Lesser Grey Shrike

Sometimes fate loves me. I was already at work in the North Mainland this morning when news broke of a Lesser Grey Shrike a couple of miles away from me. By the time I was back at the car it was lunchtime, and it seemed churlish not to go see it. I’m glad I did.

An [...]

Love those sweet and sour grapes

Generally speaking, I’m not one for regrets. Since leaving the south-east in 2003, there have been a few birds down there that have caused a little wince, a momentary shudder, a “bloody hell, I could have got there in time to see that…” – and then the moment passes - Trumpeter Finch; Green Heron; Black-winged Pratincole; [...]

Cheap Collins Flower Guide

Am coming over all public-spirited here – having just got myself a copy of the Collins Flower Guide for a bargain price from Amazon, I thought I should make a bit of a fuss about it on two fronts. For starters, it’s bloody good, and am looking forward to getting out and about this weekend [...]

Otter spotter

Finished a thoroughly enjoyable 3 day tour yesterday – building on the spectacular start of Killer Whales at sea, we found 5 (yes, five… count ‘em!) Otters the following day – and particularly enjoyed sitting in the sunshine eating our lunch while these 2 characters fished for their lunch a few metres offshore, and watched us [...]

Hunting with the Killer Whales

Another utterly mindblowing encounter today with Killer Whales… leading a Shetland Wildlife group, we’d no sooner got on our first boat trip of the weekend than we were watching a pod of 4 Killer Whales hunting slowly along the Bressay coast. With some excellent fieldcraft from the Seabirds & Seals crew, our boat was soon [...]

Wing-barred Crossbills

Have been meaning to sift through my photos of last week’s Crossbills for a few days now, and only got around to it last night, spurred on after reading the Loxia Fantastica blog – well worth a read for some informed comment on crossbills in general, and the current wing-barred Crossbills that are cropping up [...]

Some more recent Killer Whale photos

Am making no apologies for posting more photos of our recent Killer Whales – can you ever have enough cetaceans? I think not. These ones courtesy of DB – thank you, David.

Another day, some more White-sided Dolphins

How many people can watch White-sided Dolphins from the comfort of their desk at work? I can. Or at least, this morning I could. It’s not an everyday occurence, even up here where the usual rules about sea mammal sightings being few and far between don’t really apply.

Got a phone call just as I was [...]

Killer Whale photo update

A very quiet weekend – Crossbills still lobbing around the place, and settling in to roost in the plantation yesterday evening as I drove past on my way to play pool with JLI. Apart from them, not much of note occuring. Lapwings now forming loose flocks of a dozen or so birds, and young Oystercatchers [...]

If you’re bored of Crossbills, you’re bored of life

Walked the dingos down to the plantation yesterday evening, and took the camera with me this time expecting lots of hot loxia action. Nothing doing. Carried on to Vevoe, and then back again. Still no loxia. Sat there for a while, and then thought of the million and one things I could be doing on the [...]