in focus picture (not hard as they allow you close) you only have an OK shot because it has all been seen before. And how do you get anything new and different when so many shots have been taken? At least the sea pink allowed a pretty foreground to elevate the shot and of course I love spending time with this confiding bird.
More of a challenge is getting a good shot of Puffins in flight and coming into land.
Other birds visible here include the Fulmars and Guillemots far below in their thousands.
Esha Ness
Heading east to Esha Ness lacks the sheer volume of cliff birds found elsewhere but more than makes up for it with spectacular scenery.
Walking along the clifftops revealed good number of Dunlins in breeding plumage. I managed to lie down and allow them to come to me which enabled some much stronger backgrounds.
This also caused me to get close to the flowers and decide they were worthy of some attention too.
Plenty of Wheatear were around too.
Fairly ubiquitous across Shetland are Oystercatchers always making their presence known and here was no different.
I was also pleased to photograph adult and juvenile Ringed Plover
Mousa
We took an evening Storm Petrel trip with the Mousa Boat.
Since our trip left at 10.30pm and the action was mainly between midnight and 1am I really don’t have any bird photos to show for it. What I will say this was an absolutely spectacular wildlife encounter with hundreds, if not thousands of Storm Petrels flying all around the ancient Broch. Also the sounds were amazing with the constant purring (or inelegantly put fairy being sick) sound coming from every wall or rock.
Otters
We didn’t see as many Otters on the mainland as we did on the North Isles but we did see a couple and one allowed a few photos to be taken as it came ashore to eat a crab.
Grutness and Pool of Virkie
These areas in the south were fruitful for views of a wide variety of waders, terns and other birds.
Other locations
Driving all over the Mainland we did see lots of other birds too and I include a few of the highlights here. I won’t include any locations and be assured the birds were never disturbed nor did I approach near any nests (photos were mostly taken from a car on public roads which after all makes the perfect hide).
Red Throated Divers were visible on most small lochans across Shetland
I was delighted to get excellent views of Red-Necked Phalaropes in addition to the pair I had seen flying in Fetlar.
We saw several Whimbrel from the car both perched and in flight.
Snipe and Redshank were frequently seen taking up prominent perches such as fence posts.
I did twitch a few birds too including Broad-billed Sandpiper, Pacific Swift and Marsh Warbler (all life ticks for me) and heard a Quail singing.
WildScot Photography 